MOctober is a special month for showgoers in Mazatlan, for that is when the Sinaloa Festival starts off the fall season of performances and recitals in the city's historic Angela Peralta Theater. The theater, restored from ruins to its 1869 grandeur (with some modern amenities such as improved acoustics and air conditioning), is the only full-fledged opera house in any Mexican beach resort. It is worth viewing just to admire its vintage architecture and decorative touches, but it is even more inviting when there is a performance in progress. The Sinaloa Festival, begun by former Gov. Francisco Labastida, was canceled by his successor but has returned to prominence with the arrival in 1998 of Juan S. Millan as the state's chief executive. Underwritten by state government, the festival brings a variety of top-notch performing arts events to the state's major cities as well as to some of its smaller towns. This year, the statewide festival runs Oct. 19-29, and while the schedule was not completely fixed at press time, it was known that there will be a Broadway gala with show-stopping tunes from a variety of musicals as well as a lavish production of Puccini's opera "Turandot." A highlight of the festival, the opera will star as conductor Mazatlan's own Enrique Patron de Rueda, a native Mazatleco who directs the opera

orchestra at Bellas Artes in Mexico City. He will be bringing with him several top singers as well as a philharmonic orchestra to play in the pit. The widely acclaimed Angela Peralta Chorale will flesh out the cast. Once the statewide festival ends, the Mazatlan Festival of the Arts begins, with a run from Oct. 30 through Dec. 20. Again, performances and schedules were still being worked on at press time, but the festival has booked a Gala Mexicana, with singers, dancers and orchestra from the Municipal School of the Arts for Nov. 20; Steven Mayer, a New York-born concert pianist living in Holland, for Nov. 24; and a chamber orchestra playing Beethoven on Dec. 16. Also, regular Wednesday evening performances of Folklorico Sinaloense will resume on Nov. 8 and continue through most of the winter. This imaginative, stylized romp through the history and traditions of the area has drawn wide acclaim from critics and the showgoing public alike. In the works but yet to have performance dates confirmed are a concert of zarzuela music by the Angela Peralta Chorale, a return appearance by popular demand of the sensational Juan Alzate Jazz Quartet from Morelia, Michoacan, and a December performance by the Municipal Ballet featuring excerpts from "Nutcracker" as well as a reprise of its well received midyear presentation of "Cri-Cri."