A Puccini opera, a Japanese chamber group, a French big band -- these are among the specials on the rich and varied menu of performances offered to arts lovers from mid-October till Christmas. Starting things off, the statewide Sinaloa Festival of the Arts comes to Mazatlan Oct. 18-28, bringing glittering big ticket events to the Angela Peralta Theater along with popular diversions offered free in the city's plazas. Curtain opens on one of the festival's highlights right on opening night, Oct. 18. It will be the Puccini opera "Madame Butterfly," with Enrique Patron de Rueda, Mazatlan-born opera conductor from Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Patron will direct the new Sinaloa Arts Orchestra from Culiacan and a company that includes this city's own Angela Peralta Chorale. While times and ticket prices, as well as descriptions of some of the Sinaloa Festival performances, were hard to come by at the Pacific Pearl's press time, the organizers in Culiacan say that posters scattered around town by Oct. 1 will give most of those details. Or showgoers can stop at the Angela Peralta Theater for further information. Most Sinaloa Festival performances begin at 8:30 p.m. The Mazatlan Fall Festival of the Arts, with folk and contemporary dance performances, a chamber group from Mainly Mozart in San Diego, and a Shriners Big Band among events on its schedule, picks up where the state festival leaves off. The Mazatlan festival will run Nov. 1 through Dec. 20. Next month's edition of the Pearl will carry the full schedule. While explanations about the nature of certain performances were somewhat sketchy, this is what we were able to glean about the Sinaloa Festival before deadline