I write today’s dR Daily knowing that both of the shows I’m recommending are SOLD OUT, at least online. You may well be able to score some tickets by hitting a resale site, visiting the box office in person, or just by standing outside the Capitol in Clearwater (for Lyle Lovett)  or the Palladium in St. Pete (for Rigoletto) and plaintively crying, “Tickets? Anyone got (sob) tickets?”

But I gotta say: Isn’t it cool, and doesn’t it say a heap about the diversity of Tampa Bay’s performing arts options — and audiences — that on a Tuesday night in January the two hottest tickets around are the singer/songwriter known as an Americana trailblazer and the Verdi opera known for “La donna è mobile”? 

Lyle Lovett: 8 p.m.,  Bilheimer Capitol Theatre, 405 Cleveland St., Clearwater, rutheckerdhall.com.

St. Petersburg Opera Company’s Rigoletto: 7:30 p.m., The Palladium, 253 Fifth Ave. N., St. Petersburg, mypalladium.org.