Author: Admin

For the Festive Season, the San Francisco Playhouse presents a popular family musical – Mary Poppins – the story of the “practically perfect” nanny who brings order, a touch of magic, and more than a dose of common sense to the London household of George and Winifred Banks. Susi Damilano directs this production for the…

There can be few filmgoers or TV viewers who’ve not heard of Frank Capra’s 1946 classic film, It’s a Wonderful Life – and since 2016, this uplifting and inspirational story has also found its way into the opera repertoire, thanks to composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. These gifted artists premiered their work at…

San Francisco Symphony Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas, leads the Symphony this week in a program both poignant and celebratory, the first of two programs marking the 70th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There are two works in this first program – a narration of extracts from The Diary of…

La Sylphide – one of the world’s oldest surviving ballets – opens the new Bolshoi in Cinema season this weekend, with a screening of Johan Kobborg’s highly acclaimed staging of this romantic work, which has become synonymous with the name of Danish ballet master August Bournonville. The original version of La Sylphide was premiered in…

One might be forgiven for thinking of Bartók and Shostakovich as two of the bad boys of 20th century classical music, since each of their works featured in this week’s San Francisco Symphony concerts was initially either banned (in the case of Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin) or held back from publication (in the case of…

Romanian conductor Cristian Măcelaru takes up the baton at Davies Symphony Hall this week to lead the San Francisco Symphony and violin virtuoso Ray Chen in a performance of Édouard Lalo’s vibrant and tuneful Symphonie espagnole. The program also includes Richard Strauss’ lovely suite from Der Rosenkavalier, and two works which will be heard here…

German conductor, Marc Albrecht, noted interpreter of Strauss operas, leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and cast, in his debut performance in the United States this week, directing the Company’s new production of Richard Strauss’ romantic opera, Arabella. This tale of love, mistaken identity and near-catastrophe, stars soprano Ellie Dehn in her role debut as…

Returning from a highly successful East Coast tour, the San Francisco Symphony resumes its Davies Symphony Hall schedule this week under the baton of Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck. Maestro Honeck will conduct a two-work program of music by Prokofiev and Dvořák – Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante, and the Symphony No 8 by Antonin Dvořák. The guest…

Opening at the War Memorial Opera House this week, San Francisco Opera’s new production of Tosca stars Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio in the title role, with tenor Brian Jagde as Cavaradossi, and baritone Scott Hendricks as Baron Scarpia. British conductor Leo Hussain – formerly music director of Opéra de Rouen and Salzburg Landestheater – makes…

The 2018-19 season at San Francisco Playhouse opens this week, with a play which had its World Premiere last season in the Playhouse Sandbox Series – its new works program. Christopher Chen’s You Mean To Do Me Harm proved during this run that it had what it takes to move to Mainstage at the Playhouse,…