Cinema Italian Style at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco
November 22 – 24, 2019

San Francisco’s Cinema Italian Style will feature the best of contemporary Italian cinema and launch it with a special Opening Night on Friday, November 22. The festival is co-organized by Luce Cinecitta’, Italy’s premier film organization, as well as the Italian Consulate General in San Francisco and the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco.

Cinema and food will be the protagonists of Cinema Italian Style, which will showcase the best Italian movies of the year, including Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor, the Italian entry to the 2020 Academy Awards® in the category for Best Foreign Language Film. In a week full of Italian events, San Francisco audiences will have the opportunity to be immersed in Italian culture by discovering eight of the best Italian movies of the year: The Traitor; The Invisible Witness; Vivere; The First King: Birth of an Empire; Volare; Food Makers (Followed by food tasting); The Vice of Hope; and Ordinary Happiness. Founded in 1978, the Italian Cultural Institute (Istituto Italiano di Cultura) in San Francisco is an official branch of the Italian government, dedicated to the promotion of the Italian language and culture in the United States. This is definitely a delicious and enriching journey to Italy without leaving the Bay Area. See you at the movies… Ciao!

Tickets and Information
Prices start at $10
Festival Pass $70, includes admission to all screenings
Food Makers: $10, includes documentary and tasting
415-552-5580
CinemaItalianStyleSF.com
The Vogue Theatre
3290 Sacramento Street in San Francisco

Photo courtesy of Cinema Italian Style

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
November 16 – 24, 2019 in Los Altos Hills

Who knew that Bertolt Brecht will have a vision in 1941 of the contemporary political uproar we read about in the news today? Enjoy his satirical masterpiece The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in a fascinating new adaption by Pulitzer, Olivier, and Tony Award-winning American playwright, Bruce Norris (of the Clybourne Park fame) now on view at Foothill College’s Lohman Theatre in Los Altos Hills.

Director Bruce McLeod invites audiences into a seedy 1930s Chicago cabaret for this production, which debuted last year at London’s acclaimed Donmar Warehouse Theatre to critical acclaim. It was lauded as “a tremendous new adaptation by Bruce Norris” by The Guardian. Subtitled “A parable play,” Brecht’s spoof slyly chronicles a fictional bumbling small-time crook in 1930s Chicago who sees opportunities to amass power. Offering a better world for his cowed followers, Ui blithely employs bribery and corruption on his stunning and unexpected climb to the top. At one point engaging a washed-up Shakespearean actor for locution tips, the tawdry gangster borrows tips from epic theatrical villains including Richard III and Macbeth in his inexorable quest for supreme authority. Written while Brecht was a refugee banned from his native Germany and awaiting immigration to the US, the play was created as a satirical allegory of the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to WWII. A wonderfully talented cast of professional actors as well as students of Foothill College’s Drama Department make it a stimulating play to see and chat about. Contains mature language. Parental discretion advised.

Tickets and Information
Price: $20
650-949-7360
foothill.edu/theater
Lohman Theatre, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road in Los Altos Hills

Photo courtesy of Foothill College Drama Department

Steinway Society Presents Changyong Shin in San Jose
November 17 at 2:30 p.m.; Pre-concert lecture at 1:45 p.m.

Don’t miss acclaimed Korean pianist Changyong Shin playing Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel, and Granados at an afternoon concert celebrating Steinway Society’s 25th anniversary. A winner of top prestigious piano competitions, Changyong Shin has thrilled the audiences all over the world with his recital performances and as a soloist with orchestras and chamber groups throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. His first Steinway & Sons CD received rave reviews. The concert’s repertoire will feature: Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109”; Chopin’s “Nocturne in B Major, Op. 62, No. 1” and “Scherzo No. 4 in E Major, Op. 54”; Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit”; Granados “Los requiebros” from Goyescas. “Mr. Shin has that rare ability to generate visceral excitement just by playing his instrument” – New York Concert Review.

Tickets and Information
Prices range from $40 to $60
408-300-5635
Independence High School Theater
617 N. Jackson Avenue in San Jose

Photo courtesy of Steinway Society

Hansel and Gretel Return to San Francisco
November 16 to December 7, 2019

Welcome back Hansel and Gretel! Last seen on the city’s War Memorial Opera House stage nearly two decades ago, the popular fairy tale opera returns in an enchanting new co-production with London’s Royal Opera. Directed by production designer Antony McDonald, conducted by Christopher Franklin and sung in English translation by a superb cast – including mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Hansel, Heidi Stober as Gretel, and Robert Brubaker as the Witch – this is a phenomenal opera production not to be missed! Hansel and Gretel features a sweeping score by Engelbert Humperdinck and is set to a libretto by Humperdinck’s sister Adelheid Wette and follows the adventures of two hungry children who enter an enchanted forest looking for food, only to find themselves facing a sinister threat. Based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, Humperdinck’s opera utilizes an orchestra of Wagnerian proportions (65 instrumentalists) and sophisticated harmonies that lend heroic grandeur to this story of childhood innocence. Don’t miss a great opportunity to introduce your kids to the magical art of opera. Approximate running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes including one intermission.

Tickets and Information
Prices range from $26 to $398
(415) 864-3330
sfopera.com
War Memorial Opera House
301 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco

Photo courtesy of Corey Weaver

Lina Broydo immigrated from Russia, then the Soviet Union, to Israel where she was educated and got married. After working at the University in Birmingham, England, she and her husband immigrated to the United States. She lives in Los Altos Hills, CA and writes about travel, art, style, entertainment, and sports. She hardly cooks or bakes, with no borsch or piroshky on her home cooking menu. Therefore, she makes reservations and enjoys dining out, mostly sushi.