San Francisco Ballet’s Online Digital Nutcracker Inaugurates the Holiday Season
November 27–December 31

The holiday tradition of Nutcracker will not desert us and will return this season as an interactive, virtual experience for friends and family from the comfort of your home. “The Nutcracker Online” will be released in an immersive digital world designed by local event design and production specialists Blueprint Studios to reflect the innovation of the Bay Area community.

Featuring the high definition stream captured at the War Memorial Opera House in December 2007 and starring Yuan Yuan Tan as the Snow Queen, Pierre-François Vilanoba as the Snow King, Vanessa Zahorian as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Elizabeth Powell as Clara, with the grand pas de deux danced by Maria Kochetkova and Davit Karapetyan. In addition to the stream access, ticket holders are invited to guide themselves on an immersive digital journey through the War Memorial Opera House, full of interactive activities, fun videos, the ability to visit the SF Ballet Shop, and much more. This will definitely be magical, exciting and high-tech. San Francisco Ballet presented America’s first complete performance of Nutcracker in 1944. Every dancer in the Company dances in this production, along with 160 students from SF Ballet School who perform roles as Clara, Fritz, snowflakes, waltzing flowers, and mice. Wearing your grey flannel PJs will make the Nutcracker’s mice feel welcome in your home.

Information
Admission to Nutcracker Online is available for purchase starting November 17 and is priced at $49 for 48-hour access.
sfballet.org

Photo courtesy of SF Ballet

Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios, The Lost Years
Now through February 28, 2021

Museums are opening their doors for the cultural enrichment of visitors who can see the newly-opened exhibition “Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios, The Lost Years,” featuring an immersive photography installation by Los Angeles-based artist Stephen Berkman. Berkman’s installation brings to life an enigmatic nineteenth-century New York City photographic establishment known as Zohar Studios, located in the predominantly Jewish Lower East Side. The installation is a tribute to Shimmel Zohar, a mythical nineteenth-century Jewish immigrant photographer, and the founder of Zohar Studios. The exhibition includes over thirty photographs, several large installations, a cabinet of curiosities, and a large format artist book about the Zohar project.

These uncanny photographs take the visual codes of nineteenth-century portraiture as their point of departure, and the images and objects address both Jewish life and the scientific state of understanding over one hundred years ago. Together, they create an idiosyncratic vision of Victorian life in the United States, revitalizing bygone technologies and themes within a twenty-first century context. Through his work, Berkman shows that history is malleable and contains a multiplicity of meanings.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum is launching Free First Fridays, a day in which anyone can visit the Museum for free. The inaugural Free First Friday will be on November 6. All social distancing protocols and guidelines for reduced capacity will be followed, so they are still encouraging anyone interested in attending to book their ticket in advance.

Information
415-655-7800
thecjm.org
736 Mission Street in San Francisco

Photo courtesy of The Contemporary Jewish Museum

Virtual Tour of Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul Home in Mexico

I am sure you read in my previous column about the lavish and long-awaited “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can be Deceiving” exhibit (through February 7, 2021 at the de Young Museum) of her paintings, photographs, personal belongings and a collection of fashionable colorful clothing. Here is an additional opportunity to expand your visual pleasure by joining the virtual tour of Frida’s Casa Azul in Mexico City with a generous offer from Google Arts & Culture. Stroll the courtyard of her vivid blue house, wander inside her home to view the decor and peek at her paints and easel, as if she was still living and paining there. This is a priceless gift for those who, like me, are absolutely fascinated by artist Frida Kahlo and her life.

Information
artsandculture.google.com

Photo courtesy of Google Arts & Culture

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.