From a beloved holiday dance show to a topnotch SoCal indie rock band and an acclaimed youth choir’s holiday concert, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend.
Here is a partial rundown.
Smuin launches holiday show
Rumor has it that Ebenezer Scrooge himself was once spotted exiting Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s annual holiday show, smiling ear to ear.
Of course, all gossip about the nocturnal adventures of Mr. Scrooge have to be taken with a grain of salt, but we wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it were true. Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s annual Christmas Ballet is one of the Bay Area’s most enjoyable and impressive winter season productions, fueled by the company’s first-rate ballet and contemporary dance moves and its trademark charm and sense of humor.
This year’s program features brand new works by choreographer Julia Adam (who runs the dance company that bears her name); Smuin artistic director Amy Seiwert, a revered Bay Area dancemaker; and San Francisco Ballet soloist Myles Thatcher. These will join several Smuin Contemporary Ballet classic works — including “Santa Baby,” a sassy, beloved work that employs what is described as the “world’s longest boa.”
Smuin will kick off its “Christmas Ballet” tour with performances Nov. 22-23 at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Future performances include Dec. 5-6 in Carmel, Dec. 11-14 in Mountain View and Dec. 18-28 in San Francisco.
Details: 2 and 7 p.m. Nov. 22, 2 p.m. Nov. 23; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $30-$120; www.smuinballet.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Thrice brings ‘Horizons/West’ tour to Bay Area
Thrice is now a dozen albums into its career.
And these Orange County rockers — vocalist-guitarist Dustin Kensrue, lead guitarist/keyboardist Teppei Teranishi, bassist Eddie Breckenridge and drummer Riley Breckenridge — just keep getting better and better.
The band’s latest record, “Horizons/West,” is a terrific platter that touches upon the many different modern rock styles in Thrice’s deep bag of tricks and treats. Each of the 11 tracks hit hard, although in different ways, and then resonate with the listener long after the album has spun its course.
“Every time we make a new album, we give it everything we have,” Kensrue says. “We immerse ourselves fully in writing and recording, we have a blast, we pull our hair out a bit, and we come through it all with something we are really proud of. But sometimes you stumble into something special — I think we all feel that with this record.”
Thrice supports the new album — which follows 2021’s “Horizons/East” — with a concert on Nov. 21 at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Modern Color and Downward are also on the bill.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21; $51.32; axs.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Classical picks: ‘Monkey King,’ Vivaldi, Cantabile Youth Singers
This is the time of year to hear special music, and the Bay Area’s choices offer something for everyone. This week, choose from a dazzling new opera, a program of Baroque favorites, and a chorus for young artists in one of the region’s beautiful missions.
“The Monkey King”: Based on the first chapter of the Chinese novel “Journey to the West,” this new opera by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang made its thrilling world premiere at San Francisco Opera last week. It’s an action-packed fusion of music, dance, puppetry and more, with a title character unlike any other the opera world has seen. Directed by Diane Paulus, it’s a treat for the whole family.
Details: Through Nov. 30; War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco; tickets $29 and up; www.sfopera.com.
Vivaldi at the Symphony: Violinist Alexi Kenney joins the San Francisco Symphony in a lively “Baroque-flavored program” that features Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto” No. 5 in D; his featured guests are flutist Yubeen Kim and harpsichord master Jonathan Dimmock. Music by Olli Mustonen and Barbara Strozzi completes the lineup.
Details: 2 p.m. Nov. 20; 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21-22; $55 and up; sfsymphony.org.
“Winter Starlight”: That’s the name of the upcoming concert by the Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley, the South Bay’s premier co-ed youth choir, returning for a holiday performance Saturday evening in a beautiful setting and featuring music by Bach, Rheinberger, and more, all conducted by Elena Sharkova.
Details: 6:30 p.m. Nov. 22; Mission Santa Clara de Asis, Santa Clara; $15-$35; cantabile.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
A breath of fresh art
In times like these, it’s often important to take a moment and just … breathe. And breathing is the theme of a thought-provoking art show now wrapping up its final days at UC Davis’ Manetti Shrem Museum.
“Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice” gathers more than a dozen artists who are investigating social and environmental injustice in the world. “The lungs of our planet — oceans, forests and the atmosphere — are under threat, invaded by carbon emissions, plastics and man-made pollutants,” write the exhibit’s organizers. “The act of breathing was rendered even more perilous by the COVID-19 pandemic and police brutality.”
Among the show’s participants — contemporary artists, but also activists and scientists who work in photography, painting and sculpture — is Clarissa Tossin, who presents tangible monuments to the hard-to-visualize effects of climate change. Tossin has made a silicone cast of a peach tree in her garden in L.A., which died due to excessive heat and chronic drought.
The exhibit runs concurrently with “Ojo” by artist Julio César Morales, whose work is informed by the immigrant experience and living near the Mexico-U.S. border.
Details: Through Nov. 29 at Manetti Shrem Museum, 254 Old Davis Road, Davis; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; free; manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu.
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Freebie of the week
Once upon a time, Union Square in San Francisco was the place to go during the holiday shopping season. The place would be bustling with shoppers and people-watchers, the stores would be lit up and decorated, you could have a blast ice skating (or watching others skate) while the giant Christmas tree loomed nearby. Come to think of it, most of those things are still available (the Christmas tree lighting takes place the day after Thanksgiving). But our favorite part of the whole Union Square holiday shebang kicks off Nov. 21 — at the San Francisco SPCA holiday windows at Macy’s, 170 O’Farrell St., where you can gaze upon the adorable antics of adoptable puppies and kittens.
The kitties and pooches are on charm duty noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, beginning Nov. 21 and running through Dec. 31. You can also watch the pets on SF SPCA live cams 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily Friday through Dec. 31 at www.sfspca.org/holiday-windows-2025. But if you ask us, there is nothing so charming as taking it all in live as you celebrate the holiday spirit in Union Square. Either way, it is free of charge.
— Bay City News Foundation
Remembering a groundshaking quartet
So Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash walk into a recording studio … . No, it’s the opening of a joke, it’s an actual description of a momentous moment in music history. On Dec. 4, 1956, the four men, apparently by sheer coincidence, showed up at Sun Studio in Memphis. Each had a different agenda in mind when they arrived: Perkins was there to record some new songs and had asked Lewis, a largely unknown pianist, to come in and add some beef to his sound. Elvis Presley later showed up on a purely social call. The three started jamming and then invited Cash, a rising country singer, to play along.
The gathering became known as the “Million Dollar Quartet,” which was also the title of a recording later released in 1981 and re-released with additional tracks in 1987. The pinch-me-I’m-dreaming gathering in Memphis was re-created as a musical, also titled “Million Dollar Quartet,” that opened on Broadway in 2010. Now San Jose Stage is presenting the musical through Dec. 14 at the company theater on 490 S. 1st St.
Details: Tickets are $38-$84; go to www.thestage.org/
— Bay City News Foundation
To every season, there is a concerto
In 1723, composer Antonio Vivaldi penned a musical paean to each of the passing periods of the year, and his “Four Seasons,” a grouping of concerti devoted to spring, summer, fall and winter, has been popular – and widely quoted in films, we might add – down through the ages. Violinist Alex Kenney returns to the Davies Hall stage this weekend to both play and direct it on the San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performer Series. Also on the program is another great work from the Baroque era – Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major. Olli Mustonen’s Nonet No. 2 for String Orchestra and Kenney’s own arrangement of Barbara Strozzi’s song “Che si puó fare” round out the selections for the concerts, which also feature Yubeen Kim on flute and Jonathan Dimmock on harpsichord.
Details: Performance times are at 2 p.m. Nov. 20 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21-22; tickets, $45-$175, are available at www.sfsymphony.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Dreams dashed, hearts broken
Poor deluded Cio-Cio-San – she put all of her love and trust in a dashing guy in a spiffy uniform who turned out to be – surprise – a cad and a bounder. There is hardly an opera in the entire repertoire more tragic in its outcome than Giaccomo Puccini’s classic “Madama Butterfly,” but that hasn’t stopped the audiences from flocking to it in droves since its 1904 debut because the music is flat-out gorgeous. It plays out on the California Theatre stage once again in Opera San Jose’s latest production, which stars its artist-in-residence Emily Michiko Jensen in the title role. The callous, use-her-and-lose-her Pinkerton is sung by tenor Christopher Oglesby, and the other key parts are filled by mezzo-sopano Kayla Nanto as the faithful maid Suzuki and baritone Eugene Brancoveanu as the sympathetic Sharpless, the U.S. Consul.
Details: Four performances remain, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21 and 2 p.m. Nov. 23, 29 and 30. $58-$215; operasj.org.
— Bay City News Foundation