Freebie of the week: Once upon a time, Union Square in San Francisco was the place to go during the holiday shopping season. It was bustling with shoppers and people-watchers, the stores were lit up and decorated, and 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 happening. (The Christmas tree lighting takes place the day after Thanksgiving). But our favorite part of the whole Union Square holiday shebang kicks off Friday at the San Francisco SPCA Holiday Windows at Macy’s, 170 O’Farrell St., where happy visitors gaze upon the 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, starting Friday through Dec. 31, at www.sfspca.org/holiday-windows-2025. But if you ask us, there is nothing so charming as taking it in live and celebrating the holiday in Union Square. Either way, it is free of charge.
Of boas and brilliance: Smuin Ballet was founded in 1994 by the late visionary choreographer Michael Smuin, who recognized that classical ballet and the quickly evolving contemporary dance world were not incompatible. To this day, the popular troupe continues to thrive in a happy marriage of the two disciplines. Nowhere is this more evident than in the company’s annual Christmas Ballet, which launches its new program this weekend in Walnut Creek. The troupe is now under the direction of renowned choreographer Amy Seiwert, who contributes one of three world premieres to the holiday production. Meanwhile, the show also boasts beloved classic numbers, including the sassy “Santa Baby,” a perennial favorite with its lively choreography that incorporates what the company says is the world’s longest boa. With its wide range of styles and Smuin’s talented performers, the Christmas Ballet is impressive and charming: you can’t ask more of a holiday recital than that. Catch the Christmas Ballet 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Tickets are $30-$120. The show also is also onstage Dec. 5-6 in Carmel; on Dec. 11-14 in Mountain View and Dec. 18-28 in San Francisco. Tickets and more information are at smuinballet.org.
Groundshaking quartet: So Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash walk into a recording studio …. It’s not 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, each showed up at Sun Records 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. Presley later showed up, purely on a 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 it’s coming to San Jose Stage in a production that runs Nov. 19-Dec. 14 at the company theater on 490 S. First St. Tickets are $38-$84; go to thestage.org.
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 Alexi 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 the selections for the concert, which also feature Yubeen Kim on flute and Jonathan Dimmock on harpsichord. Performance times are at 2 p.m. Thursday and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and tickets, $45-$175, are available at sfsymphony.org.
Dreams dashed, hearts broken: Poor deluded Cio-Cio-San. She put 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 Giacomo Puccini’s classic “Madama Butterfly,” but that hasn’t stopped 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 other key parts are filled by mezzo-soprano Kayla Nanto as the faithful maid Suzuki and baritone Eugene Brancoveanu as the sympathetic Sharpless, the U.S. Consul. Four performances remain, at 7: 30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 29-30. Find tickets, $58-$215, at operasj.org.
The post Best Bets: SPCA Holiday Windows, Smuin ‘Christmas Ballet,’ ‘Million Dollar Quartet,’ Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons,’ ‘Madama Butterfy’ appeared first on Local News Matters.