Helgi Tomasson, who directed the San Francisco Ballet for almost 40 years, stepped down in 2022 and handed the reins to Tamara Rojo, a ballerina and the former artistic director of the English National Ballet. Tomasson’s 2004 production of The Nutcracker remains, a version set in San Francisco in 1915, in the year of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. This Nutcracker starts with an archival slideshow of the city at the turn of the century—San Fran was known as “The Jewel City”—and then proceeds as the best versions do: party preparations, the presents, the tree, the battle, the snow scene, and on to the Land of Sweets. A lovely production. —Laura Jacobs
The Arts Intel Report
The Nutcracker
The San Francisco Ballet performs Helgi Tomasson’s The Nutcracker.
When
Dec 8–27, 2022
Where
Chris Hellman Center for Dance, 455 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Etc
Photo: Erik Tomasson