Experience San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker Online!
San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson's Nutcracker / © Erik Tomasson
One of our most cherished holiday traditions is a trip to the War Memorial Opera House to experience the spectacle of San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker. While we can't do it this year due to the COVID pandemic, we were excited to learn that the Ballet would be presenting Nutcracker as an online experience this season. We were able to check it out and, while it's not quite the same as seeing the production in person, it was still a wonderful way to take in the holiday magic.
Login to Nutcracker Online and immerse yourself in a digital world designed by local event design and production specialists Blueprint Studios. You can virtually explore the opera house, and access resources like a virtual Nutcracker activity book, videos, the San Francisco Ballet Shop, and more. In this virtual version of the opera house, snow is falling (a rarity in San Francisco) and the holiday decorations are literally larger than life!
The highlight of Nutcracker Online is the high definition stream of the 2008 San Francisco Ballet and PBS co-production of the ballet. The stream was recorded at the War Memorial Opera House in December 2007 and features 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.
We were able to screencast the HD stream to our living room TV and enjoy the production there. It's really a fantastic version of the ballet — the same production you'd see if you were able to attend in person this year — and it gives you an up-close view of the stage that you won't get from many of the seats in the Opera House.
It's really a fun experience, and the next best thing to being there this season. Highly recommended! Nutcracker Online will be available for access through December 31, 2020. It costs $49, and you'll get 48 hours of access to the experience. For more information and to order online, visit www.sfballet.org or call (415) 865-2000.
