The headline items in the de Young Museum’s new special exhibit, “Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico” are indeed colossal, similar to the iconic — if much more contemporary — Easter Island heads.The unique show, organized by many and led by the de Young’s Kathleen Berrin and Virginia M. Fields of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, represents the only chance for visitors to see 140 ancient objects outside their homes in 25 Mexican and U.S. museums. In addition to the huge heads, the exhibition also features many small, fascinating works of art. Read More

San Francisco Symphony, which turns 100 on Dec. 8, is giving The City a birthday gift of a brilliant season of great music and famous artists. As it looks back on a century, the orchestra heads into the future with cutting-edge programming and in the vanguard of technology.“In marking the orchestra’s first hundred years,” says SFS President John D. Goldman, “this season is the moment to define what this orchestra will be for its next hundred.” Read More

“He is the reason I am in the theater,” Carey Perloff says of the late Harold Pinter.Perloff, director of American Conservatory Theater since 1991, is at the helm of her company’s production opening next week of the Nobel laureate writer’s 1964 “The Homecoming,” which won a 1967 Tony Award for Best Play.Describing it as “a most astonishing play, which will never feel dated,” Perloff says “The Homecoming” deals with “predatory creatures in the jungle, fierce, sexual, true and shocking” and shows that “human beings are mysterious and unknowable.” Read More

Showcasing art works such as a phantasmagorical winged figure from a temple door, a carved offering shrine and coin images of deities, the Asian Art Museum’s upcoming Bali exhibition seems to be all in motion — different from the static feel that sometimes characterizes museums.In Bali, there is no separation between visual and performing arts, making the title of the show, “Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance,” both descriptive and complete. Read More

The opera “Nixon in China” boasts wonderful historical and theatrical scenes and images: among them, “Chairman [Mao] Dances,” Richard M. Nixon arriving in Beijing aboard Air Force One, dwarfing the memory of “Miss Saigon’s” helicopter, and “The Red Detachment of Women” ballet choreographed by Mark Morris.John Adams’ fascinating, groundbreaking work from 1987 is taking a quarter century to be seen in The City where it was born. Read More

By leaps and grand jetés, San Francisco Ballet Resident Choreographer Yuri Possokhov is becoming a major figure in the world of dance. With the vastly entertaining “Magrittomania,” “Damned” and 10 other works behind him, Possokhov premiered “RAkU,” the centerpiece of the season’s second program, Thursday night in the War Memorial Opera House. Well deserving of the lengthy and heartfelt ovation it received, the world premiere is a gripping, virtuoso piece, reminiscent of the late Michael Smuin’s dramatic, occasionally over-the-top, dance theater. Read More

Anton Chekhov belongs to the world, but it is difficult to imagine him without Russian language, characters, history and sensibility. London theater companies historically have successfully staged his plays in English while retaining their “real Chekhov” character. Marin Theatre Co. now is taking up the daunting challenge. On Tuesday, Marin’s small, gutsy company premiered a “new” version, “Seagull,” of Chekhov’s 1896 play, translated by Libby Appel and including recently discovered lines from the original. Read More