This week’s Bay Area arts and entertainment picks, Sept. 27
Puccini’s opera kicks off the third season of the Merola Opera Program and the San Francisco Library Main Branch’s opera film series.
Mirella Freni and Plácido Domingo star in this 1975 film about an arranged marriage between an American naval officer and a Japanese teenager.
There will be a short preshow talk by a Merola representative.
See website for the list of films playing this season. 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27.
Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library Main Branch, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco.
Join Mugwumpin for a comic critique of the billion-dollar disaster film industry.
“Blockbuster Season” is co-produced by the San Francisco theater ensemble and Intersection for the Arts.
Mugwumpin co-founders Joe Estlack and Christopher White show how Hollywood panics the masses with giant asteroids, alien invasions and other spectacles. 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27; Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 1-3.
Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission St., San Francisco. $25-$35.
Prototyping Festival
The Central Market Showcase displays prototypes that serve the community in some way.
Imagine a Bench-Go-Round, interactive public seating that encourages pedestrians to connect to each other.
Presented by the YBCA, the San Francisco Planning Department, and the Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation.
Market Street between Sixth and Seventh streets, San Francisco.
Set in San Francisco and Vietnam in 1963, the musical is a tale of tenderness, brutality and compassion.
Fighting crime
Ray Kelly, former New York City police commissioner, talks about his career, including helping to foil terrorist plots after 9/11.
Kelly, who has been a critic of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policing policies, has written a memoir: Vigilance:
Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St., San Francisco. $27-$37.
The West Coast premiere of Alexey Ratmansky’s “Cinderella,” commissioned in 2002.
Diana Vishneva dances the title role on opening night; at other performances, the role will be taken by Nadezhda Batoeva (Friday and Sunday), Anastasia Matvienko (Saturday matinee) and Kristina Shapran (Saturday evening).
In the early years, tango culture was about the dance, wardrobe, songs and rhythms of Buenos Aires.
The more modern view emphasizes relationships, avant-garde aesthetics, art, skill and sensuality.
Winner of the Latin ACE 2015 Best Show of the Year award. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 6 p.m. next Sunday, Oct. 1-3.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca published this philosophical allegory about free will, fate and the mystery of life in 1635.
A new translation by playwright Andrew Saito opens the Cutting Ball Theater’s 17th season.
On Saturday, both the performance and the audience will be shot for a feature film. 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3.
Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. $50-$125.