Diablo Ballet opens its 33rd season with “The Nutcracker Suite” at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts on Friday, Nov. 13, and Saturday, Nov. 14.
Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday and at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The company says the Saturday matinee is sold out.
Julia Adam’s expanded two-act production includes new choreography and costumes, according to Diablo Ballet. The company estimates a running time of about 90 minutes with one intermission.
The story places Clara and the Diablo family at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel on Christmas Eve in the 1950s. Drosselmeyer is the hotel concierge, while a bellhop takes on the Nutcracker role and hotel staff appear in the fantasy’s dances.
Party for matinee ticketholders
A complimentary family party follows Saturday’s 2 p.m. performance in the Lesher Center lobby. Matinee ticketholders can meet cast members, watch a ballet class demonstration and collect autographs.
The performance venue is the Lesher Center—not the Fairmont Hotel, which is the ballet’s fictional setting.
Diablo Ballet directs buyers to the Lesher Center’s official ticket listing or ticket office at 925-943-7469.
Upcoming at the Lesher Center
Jazz vocalist Gretchen Parlato performs Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m., according to the venue’s event listing.
