We were thinking of Chekov’s principle of drama: "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it," when Hotel Casablanca opened with a rack full of guns hanging on the wall. Was it to illustrate that Thomas Pasatieri, the composer/librettist of this new opera, had relocated the original French play in NRA-friendly Texas, or were the weapons instrumental to the plot? Well, we won’t spoil the......

A controversy was brewing, surrounding the dismissal of Hope Briggs, who was originally scheduled to sing Donna Anna, and her replacement with Elza Van Den Heever, in the new SF Opera production of Don Giovanni, which kicked off the summer season on Saturday night. The explanation for the switch from the upper floors of the opera house was rather laconic, which left the door open to wild speculations. Was it, as this Berkely Daily Planet op-ed conjectured, due to the new media suite, which will record every performance on high definition from this Don Giovanni on and thus will put some demand on the singers to look good, conjectures the writer? ...

Number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 55. Number of people pictured whom we recognize: 2 -- Charlotte Maillard Shultz and a way-too-skinny-looking Vanessa Getty. Minority count: 6 (10.9%). Getty v. Traina: 1-7. Big ups to C.Big for the comparison of the Steel-Traina family to the von Trapps! So long, farewell, auf wiedersein, good night. Number of hot dog hats pictured: 1, and it rocks. Days until the Barneys SF opens: 107......

SFiS -- more than just SFist minus the T! We give the new glossy advertorial section of the Chronicle our patented By The Numbers treatment below. (Warning -- SFiS only appears in .pdf form so many, but not all, of the links featured here will require Adobe Acrobat.) Average cost of items promoted in SFiS (not including ads): $399.91. Number of Catherine Bigelow columns: 6. (new recaps of Gordon Getty's birthday party, the Red Tie......