Arts & Events

Voices of Music, a chamber ensemble headed by Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler,offered a fine program of Baroque concertos at venues in Palo Alto, Berkeley, and San Francisco on December 17-19. I attended the Berkeley concert on December 18 at First Congregational Church. Opening the program was the Don Quixote Suite by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767). -more-

Worth Noting:

City Council winter recess begins December 15. Tuesday will be the last council meetings until January 18, 2022 unless some emergency dictates another.



Monday morning the Budget & Finance Committee meets at 9 am to review the final AAO (Annual Appropriations Ordinance – the mid-year budget allocations) – recommend reviewing the agenda document and priority list before the meeting. The evening Town Hall at 6 pm with the Mayor will be recorded if you can’t watch it at 6 pm.

Tuesday is a marathon day for City Council starting with a closed session at 3 pm, followed with special session at 4 pm and the regular meeting at 6 pm with a very long agenda.

Wednesday the Independent Redistricting meets at 6 pm. The goBerkeley SmartSpace Pilot for Elmwood that ends 2-hour free parking in RPP – in select areas of the Elmwood neighborhood meets at 6:30 pm – sign-up with Eventbrite. The Zoning Ordinance Revision Project (ZORP) meets at 7 pm.

Thursday the goBerkeley SmartSpace for the Southside/Telegraph neighborhood meets at 6:30 pm – sign-up with Eventbrite. The Design Review Committee and the Mental Health Commission both meet at 7 pm. The Rent Stabilization Board also meets at 7 pm, but the agenda and links are not posted.

-more-

On Thursday, December 2, the venerable Kronos Quartet returned to Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall with a program of new works the group commissioned from various composers as part of their ongoing Fifty for the Future project. This project is dedicated to making new works for string quartet available online with the goal of training students and emerging musicians in contemporary approaches to string quartet music. The Kronos Quartet consists of David Harrington and John Sherba on violins, Hank Dutt on viola, and Sunny Yang on cello. The first half of their Zellerbach concert featured short works by various contemporary composers, while the second half featured guest artist Mahsa Vahdat on vocals in songs of her own composition set to poems by Iranian writers. -more-

On Friday, December 10, the Future was Once Again Now, as the 2021 Adler Fellows Concert brought fresh young voices to the stage of Herbst Theatre. San Francisco Opera’s Music Directer Eun Sun Kim conducted the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, leading off the program with the Overture from Ruslan and Lyudmila by Mikhail Glinka. The first vocal offering featured baritone Timothy Murray as Figaro singing “Largo al factotum” from Gioachino Rossini’s Il rbiere di Siviglia. Murray, a second year Adler Fellow, delivered this chestnut in rich tones, even breaking into falsetto at one point. It was a totally convincing performance and won huge applause from the appreciative audience. -more-

At San Francisco Opera, Canadian director Michael Cavanaugh has mounted Così fan tutte as the second of his planned trilogy of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas. Cavanaugh sets Le Nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, and Don Giovanni in three different time-frames of American history. Le Nozze di Figaro, which was performed here in Cavanaugh’s staging in 2019, he sets in the late 18th century, in other words, in a new nation under construction after the American Revolution. For Così fan tutte, Cavanaugh chooses the 1930s, that is, in a nation emerging from the Depression but with prospects of a war looming ominously just over the horizon. Cavanaugh also chooses to set each opera of his Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy as taking place in the same building. In Le Nozze di Figaro, it was a house newly built. In Così fan tutte, Cavanaugh arbitrarily has transformed this house into an opulent country club. -more-

Worth Noting:

We are in the push to pack in year-end meetings and this coming week is very full. Please take a scan of all the meetings. What looks to be the most significant will be listed in the quick summary. The December 14^th Council meeting agenda is available for comment. When December 14th arrives, Council will vote on mid-year budget allocations.

Tuesday evening at 6 pm item 2 on the City Council agenda is the Pier-Ferry feasibility study. The cost of the pier-ferry project is $93 million without $32 million for two electric ferries. (the studies I have read it is less polluting per person to drive across the bridge alone than to ride an ordinary ferry) WETA Directors have been promised the Berkeley pier-ferry project will not impact the WETA budget of which only approximately 30% is covered by fares. The Dec 7 council special meeting is HYBRID – choice of attending in person, zoom or teleconference.

Wednesday evening at 5 pm CEAC will hear the Bee City recommendations. At 7 pm the Le Conte Neighborhood, BNC and CENA will sponsor together a HYBRID meeting (in-person or zoom) on Berkeley’s pilot project to charge parking in residential neighborhoods. Protection of Burrowing Owls is item 9 on the agenda of the 7 pm Parks and Waterfront Commission meeting. The Police accountability Board meets at 7 pm with a full agenda.

Thursday morning at 10 am the council Budget and Finance Committee will review the mid-year budget referrals and set priorities for the Dec 14^th full council vote. Thursday evening council will hear an update on the housing element and process toward planning for adding 8934 residential units in Berkeley. -more-