Arts & Events

The content of city meetings pales in the shadow of the enormity of the events beyond our city borders, but I will at least start with the city meetings I did attend.

Nothing much of consequence happened at the Council Agenda and Rules meeting on Monday. The September 14th council agenda was approved and Councilmember Taplin’s budget referral measure for license plate readers was referred to the Council Safety Policy aCommittee.

The Planning Commission took comment on the Ashby – North Berkeley BART mixed use housing projects. I did not count the callers for each side: those who would like the housing project proposed for North Berkeley BART to stop at seven stories or thereabouts and those who declare support for a large project in the belief it will bring down housing costs. There were also declarations of accepting diversity and accusations that those wanting a single-family home neighborhood were harboring attitudes that were exclusionary. I was the lone voice to ask that support of ecosystems, native plants and the environment be a part of the planning. That mostly fell on deaf ears with one exception, the new Planning Commissioner who was part of the native garden tour earlier this year.

It is now estimated that one in three Americans live in a county hit by a weather disaster. Has it changed our behavior? Or, do we think about what it takes to create a healthy ecosystem? Ecosystems are more than just the trees, birds, butterflies and plants we see. It includes the microscopic organisms. Just like our bodies need the organisms in our guts to digest the food we put in our mouths, ecosystems need a balance of native plants to support the organisms that keep it healthy. -more-

Worth Noting:

The agenda for the September 14^th Council meeting, the first meeting after summer recess is available for review and comment and follows the list of meetings. DO NOT wait until the last minute to review item 35 in the Council agenda the Baseline Zoning Ordinance. The Baseline Zoning Ordinance is 522 pages. Item 36. is the Objective Standards Recommendations for Density, Design and Shadows (24 pages).

Wednesday the Redistricting Commission meets at 6 pm and the Homeless Commission, The Parks and Waterfront Commission and the Police Accountability Board all meet at 7 pm.

Thursday the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force meets at 6 pm and the Zoning Adjustment Board meets at 7 pm.

Friday evening at 7:30 pm is the City sponsored free showing of the movie Soul at Grove Park.

Saturday morning at 10 am is the Berkeley Neighborhoods monthly meeting. -more-

Since its inception in 2007, Opera at the Ballpark has become a tradition locally. Each year as many as 30,000 people gather at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, for a free concert of opera simulcast on Oracle Park’s 71-foot high x 153-foot wide, 4K videoboard. The music is simulcast live from the Opera House. This year what was offered was not a specific opera but rather a superb concert featuring great singing by mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen. This event, which bore the title “The Homecoming,” marked the reopening of San Francisco Opera after 20 dreary months of closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. -more-

For a return to live music after nearly twenty months of silence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, San Francisco Opera presented a reprisal of director Shawna Lacey’s 2018 staging of Puccini’s Tosca. Soprano Ailyn Pérez sang the title role and tenor Michael Fabiano was Mario Cavaradossi. Both were excellent. Less impressive was bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Scarpia, the ruthless Chief of Rome’s Police. Making her debut as the company’s new Music Director, conductor Eun Sun Kim led the orchestra, principals and chorus in a performance full of vivid musical imagery. In an interview conducted by Jeffrey McMillen and included in the digital program for SF Opera’s Tosca, Eun Sun Kim spoke of the need to drive the music, especially in the first act of Tosca, where Puccini’s music provides visual colors of many different hues. In this endeavour, conductor Eun Sun Kim succeeded admirably. Following upon the total success of her previous experience here as guest conductor in the 2019 performances of Dvorák’s Rusalka, Eun Sun Kim’s fluid, well-paced rendition of Puccini’s Tosca augurs well for her reign as San Francisco Opera’s Music Director. -more-

It has been nearly seventeen months since the outbreak of Covid 19 halted music events performed for live audiences. On Saturday, August 21, I attended at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre a concert by Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Edgar Meyer on double bass, and Chris Theile on mandolin as well as guest artist Aiofe O’Donovan on vocals. In homage to this group’s award-winning 2011 album, they billed this event as Not Our First Goat Rodeo. A “goat rodeo,” they explain, is airplane pilots’ slang for a situation so unimaginable that countless parts must come together to avert disaster. -more-