Arts & Events

This month has seen the revival of many Bay Area arts organizations which were in forced hiatus because of the pandemic. One of them, Berkeley Chamber Opera, will be presenting a double bill of one-act operas at Berkeley’s Hillside Club this coming weekend.

Eliza O’Malley, the director, who also sings a soprano role, says that the two have been chosen to be “Covid proof “, short with small casts. The three performances (Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 7 pm) are double cast in case any singer should test positive.

Both operas are by Russian composers from the beginning of the 20^th century, but they are quite different from each other.

The director says that “this may well be the West Coast Premiere of Prokofiev’s Maddalena, since it was lost for decades.”

Even after the score was re-discovered in publishers’ archives in the 1950s, ownership disputes delayed production until the 1980s.

It’s based on a play by Magda Gustavovna Lieven-Orlov. When the play was originally published, she wrote under the male pseudonym “Baron Lieven” because the ultra-dramatic content was considered too daring and immoral for a woman.

The Stravinsky opera Mavra is a contrast, a short and sweet comic favorite which is frequently performed.

Audience members are required to be well-vaccinated and boosted with strong masks. For a cast list and tickets: click here

Berkeley Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley CA

Friday June 17th 7pm
Saturday June 18th 7pm
Sunday June 19th 7pm

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Worth Noting:

To look for city sponsored events, like films in the park and check for meetings announced on short notice, use the new city website https://berkeleyca.gov/. This summary of meetings which is already long will only list city meetings and key community meetings/events. Key items are bolded and underlined.

Sunday, June 12th at 5 pm is the production of ROE at the Brower Center by the Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. The staged reading of ROE is free (thanks to donations), seating is limited, reservations are highly recommended. A second final reading of ROE is at the Marsh, June 16th at 7 pm.

Monday at 10 am the Council Committee on Health, Equity agenda items are the Fair workweek and re-entry employment and guaranteed income. At 2:30 pm the Agenda committee finalizes the agenda for the June 28th regular Council meeting at 6 pm – item 10 BerkDOT, 13. Add $1.900,000 to City cost of Diesel fuel note that a $1,000,000 request to install EV charging at the corporation yard for city vehicles is not included in the CM proposed budget, 28. Pilot of charging for parking in neighborhoods,

Tuesday City Council at 6 pm action items 30. Proposed biennial budget, 32. Police Equipment, 33. Parking enforcement in fire zones, 34. VACANCY TAX, 35. Home electrification pilot.

Wednesday Commission on Aging at 1:30, FITES meets on plastic ordinance at 2:30, and the Human Welfare & Community Action meets at 6:30 pm.

Thursday 6pm the Fair Campaign Practices & Open Government meets at 6 pm on election enforcement referrals. At 7 pm the DRC takes up 742 Grayson a manufacturing R&D with a 7-story 325 parking space garage and the last reading of ROE at the Marsh is at 7 pm. (

Sunday, June 19th at 11 am – 7 pm Juneteenth Festival at Adeline and Alcatraz

The schedule of the January 6th hearings for the coming week (in Pacific Time) and what will be covered – Monday, June 13 at 7 am PT will cover how Donald Trump and his advisors knew that he infact lost the election but still engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information that the election was stolen, Wednesday, June 15 at 7 am PT will cover how Trump corruptly planned to replace the US Attorney General so the Justice Department would spread false stolen election claims, Thursday, June 16th at 10 am PT will focus on Trump’s efforts to pressure Pence to refuse to count electoral votes on January 6th..

Sunday, June 12, 2022

ROE at 5 pm at the David Brower Center Goldman Theater at 2150 Allston Way

Staged reading of ROE produced by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley performance of Roe by Lisa Loomer directed by Susannah Wood and organized by Carol Marasovic of the City of Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women

Admission is free - reservations are highly recommended,

https://www.aeofberkeley.org/productions/upcoming-shows/378-roe-by-lisa-loomer

donations to cover the production costs are welcome send to:

Berkeley Actors Ensemble / ROE, PO Box 663, Berkeley, CA 94701

Monday, June 13, 2022 -more-

Celebrated Belgian choral ensemble Vox Luminis returned to the Berkeley Early Music Festival on Thursday, June 9, for the first of two concerts at First Congregational Church, where they performed Dietrich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostra. Buxtehude (1637-1707) was a renowned organist and composer in Lübeck, Germany, where he served as organist at the Marienkirche for 39 years. Younger composers such as Handel, Telemann, and Johann Sebastian Bach all made visits to Buxtehude in Lübeck. At the age of 20, Bach obtained a month’s leave of absence from his post as organist in Amstadt, Germany, to pay a visit to Buxtehude. Bach walked on foot from Amstadt to Lübeck, a distance of 250 miles, and then stayed nearly three months there so captivated was he by hearing Buxtehude’s music and conferring with the then 68 year-old composer. -more-

Rachel Podger, hailed as “Queen of the Baroque Violin,” performed solo works for violin by Johann Sebastian Bach at First Congregational Church on Wednesday, June 8 as part of the biannual Berkeley Early Music Festival & Exhibition, which returns after a several year absence due to the Covid pandemic. Featured works at this concert were Bach’s Sonata and Partita Numbers Two for solo violin, as well as a transposition for violin of Bach’s Suite No. 3 for solo cello. -more-

As part of the Berkeley Early Music Festival’s Fringe events, William Ludtke’s Handel Opera Project presented Handel’s opera Semele on Saturday, June 11, at 2:30 in The First Church of Christ, Science on Dwight Way. Over the years, Handel Opera Project has taken on not only operas by Handel but also operas by other composers. I still recall quite fondly their performance in 2014 of Luigi Cherubini’s Médée, based on the Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides, with the excellent Eliza O’Malley in the title role. For that opera, and for many others, Handel Opera Project has had to make do with the confined space of the Christian Science Organization’s premises on Durant Avenue. However, for this presentation of Semele they had the much more hospitable and architecturally remarkable setting of Bernard Maybeck’s First Church of Christ, Science on Dwight Way. For this reason, and in spite of having a cast of singers I’d never heard before, this Semele was a must-see for me in this year’s Berkeley Early Music Festival. -more-