Arts & Events

Voices of Music Perform Corelli, Vivaldi & Telemann

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Thursday December 22, 2016 - 10:26:00 PM

Voices of Music, a Bay Area ensemble headed by Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler, gave a series of holiday concerts in San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto featuring virtuoso concertos by Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1753), Georg Phillip Telemann (1681-1767), and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). I attended their Berkeley concert at the Church of St. Mary Magdalen on Sunday evening, December 18. The concert opened with Corelli’s ever-popular Christmas concerto, the Pastorale, Opus 6, No. 8. Featured soloists in this Corelli concerto were violinists Carla Moore and Lisa Grodin, and cellist Elisabeth Reed. One of the themes used by Corelli is based on a tune traditionally played in Rome on Christmas Eve by shepherds on the Zampogna, a rustic bagpipe. -more-


Theater Review: Anton's Well Theater Company & the Bay Area Premiere of Sam Shepard's 'Ages of the Moon'

Ken Bullock
Saturday December 17, 2016 - 09:01:00 AM

Two men sit on a moonlit porch, somewhere out in the country, but God knows just where. One of the pair, we discover (after the dying strains of Hank Williams singing "Have You Ever Been Lonely?") has just traveled "across the country" by bus (again, from God knows where) to sit it (whatever "it" is) out with his old buddy who called him in the middle of the night for his company ... -more-


Around & About--Theater: Indra's Net Finds 'Darwin In Malibu'

Ken Bullock
Friday December 16, 2016 - 01:34:00 PM

Indra's Net has been presenting plays about science the past few years, and their latest, coming up next week through the holidays till January 15 is the provocatively-titled 'Darwin in Malibu,' by Crispin Whittell, directed by founder Bruce Coughran, with Blake Street Hawkeyes alum Robert Ernst in the cast, performing with two of his longtime colleagues, George Killingsworth and Hal Hughes, as well as Leandra Ramm and Stuart Hall at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue (between Ellsworth & Dana), on a holiday zigzag of a schedule: previews at 8 p. m. Thursday & Friday, December 22nd & 23rd & the 26th & 27th, Monday & Tuesday at 8; opening Wednesday the 28th at 8 and running Thursday and Friday the 29th & 30th--& in January, Thursday the 5th through Saturday the 7th at 8 & Wednesday the 11th through Saturday the 14th, also at 8, with 5 p. m. matinees Sunday the 8th & (closing) the 15th ... -more-