Victor Cordell
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Recent Articles:
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Former Ladies of The Supremes Front Page
A Nostalgic Concert at Marin Jazz
By: - Dec 21st, 2024Since 1986, this group has revived the music of the most successful girl group of all time. Memorable songs written by the great team of Holland, Dozier, and Holland and sung by this charming group take us back to 1964 and the years following.
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A Thousand Ships Front Page
Oakland Theater Project World Premiere
By: - Dec 20th, 2024Distinguished playwright Marcus Gardley creates an homage to the Black community in Oakland that he grew up in, and particularly to strong women and their contributions. Adeline and Laney are transplants from the South, and their beauty salon is an institution for decades before the women face economic and personal challenges.
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Ghost Quartet Front Page
A Spooky Look into the Afterlife Through Song
By: - Nov 05th, 2024Oakland Theater Project presents Dave Malloy's 23 dramatic vignettes about love, loss, whiskey, and the afterlife built into a song cycle. Calling on all manner of musical idioms, but with the constant of a mournful cello, it engages both musically and dramatically.
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The Matchbook Magic Flute Front Page
Mary Zimmerman's Adaptation of Mozart's Masterpiece
By: - Nov 03rd, 2024Aided by bird catcher Papageno, Prince Tamino sets out to rescue abducted Pamina, whom he has fallen in love with based only on a portrait. His quest faces the challenge of three trials and the threat of the Queen of the Night, mother of Pamina.
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The Thanksgiving Play Front Page
Altarena Playhouse Explores Marginalization of Native Americans
By: - Oct 27th, 2024Logan receives a grant to create a "First Thanksgiving" play for schools. She finds that the woman she hired as "the Native American" in the small cast is anything but. How should she proceed with political correctness when she lacks a Native American voice in a project for Native American Heritage Month? Farcical situations ensue.
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Fallen Angels Front Page
Aurora Theatre Makes the Most of Thin Noel Coward Play
By: - Oct 26th, 2024As their husbands depart for an overnight golf outing, Julia and Jane find that a French lover from before their marriages is coming to London. Both women have settled into marital boredom and are tantalized by the prospect of reviving their earlier passions. The playwright exposes class and gender issues amidst continuing laughter.
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Tristan & Isolde Front Page
San Francisco Opera's Fine Production of Wagner
By: - Oct 25th, 2024When composing this opera, Richard Wagner was obsessed with love fanned by his infatuation for the married poet Mathilde Wesendonck and death driven by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. The two existential forces are melded in the opera's thematic thrust "liebestod" (love-death), which is also the dominant leitmotif in the music. While the orchestral score soars, the dramatic action is grounded, yet it remains a pioneer of modern music.
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Yaga Front Page
Marin Theatre's U.S. Premiere of Multi-genre Play
By: - Oct 17th, 2024The tradition of Baba Yaga, an old haggard witch, exists in many Slavic cultures. Playwright Kat Sandler integrates witchcraft themes into a comic detective mystery with three actors playing 14 parts.
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Angels in America - Part 2 - Perestroika Front Page
The Closing Episodes of Epic Drama of 1980s
By: - Oct 16th, 2024Part 2 - Perestroika provides closure on many of the relationships and issues raised in Part 1 - Millennium Approaches. Thematically, it invokes the need for change in order to go forward and thrive, rejecting the resistant bastions of vested interest - entrenched religions and conservative politics.
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Angels in America - Part 1 - Millenium Approaches Front Page
Classic Returns to Bay Area Home
By: - Oct 01st, 2024Tony Kushner's award-winning two-part classic centering on homosexuality and AIDS during the epidemic in the 1980s is given a magnificent production by Oakland Theater Project with taut direction and exceptional acting. Fiction that is anchored in reality with one real historical figure, also drifts into fantasy. Its powerful treatment finds corollaries in today's world.
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The Daughter of the Regiment Front Page
Livermore Valley Opera's Comic Charmer
By: - Sep 30th, 2024An orphan Marie was adopted by a French army regiment as an infant. She promised to marry only a member of the regiment but falls in love with an outsider. Complications ensue as she learns that she was born to a marquise and is spirited away to live a noble life and have an arranged marriage within her new station. But this is a comedy. Do you really think that's going to happen?
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Private Lives Front Page
Noel Coward's Romp at American Conservatory Theater
By: - Sep 20th, 2024Ex-spouses have remarried to other partners on the same day. Seeing one another on adjoining terraces at their honeymoon hotel, the exes rekindle their love-hate relationship. Will they re-unite? What about their new spouses? Are they a match?
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The Handmaid's Tale Front Page
San Francisco Opera's Powerful Look at Socio-political Dystopia
By: - Sep 19th, 2024Handmaids act as birthing surrogates in the dystopian land of Gilead, the successor to the United States after a coup by Christian fundamentalists. Like others, Offred was captured trying to escape the country and has been detailed as a handmaid. She now fears exile to the "colonies" or execution for not following the strict Ten Commandments based rules of Gilead. Poul Ruders's music is as chilling as the original story from Margaret Atwood.
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The Magic Flute at Opera San Jose Front Page
A Compelling Rendering of Mozart's Masterpiece
By: - Sep 16th, 2024Tamino falls in love with the daughter of the Queen of Night, Pamina, from her picture. To win her hand, he must conquer three trials to become an initiate into a religious order. This classic receives a sterling production from cast, creatives, and conductor, 19-year-old wonderkind Alma Deutscher.
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Un Ballo in Maschera Front Page
San Franciso Opera's Outstanding Production
By: - Sep 13th, 2024In this opera drawn from history, Sweden's Gustavus III loves Amelia, the wife of his friend and ally Renato. When the husband finds out, he joins assassin conspirators from the disaffected nobility. This Verdi masterpiece, replete with dramatic music, is given the finest treatment by accomplished principals and creative staging designers.
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The Prom Front Page
Musical About Sexual Discrimination in High School
By: - Sep 10th, 2024Four New York theater performers hope to attract attention for what they purport to be the selfless act of inducing an Indiana high school to reverse the cancellation of its prom because a lesbian student planned to attend with a girlfriend as her date. Based on a true story, the visitors encounter unexpected headwinds. Despite notes of pathos and bitterness, a joyous tone prevails, and the play ends on a hopeful note.
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Young Frankenstein Front Page
Mel Brooks' Musical at Sonoma Arts Live
By: - Sep 08th, 2024Dr. Frederick Frankenstein returns to Transylvania and hopes to improve on his grandfather's flawed creation - "The Monster." He succeeds in producing a new and improved monster but must deal with many zany characters and complications along the way.
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Human Error Front Page
Town Hall's Humorous Look at IVF, Medical Error, and Politics of Division
By: - Sep 01st, 2024When a liberal couple learns that their embryo stored at a laboratory has been mistakenly implanted in a conservative Christian wife, the two couples meet to try to resolve the catastrophe. The story follows the bumps along the way for the following nine months, finding a highly entertaining balance between humor and conflict.
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4 Guys Named Named José...and Una Mujer Named Maria Front Page
A Latin American Jukebox Musical at 6th Street Playhouse
By: - Sep 01st, 2024Four young men from different Latin American heritages meet in Omaha, Nebraska. When joined by a young woman, Maria, song breaks out. The plot is superficial, but the song and dance will arouse feelings of nostalgia for those familiar with the music of the region.
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The NIght Alive Front Page
Dark Comic Drama of Life on the Fringe in Dublin
By: - Aug 25th, 2024Tommy and Doc exist on the outside fringe of Irish society. When Tommy saves streetwalker Aimee from a beating by her ex-boyfriend and takes her in to recover from her injuries, new problems follow. Playwright Conor McPherson explores the survivalist lives of Dublin's underbelly, full of challenge but with occasional redemption.
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Der Rosenkavalier Front Page
Santa Fe Opera's Delightful Strauss/von Hofmannsthal Comic Opera
By: - Aug 17th, 2024Impoverished Baron Ochs wishes to marry Sophie, from a nouveau riche family. Through Ochs' cousin The Marschallin, young noble Octavian agrees to present the customary silver rose to the intended bride. But alignments of romance and convenience shift in this thoughtful comedy that is Strauss's most endearing work.
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The Elixir of Love Front Page
Donizetti's Frothy Comedy at Santa Fe Opera
By: - Aug 15th, 2024Poor Nemorino loves rich Adina. We know how those stories go. Nemorino is aided by a placebo. Snake oil salesman Dulcamara has sold him a potion to make him irresistible to Adina. In the end, the hero inherits a fortune, which makes him irresistible to every girl on the planet.
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The Righteous Front Page
Outstanding World Premiere Commission from Santa Fe Opera
By: - Aug 14th, 2024David's life is traced from caring high school friend to pastor committed to good works to politician whose goal is to satisfy constituents rather than his soul and the people closest to him. Along the way, he compromises his own morality and ultimately questions the path he has taken. Many issues of evangelical Christianity and the 1980s surface in this compelling new opera.
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Legend of the Ring Front Page
West Edge Opera Produces Wagner's Condensed Ring Cycle for a Third Time
By: - Aug 06th, 2024In four operas and over 15 hours of running time, Richard Wagner's epic Ring Cycle spins historic Germanic legends embellished by the composer's own fancy. David Seaman edited the compendium into a 3 1/2hour condensation. The flavor of Wagner's rich romantic music is retained, but while the general plotline is honored, it is jumpy and loses some continuity. Nonetheless, this piece gives a strong flavor of the highly respected yet controversial body of work.
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Bulrusher - The Opera Front Page
World Premiere Pulitzer Finalist Play by West Edge Opera
By: - Aug 05th, 2024A black female foundling with a gift for telepathy is becoming a woman. Her world of isolation in a white, northern California town is pierced by the arrival of another young black woman from Alabama. Multiple conflicts ensue among the diverse characters. The lush music appeals and performances are first rate.
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