Victor Cordell
Bio:
Recent Articles:
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The Shining - an Opera Front Page
Horror is Added to the Traditional Operatic Themes of Love, Conflict, and Death
By: - Jun 03rd, 2023Jack Torrance, an unstable recovering alcoholic and unsuccessful writer, hires on as caretaker of the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies during its off-season. He hopes that the seclusion will not only give him undistracted time for writing but also allow him to rebuild his relationships with his wife, Wendy, and son, Danny. What the parents don’t realize is that Danny possesses “the shining,” which is the psychic ability of clairvoyance. This attribute will allow the boy to see the hotel’s sordid past and set the stage for the horrors to come.
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Der fliegende Holländer Front Page
Robert Balonek's Vocal Power As The Dutchman Astounds.
By: - May 28th, 2023Blessed with soaring romance-style music and a dramatic source from Heinrich Heine’s take on Celtic mythology (influenced in turn by stories of the Wandering Jew), Wagner produced his first operatic masterpiece. However, he shifted the venue to a Nordic locale more compatible with his desired social iconography. The composer was particularly empathetic toward the title character as he identified with the isolation and persecution suffered, creating a highly engaging opera centered on this desolate soul.
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Let The Right One In Front Page
Intelligent Vampire Story With Interesting Twists But Inconsistent Tone.
By: - May 26th, 2023Rather than a simple blood-sucking horror, the play focuses largely on the relationship between Oskar, a bullied teenage boy from a broken home with a drunken mother and a largely neglectful father, and Eli, a new neighbor - who possesses an androgynous look; acts mostly like a girl; but insists that she’s not a girl, with no further explanation.
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Feria de Sevilla (Seville April Fair) Front Page
A Most Spectacular Festival You've Never Heard Of
By: - May 07th, 2023When booking our trip, we didn't know of Feria, a one-week celebration of community and Seville's history with livestock markets and flamenco that began in 1846. But when our new friend Carlos invited us to join him in going to the fair, we jumped on it. Feria takes place one week in April each year on 25 urban blocks that lie mostly barren except for preparation and celebration of Feria. Imagine the value of the property designated for this one event!
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Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 Front Page
Abbreviated "War and Peace" at a Breakneck Pace with Song
By: - Apr 25th, 2023The simple storyline centers on Natasha, betrothed to Prince Andrey, who has been sent to fight against Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. But when she visits Moscow, Natasha is taken with womanizer Anatole, and decides to abandon Andrey for the more glamorous option. Things don’t go as planned. The end.
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Tosca Front Page
Love, Intrigue, Betrayal, Death. It's Opera.
By: - Apr 17th, 2023Tosca has been one of the most performed operas in the world for over a century. There is a good reason for that. Beautiful music delights from curtain rise to fall, starting with the resounding orchestral chords of the Scarpia theme, and punctuated by memorable arias and powerful ensembles. Opera San José offers a beautifully staged and performed rendering that sears with passion.
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Poor Yella Rednecks - Vietgone 2 Front Page
A Vietnamese Family in Arkansas - Strangers in a Strange Land
By: - Apr 15th, 2023With his highly successful “Vietgone,” playwright Qui Nguyen, told the beginning of his family’s immigrant story, following the fall of Saigon in the Vietnam War. His equally thoughtful and humorous sequel, “Poor Yella Rednecks,” continues the family’s saga. Amusingly, he writes himself in as a character in the play and facetiously disavows to the audience that its characters are real.
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Grand Horizons Front Page
A New Look on Life Late in Life
By: - Apr 11th, 2023Bill and Nancy have been married for 50 years, and on the surface, they have been happy, or at least content. But when they dispassionately announce their decision to divorce to their visiting adult sons, Brian and Ben, the boys are flabbergasted. As expected, they have questions like “What happened?” but worse, they have answers, like “We can fix this,” as if the breakup could be within their control. And when they finally realize that it could actually happen, it’s “Why couldn’t you get divorced when we finished school, like normal people?”
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A Distinct Society Front Page
Cruel Consequences of Misguided Regulations
By: - Apr 10th, 2023Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border between the U.S. and Quebec Province in Canada as a result of a surveying error that occurred before the library was built. A line on the floor designates the border. The playwright has deftly used this real-life anomaly as the crucible for the play’s conflicts. After the Muslim Travel Ban of 2017, a kerfuffle arises as a result of a social media posting which suggests that the library is a good crossborder meeting place. The message is not lost on Muslims, particularly families with members on both sides of the divide.
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English Front Page
Adult Iranians Struggle with Unexpected Social and Cultural Issues Involved in Learning English
By: - Apr 08th, 2023Born to immigrant parents, Iranian-American playwright Sanaz Toossi looks at a part of a global industry that has derived from the ubiquitous nature of English – teaching English to non-native speakers. Calling upon her own heritage to generate a narrative, her incisive dramedy “English” won both the Lucille Lortel and Obie awards for best new play in 2022.
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Prospero's Island Front Page
A Compelling Operatic Update of Shakespeare's "The Tempest"
By: - Apr 05th, 2023Composer Allen Shearer and librettist Claudia Stevens's “Prospero’s Island” borrows from the “The Tempest.” But they have moved it a significant measure from the source material. In addition to lyrics in modern American-English vernacular interspersed with poetic accents, a plot update and revision gives the material more contemporary relevance while altering the moral profile of the main character. The result is a riveting chronicle of moral corruption followed by a quest for redemption that is accompanied by equally compelling music, calling on diverse idioms. Although the narrative arc is clearly dramatic, the creators frequently punctuate the proceedings with humorous interludes.
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Blithe Spirit Front Page
Fun With Farce And Fantasy
By: - Apr 03rd, 2023The flamboyant bon vivant Noël Coward excelled in many aspects of the performing arts, but he is best remembered today as a playwright who exposed the foibles of English society in several between-the-wars, comedy-of-manners plays. The last of these was “Blithe Spirit.” Many of us, having seen the movie and perhaps productions of the play as well, may wish to pass on seeing this war horse once again. That would be a mistake. City Lights has produced a sparkling rendition that hits the mark on every measure.
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Merrily We Roll Along Front Page
Sondheim's Checkered Musical Rises Again
By: - Mar 28th, 2023Those familiar with 42nd Street Moon will see how this offering fits the company’s modus operandi. Obviously, it is a musical, and one that calls for a large ensemble, but with limited orchestration and minimal staging, all of which suit the company. But for that, you get Sondheim – witty, and sometimes searing lyrics, creative rhythms, often delivered in patter style, and great music. The music, however, is a little off the composer’s beaten path – a bit more conventional Broadway and a bit less dissonance.
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Ruthless! The Musical Front Page
A Delightful Spoof of Mame, Gypsy, and The Bad Seed
By: - Mar 27th, 2023Send-ups can be tricky, since pastiche, and particularly farce, can wear thin. But “Ruthless! The Musical” pushes all the right buttons, offering a bright script and bouncy music with clever and provocative lyrics. Altarena Playhouse gives it a rousing rendition that is enjoyable from start to finish. The casting and acting are superb, and the creative elements sparkle.
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Tosca Front Page
Livermore Valley Opera's Fine Production of Puccini's Searing Verismo Opera
By: - Mar 15th, 2023In its essence, the opera is an intimate triangle of love, predation, betrayal, and murder. Yet the intimacy of “Tosca” plays against a grand canvas of three unrelated settings, which LVO executes deftly.
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Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer Front Page
An Homage to a Civil Rights Heroine
By: - Mar 13th, 2023Greta Oglesby gloriously reprises the role of Fannie Lou Hamer that she performed at Oregon Shakes’ vast outdoor Elizabethan Theatre. She brings a speaking voice brimming with passion and conviction, as well as a strong and melodious singing voice. She stalks the stage with a slight hobble as a wounded warrior who is too busy planning the next demonstration to let her nagging injuries slow her down.
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Falstaff Front Page
A Great Production of Verdi's Exquisite Comic Opera
By: - Feb 12th, 2023Frothy delights like “Falstaff” present particular challenges. Comic timing, enthusiastic affect, and vocal versatility must be heightened. Opera San Jose’s production excels in every dimension. Performers sing with joy and act with charm. All of the artistic elements strike the right note, resulting in a production that glitters.
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Everest: An Immersive Experience (Opera) Front Page
Innovative Format for a Compelling Work from Opera Parallèle
By: - Feb 07th, 2023For all of human history and eons before, Mount Everest has stood as steady as a rock – literally. In its eight years, the opera “Everest: An Immersive Experience” has had three very different realizations, even though under the baton of Nicole Paiement for each version. The genesis of the opera’s narrative is a real-life tragedy about three members on an Everest expedition in 1996, two of whom never came back.
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Paradise Blue Front Page
Urban Renewal and Human Destruction in 1950s Detroit.
By: - Feb 04th, 2023Dominique Morisseau has written a sometimes funny but always tense noirish drama which Director Dawn Monique Williams plumbs for all its nuance. The actors find the essence of each character and deliver a gripping entertainment.
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Cashed Out Front Page
World Premiere About Life on the Reservation and Addiction
By: - Feb 03rd, 2023“Cashed Out” takes place on the Gila River Reservation in southern Arizona, home to the Pima tribe, traditionally noted for their finely woven baskets – tightly twined bowls with crisp angular patterns. While the compelling narrative gives interesting insights into the culture of the native people, universal themes abound – the power of love in family and friendship; internal struggle and external conflict; forgiveness and redemption. The production is striking and highly appealing.
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Dear Evan Hansen Front Page
A Teenager's Conundrum
By: - Jan 29th, 2023Anyone who says they never got caught telling a fib is probably telling a fib. But what is worse is covering the tracks of the first lie with another, and then another, until the wheels finally come off. Often, the result is loss of respect from others, compounded by loss of self-respect. If there is a road back, it is an arduous one.
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Clyde's by Lynn Nottage Front Page
By Berkeley Repertory Theatre
By: - Jan 27th, 2023In the hands of some, a sandwich may be a most humble joining of Wonder Bread with a plain and prosaic filler of any sort. In another, it can be a sublime assemblage of aspiration and dreams. Such is the aesthetic divide between most of the truckers who patronize Clyde’s Sandwich Shop in Reading, PA, and the unseen kitchen staff who fill their orders. The Berkeley Rep production exceeds every standard the script demands.
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In Every Generation Front Page
Family dynamics and seder through the years.
By: - Jan 24th, 2023“Mah nishtanah, ha-laylah ha-zeh,mi-kol ha-leylot” (Why is this night different from all other nights?). This invocation, spoken by the youngest capable person at the dinner table at seder, is perhaps the most famous and evocative sentence in Judaism. Not only does the ritual that follows those words reflect on the traumatic history of the Jewish people, but it speaks to their very existence.
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Slow Food Front Page
Perhaps McDonalds is not such a bad choice after all.
By: - Jan 22nd, 2023All of us have had that restaurant experience in which we thought the food would never come. In this case, the cause is not a lost order or long prep time or overtaxed restaurant staff. It is willful delay by the server from hell.
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Ennio: The Living Paper Cartoon Front Page
Frenetic Cavalcade of Musical Skits
By: - Jan 14th, 2023In a fast-moving 60 minutes, mime comic Ennio provides cleverly curated cartoon characterizations of celebrities and lip syncs to songs, mostly recorded by the people portrayed. The music is the songbook of our lives (if you’re middle aged or older!), including rock-and-roll, pop of various sorts, and rap.
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