Headshot of La Cieca

Cher Public

  • armerjacquino: http://parterre.com/2011/08/08/rip-brad-wilbers-met-futures-...
  • grimoaldo: Has anybody posted the classical Grammy winners?Engineer...
  • almavivante: When I read an inspired extravaganza like DharmaBay's, I rea...
  • OpinionatedNeophyte: Is this the same Laquita Mitchell? Is she ready for prime ti...
  • Betsy_Ann_Bobolink: An interesting sidebar is that to be historically "accurate"...
  • grimoaldo: Yeah, I missed both of those too. Very good, very funny, con...
  • CruzSF: Congrats to DharmaBay and iltenoredigrazia. I don't know HOW...
  • OpinionatedNeophyte: *sigh* The far more interesting "racial edge" to the story i...
  • grimoaldo: There was an amazing production of Showboat by Ian Judge don...
  • OpinionatedNeophyte: Oh yes Monty, didn't you know? Its in the Opera-L bylaws tha...

blog advertising is good for you

Ceci n’est pas un commentaire

tiredCher public, don’t write comments like this one:

“As heard on the web yesterday, the singing was mediocre at best. But does that matter anymore?”

Why not?
Here’s why. Because that kind of comment is boring, predictable, useless. There are a lot of you who have very interesting things to say, from 3,000 word analyses to two-word one-liners. All those comments are more than welcome. What La Cieca doesn’t want to read is yet another expression of just how dreadfully bored and listless you are. Because talking about being bored, meanwhile expressing yourself in a boring way, is, frankly, boring.

So if what you’re about to post really sounds boring to you, please think twice, and at the very least try to sound entertaining, even if you can’t quite bring yourself to sound entertained.

Carry on.

36 comments

  • ellerveira says:

    If you get too picky and difficult to please you’re going to drive away a lot of faithful followers. Do you prefer to be feared or to be loved?

  • CruzSF says:

    I don’t see this housekeeping as completely new or unreasonable. I’ve only been here since late spring but La Cieca has often asked commenters to “show their work,” which I take to mean that if you have praise or complaint, offer evidence to back it up.

  • Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  • jatm2063 says:

    Crack that whip Cieca!

  • Constantine A. Papas says:

    La Cieca, keep doing the good work. Some comments defy common sense, even for non-musically trained people like myself. One of the great surgeons in an Ivy League hospital, addressing surgical residents, said: “To be an SOB in the opreting room is not nice, but it helps!” Love exploited leads to anarchy and contempt, but love laced with a little fear leads to respect and bonding. God bless La Cieca!

  • kashania says:

    parterre has a high readership so I guess La Cieca has the luxury of possibly offending a few to improve the overall content of the site. Predictable and blanket dismissals appear quite regularly on this site, and frankly, they don’t add anything to the conversation. Aside from giving an air superiority, all they do is create a cynical environment (incidentally, that’s one reason why I don’t like the live chat formats because they can be hijacked by these kinds of comments). So, I applaud our doyenne for encouraging particpants to strive for something better. We should also remember that our hostess has been very generously lately by inviting members of the cher public to contribute content to the site. So, if the end result is a few pissed-off people who don’t come back but an overall elevation of the quality of the discourse, then I’m all for it.

    • Pelleas says:

      I’m in agreement with everything but the belief that there is really anything other than an air of superiority intended by the sort of blanket dismissals we’re talking about.

  • warmke says:

    I do find an irony that the person who almost single-handedly created the nastiness that exemplifies online operatic blogging is now being Miss Manners. Perhaps a nod to the attempt to become a mainstream reporter and cultural affairs correspondent? The cat-fights were always the most appealing part of coming here (filth), particularly between the host and that dreadful playwright. I have the greatest respect for the insights into the art form of the host, but find the recent attempts at censorship unfortunate.

    This is like running for the senate, if you want a clean record, you better get rid of the archives.

  • La Valkyrietta says:

    Oh dear! The demands! I don’t know what this is all about. I don’t know what the opera is. In any case, how can anyone be bored waiting for “la nuit d’amour, la nuit d’ivresse”?

  • Tenorfach says:

    How could anyone possibly be bored around here!??