“Never mind!”
“In the first place,” Human Weasel Norman Lebrecht helpfully clarified, “it was not a gay bar the director wanted but a miners’ bar.”
By
La Cieca
Depending on which time this morning you read Slipped Disc (and you don’t, of course, but on the off chance you were so foolish) you would have found out that Literally the Worst Journalist Who Ever Lived was reporting an exclusive story that Graham Vick was fired from a La Scala production of La fanciulla del West because he intended to insert a gay bar scene into the opera, or else that Vick’s departure from the production—which was actually announced three months ago—had nothing to do with inserting a gay bar scene into a La Scala production of La fanciulla del West.
“In the first place,” Human Weasel Norman Lebrecht helpfully clarified, “it was not a gay bar the director wanted but a miners’ bar.” As usual, the error was blamed on “reports” that were neither directly quoted nor even cited in the first place.
Breaking News: La Cieca hears from, oh, nowhere in particular that Lebrecht has now hired Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina as a fact-checker for his column.
La Cieca
James Jorden (who wrote under the names "La Cieca" and "Our Own JJ") was the founder and editor of parterre box. During his 20 year career as an opera critic he wrote for the New York Times, Opera, Gay City News, Opera Now, Musical America and the New York Post. He also raised his voice in punditry on National Public Radio. From time to time he directed opera, including three unsuccessful productions of Don Giovanni. He also contributed a regular column on opera for the New York Observer. James died in October 2023.
