Une femme d’un incertain âge
On this, the anniversary of her natal day, May 15, La Cieca likes to think back to that moment…
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.
From Hell
“About the only good thing that can be said for New York City Opera’s Orpheus, which opened Saturday night, is that it made the rest of the company’s feeble season seem scintillating by comparison.”
Flamboyant intermission feature
It’s about time you arrived, cher public!
Buzzworthy chat
Our Own Betsy Ann Bobolink has returned from Capistrano or wherever it is she winters to bring us our first selection of chat subjects for the long, sultry summer season.
The respect opera is entitled to
On Nerva Nelli’s suggestion, La Cieca visited Lyric Opera of Chicago’s website, and it’ dire, my friends, dire.
Season well
Overture! Light the lights! And what heights you hit indeed, cher public, in La Cieca’s “Gold Standard” competition.
Recycled
“Katarina Dalayman will sing the role of Brünnhilde in this evening’s performance of Wagner’s Siegfried, replacing Deborah Voigt, who is ill….”
Mouth feel
“The bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, playing Leporello in the Met’s recent Don Giovanni, asked for vegetable sausage…”
Ceasefire
Here’s a change of pace for you parterre chatters as the Met season winds down.
Couldn’t you just eat him up?
ust when you thought it was impossible to adore Yannick Nézet-Séguin any more than you already did…
Ghost boaster
Can a day pass without the New York Times‘ 24/7 coverage of the Met’s Ring getting on yet another of La Cieca’s nerves?
Billy in the doldrums
This Billy Budd would have worked better with a stronger set of singers.
Honor your parterre masters, would you forfend disasters!
Do take a break from Wagner long enough to enjoy this week’s intermission feature, cher public.
The Regieness is all
When Quanto Painy Fakor said “Hamlet,” ianw2 replied, “You know what, you may be right.”
Fit to print
La Cieca (pictured, right) invites you to peruse what’s making headlines today.
Re-entrance
La Cieca (not pictured) has just accessed a new feature in YouTube that imported a dozen or so “classic” parterre video clips from Google Video into the familiar YouTube interface.
Look around: everywhere you turn is heartache
“Stuart Skelton will sing the role of Siegmund in Wagner’s Die Walküre on Monday, May 7, replacing Jonas Kaufmann who is ill.”
La tisi non le accorda che poche rappresentazioni
Here’s something you can hardly call news, because it’s an old story everyone expected to happen anyway.
Petered out
Daniel Wakin reports that “WQXR pulled a blog posting critical of the Metropolitan Opera’s new Ring cycle last month after the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, personally complained to the radio station’s top executive…”
None so blind item
Wait, don’t guess until you’ve read what’s after the jump.
When Divas Collide II: Mad Men Edition
To kick off this week’s intermission feature, cher public, La Cieca invites you to imagine who said what to whom to make two legendary ladies laugh so lustily?
Screen and screen again
The New York Times sends cub reporter (Get it? Cub reporter! Oh, La Cieca is killing herself with the puns!) Zachary Woolfe to the movie palaces of the heartland.
A shot in the dark
Which diva, oblivious to the open mikes of the theater PA system, recently fired off this immortal line at her impresario: “You run this place like the Gestapo!”