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.
Barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien injured his handsome back during today’s dress rehearsal of Don Giovanni at the Met and was taken to the hospital, tweets Dan Wakin. As La Cieca writes this, Kwiecien’s cover Dwayne Croft is at the Met rehearsing the opera’s first act swordfight.
Here it is, cher public, your arena for effete knife-throwing the week of October 9.
It takes an Ercole Farnese to recognize Verdi done the Regie way, and he was exactly right that the opera in last week’s quiz was Un ballo in maschera. He did miss the mark on the character depicted: the heavily made-up figure in the sunglasses and plumed hat was not Ulrica but Riccardo (Wookyung Kim). […]
“Since Zeffirelli took his official leave from the Met in 2008, the company has experienced—some would say suffered—a backlash against glamour, or at least against those qualities that, thanks in part to Zeffirelli, are wrongly perceived as the synonyms of glamour: triviality and meretriciousness.” [Rough and Regie] (Photo: Ken Howard)
Oh wow! It’s “Rob Besserer Week” on The Internet. The world’s favorite Silent Opera Star is featured in a wide variety of offerings.
Mercedes and Sid Bass, the A-list society and philanthropy couple who in 2006 gave the Met $25 million dollars—the largest single unrestricted gift paid at one time from an individual in the company’s then 123-year history—announced their divorce yesterday, ending 23 years of marriage.
Without reading the interview with Rupert Christiansen (or even with reading; it’s predictably dull), can you supply the answer to the tantalizing question “The mezzo-soprano Janet Baker: Why Karajan never called me again?” Your suggestions, the ruder the better, in the comments section, please.
They’re wrong. And what does La Cieca do when she sees a particularly memorable image? She defaces it, of course, and she naturally expects that you, the cher public, will do the same.
In what is without doubt the final chapter of their on-again, off-again romance, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna are on again, she says.
The scribe is Zachary Woolfe and the powderkeg topic du jour is Anna Netrebko‘s mid-scene breaking of character.
La Cieca’s spy in London reports: “So first Angela Gheorghiu cancelled this evening’s Traviata Faust at the ROH. On hearing the news, Vittorio Grigolo suddenly came down with a ‘chest infection’ —so the performance is going ahead with James Valenti and Malin Byström.”
“Her catfight with another princess over the emperor’s crown might have been an outtake from The Real Housewives of Babylon.” [New York Post] (Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera)
Smartly done, cher diseur de bons mots: Monsieur Hoffmann rightly guessed last week’s puzzler to be Don Giovanni. The production by Doris Dörrie is currently playing the Staatsoper Hamburg. Elsewhere, the Regie never stops, as you will see after the jump.
So Placido Domingo was all like, “Oh, that Anne Midgette is just a mean girl and she is SO JELLUS,” and then Anne was like, “Actually, nuh-uh, maestro, I’m so not.”
Today Our Own Betsy inaugurates the F-K* rating system (*for “F-fete K-nives.”)
La Cieca had never really considered before the possibility that Peter Gelb was a Harry Potter villain, but this image from Channel 13’s Sunday Arts certainly does make one wonder.
“On Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, the Carnegie Hall Notables—a membership and ticket program for music enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s—will host Love Letters, a performance of contemporary American playwright A. R. Gurney’s work. Celebrated soprano Renée Fleming and award-winning actor Alec Baldwin will perform the piece as directed by […]
“Pets are not mentioned.” [Bloomberg Businessweek]
“Anna Bolena… opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday in a new production featuring Anna Netrebko and two handsome Irish wolfhounds who helped us get through one very tedious scene.” (Bloomberg News, Manuela Hoelterhoff)
“Queen Anna is dead — long live Queen Anna! The late royal lady is Anna Bolena in Donizetti’s 1830 opera, based on the final days of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. The new monarch — ruling not over England but the Met — is Anna Netrebko, whose radiant performance at the company’s opening […]
Tonight’s the night, cher public, traditionally the busiest of the year here at parterre. Complete details on the opening night performance of Anna Bolena after the jump.
As several of you were sharp-eyed enough to notice (and sharp-tongued enough to mention), our previous Regie quiz was in fact a repeat, and La Cieca is sorry to say it looks like a production that hardly deserved a reprise: Rossini’s Semiramide directed by Nigel Lowery. A new and different challenge to your sleuthing skills […]
Mesdames, messieurs, and others: here it is, your weekly chance to shine in off-topic badinage, chitchat, persiflage, raillery, repartee and small talk.
Awesome Anita Rachvelishvili (top) will be the Principessa di Bouillon opposite the Maurizio of Jonas Kaufmann (bottom) and—presumably—Angela Gheorghiu in the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur for Opera Orchestra of New York on November 8, or as we call in here at parterre, “Die Nacht des Sternstunden.”
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