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.
Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, your off-topic and general interest thread for the second week of September.
The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is “considering actions to be taken to protect the image of the Foundation of its workers and their audiences” following Fabio Luisi‘s cancellation of his participation in Elektra at that theater in order to make time to help clean up the Levineshchina in New York. [Teatro dell’Opera di Roma]
Bel canto fanciers, diva fanatics and freebie queens alike will be delighted to hear that the Met is offering 2,500 gratis tickets to the September 22 open dress rehearsal of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, starring Anna Netrebko in the title role.
La Cieca is delighted to announce that her old, old, old friend Eli Jacobson (pictured, right) has ascended to a position of leadership in the Gay Men’s Opera Club in what one assumes was a relatively bloodless coup.
La Cieca is not sure if this is a casting announcement or the result of a particularly silly round of Mad Libs: Plácido Domingo will add yet another notch to his repertoire, the title role of Der Fliegende Holländer, in a production at the Arena di Verona in the summer of 2013, with Daniel Barenboim…
Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Tim Jessell, who, according to a spokesperson for the bride, were married September 3. The bride, née Renée Fleming, will keep her maiden name.
“The People’s Diva,” “America’s Soprano,” “The Beautiful Voice, ” “la Grace Kelly della lirica”—in her busy and seemingly interminable career Renée Fleming has worn almost as many hats as hair colors. But henceforth she must also be known as “The Peggy Olson of the Windy City” thanks to her inestimable leadership in crafting Lyric Opera…
So, who can tell La Cieca what the 2011-12 Metropolitan Opera season has in common with the 2007 Yankees?
La Cieca (pictured, center) reminds the cher public that it is very rapidly becoming “that time of year again,” and so, and while we have a brief respite from the flurry of Met press releases, you are invited to select your most anticipated performances of the fall.
Which veteran artist has finally made up his mind which opera to perform in concert next spring? Here’s a hint: after five decades of career, he’s sung this role many times before, yet this time it will be something original.
La Cieca has obtained this photo of Thomas Hampson headlining Camouflage Night at Powerhouse, uh, rehearsing for Heart of a Soldier at the San Francisco Opera. You can tell the scene is Northern Rhodesia in 1962, because that is where the British military first started offering complimentary personal training packages to their troops.
This just in from the Met press office: “After a fall last week that damaged one of his vertebrae, James Levine underwent emergency surgery on Thursday in New York, forcing him to withdraw from his performances at the Metropolitan Opera this fall…. While Levine will continue in his position as Music Director, Fabio Luisi has…
Tenor Salvatore Licitra died earlier today after nine days in a coma following a motorcycle accident. He was 43. [La repubblica]
Ah, six long lazy weeks with nothing to do but relax and guess the most recent Regie puzzler—which, La Cieca blushes to admit, dates all the way back on July 24!—and yet only Freniac was 100% on the right track. The opera was indeed Mitridate, re di Ponto, as staged for the Munich Opera Festival by…
This just in from La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Michael Riedel: it looks like the “new” Porgy and Bess isn’t coming into New York. Says the NYP gossipmonger: “…while [Audra] McDonald wins Tonys, her name doesn’t sell tickets. I’m told the producers are likely to fold the show after its Boston run.”
After what surely ranked as among the busiest (and silliest) pre-season ditherings ever, that scene everyone was so worried about, La Cieca is informed, is back where it belongs. The decision to restore the aria was made this afternoon, and the reason? Well, let’s just say the “purely dramaturgical” will always be trumped by the…
Hard to believe anyone would be inside on such a lovely day, but La Cieca will just assume you all took your iPads out into the park. Anyway, here’s your off-topic thread for the week of August 29.
La Cieca has just heard that the acclaimed production of Parsifal by Stefan Herheim will be telecast and filmed for DVD release next summer in Bayreuth.
Since this lyric will not be sung in the Broadway revival of Follies this weekend (the performances are canceled), La Cieca has decided to invite the cher public to share their own favorite operatic hurricanes, storms and tempests. Your doyenne will start you off, after the jump.
Congratulations to the composer (Two Boys, Dark Sisters) and blogger on this day of transition from Wunderkind to Wundererwachsener. (Photo by Sam West)
It appears that tenor Stephen Costello, whom some of you guessed was a subject of a recent blind item, is not so centrally involved in the controversy as was imagined.
La Cieca has learned that The Metropolitan Opera Guild will pay tribute to legendary American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (right) on Monday, October 31, when stars, fans of opera, and the cream of New York’s society, business, and civic leaders assemble in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria for the Guild’s 77th Annual Luncheon.
Which Met production in the coming season has just had an entire scene axed? Was the aria in question too long, too vivid, too difficult to execute?
Twentieth century opera just can’t get a break in Dallas, it seems. La Cieca has just heard that the company, which 86ed Katya Kabanova from their 2011 schedule, has just canceled Salome (slated to star Deborah Voigt) from fall 2013 plans.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
