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.
After years (or was it months) wandering der Irrnis und der Leiden Pfade, La Cieca has returned to the broadcast booth for another episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera.
Readers of parterre.com are, La Cieca calculates, about six weeks ahead of the curve, so your doyenne figures you are ready to hear what will likely be a major scoop in the New York Times a few days prior to Halloween. It’s about the technical rehearsals for the Met’s season opener Das Rheingold, and what is…
Betsy’s recovered (if you can call it that) from last weekend’s marathon, and apparently game for more. If you’re feeling likewise, the meeting is at the usual location.
UPDATE: The Royal Opera has apologized to Intermezzo!
La Cieca was delighted, amused and infuriated (three of her favorite emotions) when she read yet another wonderful piece over at The Awl yesterday, a statistical analysis determining The Greatest Diva of the Past 25 Years. This treatise, by one Jay Caspian Kang, was limited in scope to ladies inhabiting the realm of popular music,…
When Peter Gelb really wants an artist at the Met, he pulls out all the stops. La Cieca hears that Bryn Terfel, on his way back to New York after a brief visit with his family back in Wales, arrived at the airport in the UK this morning only to discover he left his passport…
La Cieca wishes she could write a caption so deadpan.
“As beautiful as her singing was, [Renata Scotto] never was much of an actress.” — Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey
Sunday challenge: can you name the two obvious errors (of omission) in human physiology within the first 90 seconds of this scene from Rigoletto?
“It is in the Wagner repertory that Ms. Brewer has truly frustrated her fans. She has sung Isolde magnificently, though so far only in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s ‘Tristan Project,’ which used Bill Viola’s videos, while Ms. Brewer and the other lead singers performed as in a concert, with music stands and vocal scores.” [NYT]
Friendly correspondent Kalena (not pictured) reports that (so far as she can make out) the telecast of the Mantua Rigoletto this weekend will in fact be viewable here in the US. Her email and La Cieca’s attempt to figure out time zones after the jump.
Finally, the background to the story that rocked the operatic world earlier this summer. Peter Stein withdrew from the Met’s Boris Godunov “because he felt offended by his treatment at the United States Consulate in Berlin when he applied for a work visa and by a lack of sympathy from Peter Gelb, the Met’s general…
Real estate news from San Francisco: the Potrero Hill home of the late Blanche Thebom, which “includes a very spacious living room that opens onto a large view deck,” is now for sale. [SocketSite]
In a development likely to elicit from aficionados of the tenor voice a resounding “meh,” Dimitri Pittas has withdrawn from all scheduled performances of Verdi’s Macbeth at Lyric Opera of Chicago, to be replaced by Italo-Nutleyite sensation Leonardo Capalbo (pictured).
La Cieca’s spy tells her that Maestro Levine returned to the Met today for a coaching session with the cast of Das Rheingold.
La Cieca is proud to unveil what she hopes will become your second-favorite calendar: The New York Opera Calendar at Parterre. This handy resource includes an exhaustive list of opera and opera-related performances for the 2010-2011 season, the better to plan your busy social life. Opera companies and members of the cher public who have…
La Cieca has managed to obtain a few minutes of video, pirated at great personal risk, from a dress rehearsal of the Met’s new production of Das Rheingold.
Everybody loves an orgy. But, in the words of Betsy Ann Bobolink (pictured), “a really good orgy takes preparation, and I don’t mean Preparation H.” Our Betsy continues (discussing, I mean) after the jump.
La Cieca hears that Susan Neves has joined the cast of Washington National Opera’s Un ballo in maschera to sing Amelia in two performances, and Tamara Wilson will sing two additional performances. The American sopranos take over dates held by Irène Theorin.
In a week that includes the news of the release of nearly 100 “lost” Judy Garland performances and the announcement that Bernadette Peters will star as Sally in a lavish revival of Follies, even Betsy Ann Bobolink is hard-pressed to thrill with choices for Saturday afternoon listening. As she so often says, “Maybe something really…
Congratulations to tenor Stephen Costello, who today was officially awarded the ceremonial title of Villazóneinspringer at the Vienna State Opera. No, actually, he’s jumping into two performances of La boheme, replacing Rolando Villazón, on September 6 and 9.
La Cieca hears that Renée Fleming will yet again grace the stage of the Metropolitan with a new role in 2015. The production will be staged by Susan Stroman.
La Cieca is told that at least three productions at the Met this year will be shorn of an accustomed intermission: Simon Boccanegra, The Queen of Spades and La traviata will all be done in “two-act” versions, each with but a single interval.
Of course opera fans all owe Agnes Varis a lot, what with the Met rush tickets and all that, plus La Cieca, being a lady of a certain age herself, should be the last one to talk. But she can’t help hearing this quote from Varis in the foghorn rasp of Miss Blankenship: “The opera’s…
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
