La Cieca
James Jorden (who writes under the names "La Cieca" and "Our Own JJ") is the founder and editor of parterre box. During his 20 year career as an opera critic he has written for the New York Times, Opera, Gay City News, Opera Now, Musical America and the New York Post. He has also raised his voice in punditry on National Public Radio. From time to time he has directed opera, including three unsuccessful productions of Don Giovanni, a work he hopes to return to someday. Currently he alternates his doyenne duties with writing a weekly column on opera for the New York Observer.
“I can tell you honestly, I’m not that passionate anymore about singing and all this stuff, you know?” [New York Observer]
By La Cieca
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Hunkentenor Giuseppe Filianoti performs a little “risqué business” in this trailer for a new production of L’elisir d’amore that opened last night at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
By La Cieca
New commenter androgenous says, “I think we are getting a little ahead of ourselves by dismissing Calleja. Rehearsals have been long at the MET and I would presume that if Calleja was found to be inadequate they would have thrown him out or at least had a better replacement.”
By La Cieca
La Cieca hears that bodacious Bryan Hymel will make his Royal Opera debut in June as Don Jose, jumping in for an ill (but recovering) Marcus Haddock. Two months before, Hymel will sing his first Énée for Netherlands Opera under the baton of John Nelson in a production by Pierre Audi.
By La Cieca
The amazing acute hearing of Anthony Tommasini detects an improvement in the acoustic of that place they used to call the New York State Theater, in fact, he’s willing to commit that the sound is “considerably better than it used to be.” Which is pretty fucking impressive, considering that the last time TT heard an…
By La Cieca
Joseph Calleja has dropped out of the dress rehearsal of the Met’s new Les Contes d’Hoffmann because he is ill. Finishing the runthrough is David Pomeroy. La Cieca expects a full hashing-out of today’s rehearsal later today from one of our oldest and most controversial contributors.
By La Cieca
Or is La Cieca mistaken: could this rather be Alfred Deller‘s “after hours” show?
By La Cieca
“This is the second of 3 postings to You Tube of a complete video of the curtain calls for … Nina Ananiashvili‘s final performance with ABT at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York….” [
By La Cieca
“Not since the young Jolanda Meneguzzer has anyone jumped the pearls in the often-cut Act 12 of this so very kinky work…” An operatic “mad-lib” type fill in the blanks game, after the jump.
By La Cieca
Right the first time, WindyCityOperaMan! Last week’s Regie quiz was indeed Das Rheingold — as envisioned by Barrie Kosky for Staatsoper Hannover. You will forgive La Cieca for saying that either the quizzes are getting too easy or the cher public are getting too smart! As such, your doyenne has put her back into it…
By La Cieca
La Cieca’s saturation coverage of the Met’s new Contes d’Hoffmann begins officially on Monday, when one of her most reliable and most devious spies promises a report from the dress rehearsal. You, the cher public, will be expected to sound off loud and clear during the opening night chat on Thursday at 8:00 pm.
By La Cieca
The votes are in, and the cher public have chosen wisely, La Cieca thinks. Our listening/chatting experience at 1:00 this afternoon will be Verdi’s Don Carlos (or, as it should be called in this context, Don Carlo) in a performance recorded earlier this year at Covent Garden.
By La Cieca
So La Cieca can only assume at this point that Franco Zeffirelli wants to spare his family the expense of an elaborate funeral, because he does seem to be going out of his way to alienate not only colleagues but the public as well. Now the legendary stage director has protested the appearance of popular…
By La Cieca
Remember Dragana Jugovic del Monaco? Oh, come on, who could ever
By La Cieca
As a warmup for the impending Saturday afternoon Met broadcast chats, La Cieca thought the cher public would like to convene tomorrow in the PM to flex their chatting muscles. Which opera to be broadcast on the internet tomorrow should we hear and discuss?
By La Cieca
La Cieca is a big enough woman to admit when she is bested, and bested she is… in the Tubedubber department.
By La Cieca
On Monday, a A solo recital by Cheryl Studer sold so few tickets that the organizers of the event didn’t even bother to show up at the venue on the night of the performance. [Tagesspiegel]
By La Cieca
La Cieca has a new favorite thing. It’s called Tubedubber, and what it does is it allows you to mix the video from one YouTube clip with the audio (soundtrack) from another.
By La Cieca
A snippet of the Berlin Lohengrin directed by Stefan Herheim, who is rapidly becoming one of La Cieca’s favorite Regisseurs!
By La Cieca
“In addition to her work on stage and in recordings, Renée Fleming has represented Rolex timepieces in print advertising since 2001. Master Chef Daniel Boulud has created the dessert ‘La Diva Renée’ (1999) in her honor, and she has inspired the ‘Renée Fleming Iris’ (2004), which has been replicated in porcelain by Boehm.
By La Cieca
“Important warning: Covent Garden is marketing this as a family show for Christmas, but please don’t think of taking the children – they’ll be bored rigid and never want to go anywhere near an opera again.” With The Tsarina’s Slippers Francesca Zambello‘s nonstop string of successes just keeps on stringing along! [Telegraph]
By La Cieca
La Cieca is delighted to announce the 2009-2010 Saturday afternoon broadcast season brought to you by the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Radio Network, beginning December 12. For each of these broadcasts, La Cieca will host (or at least leave the doors open for) a chat amongst the cher public.
By La Cieca
