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.
or, “The Art of Can’t Canto.” [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/wk84Niba5Fo” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
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La Cieca reminds her cher public that the always inventive Gotham Chamber Opera returns this week with a rare production of Haydn’s L’isola disabitata. Mark Morris directs the non-dancing proceedings, with Neal Goren conducting the “typical early classical orchestra.” Castaways include Takesha Meshé Kizart, Valerie Ogbonnaya, Vale Rideout and budding barihunk Tom Corbeil. According to…
Longtime friend of the ‘box Little Stevie returns to Adriana Lecouvreur: I have always believed that as with La Gioconda, a great performance of Adriana Lecouvreur needs to serve up “the four greatest singers in the world”, and the Met seems to come close to doing just that. I have attended all of the performances…
A witty YouTube ad from Dallas Opera, who seem to be doing just fine. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/uLU0M6EkuKg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Following in the footsteps of Harrison Birtwistle‘s Minotaur and Thomas Adès’ The Tempest (which featured the half-human character Caliban), the Royal Opera House has commissioned yet another opera based upon a legendary monster. The as-yet-untitled oeuvre is the life story of Anna Nicole Smith, with music by Mark-Anthony Turnage (The Silver Tassie) and libretto by…
A reminder that La Cieca’s old, old, old friend Dorothy Bishop shakes her little tush on the catwalk of Splash tonight in her new cabaret show, as written and directed by Our Own JJ.
Despite rave reviews for her recent “comeback” show at the Palace, vocal problems continue to plague legendary songstress Liza Minnelli.
In the words dear Renata Scotto once used in a master class when advising a young soprano not to gesture so much, “And look who is telling her this!” Would you believe that La Cieca is actually having a gay old time reading Tony Tommasini‘s “Talk to the Newsroom” feature this week? Something about the…
La Cieca is happy to announce that you, cher public, have set a new record for pageviews in a single day here at parterre.com. On February 6, dear people, you viewed this little blog a whopping 16,713 times. Over the past 12 months parterre.com has averaged around 1,500 vistors per day, totalling more than 2.6…
La Cieca’s take on the Met’s new productions for 09-10: unless the Mary Zimmerman Armida turns into something very elaborate indeed, it looks like a return to the dreaded “empty box” syndrome of the 1990s. All the new productions are stripped down unit sets, even the Hoffmann. Not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with…
11:25: Connectivity restored. A quick catchup.
In the spirit of the equal time for all impresarios, La Cieca will note that both of New York’s operatic honchos will be making public appearances this week. Tomorrow (February 10)the Met’s Peter Gelb will do his annual season announcment pitch to the media, an event La Cieca will liveblog (connectivity permitting) for your information…
The Met’s $25 weekend ticket program this week features Adriana Lecouvreur. Though La Cieca is naturally remaining mum about this revival until Our Own JJ‘s review appears, she’s more than interested to hear what you, the cher public, think. So if you can get into the Friday night performance via the lottery (or any other…
“Anthony Tommasini, the chief classical music critic of The New York Times, is answering questions from readers Feb. 9-13, 2009. Questions may be e-mailed to [email protected].” [NYT]
Congratulations to, well, several of you who recognized that in the previous quiz, the peeling paint on the walls was caused, as so often it is, by the singing of Abigaille in Nabucco. Only one photo this week, but La Cieca offers an amazon.com gift certificate for the wittiest explanation of what the hell is…
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/5ZNQQxFUHw0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] “The Family Pondman sings with the well-known Dutch Opera-singer Margaret Roest on request of our father, study colleague of her, spontaniously the Terzett from I Lombardi…”
Peter Gelb‘s million-dollar salary and the wit and wisdom of George Steel (“Things are tough”) are among the axes ground in Sunday’s Tony Tommasini think piece. [NYT]
La Cieca would like to assure all of you that, though it may sound like it, she is not hosting the Opera Quiz today!
… in the “Tenor-Go-Round” saga at the Metropolitan Opera. (La Cieca was going to say “Musical Tenors,” on the model of “Musical Chairs, but decides not to on the ground it’s an oxymoron. Anyway.) So now, according to a photo from metopera.org, it appears that Edgardo will be sung tomorrow by… … Neil Shicoff. Â
Is it possible that Our Own JJ could ever complain about too much drama at the opera? In his review of Lucia for Gay City News, complain he does!
Which undeniably talented artist (of a race La Cieca affects to despise) had to be shushed repeatedly during a recent Metropolitan Opera performance because he was loudly laughing and dishing what was transpiring onstage? Perhaps this scruffy fellow’s obstreperous behavior can be blamed on his overindulgence in preshow cocktails — the fumes of which, one hears, were…
La Cieca has just heard a very soft whisper that there may be another cast change afoot for tomorrow’s HD telecast of Lucia from the Met.
In honor of tomorrow night’s role debut at the Met.
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
