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.


Well, the first thing La Cieca will say about the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala is that for all its sprawling splendor it doesn’t look quite what you’d call entertaining. Or rather let’s say it looks as if it won’t sound very entertaining. The visual element — you know, computer-animated Marc Chagall murals and Waltraud Meier…

on November 27, 2008 at 11:23 AM

Just announced: Gerard Mortier has accepted the job of artistic director Madrid’s Teatro Real, beginning in 2010. [via AP]

on November 26, 2008 at 1:55 PM

Lord help the Mister who does fact-checking for the Times arts section! A correction published today thoroughly dispels all those rumors about  Lisa and Pauline, as seen in the Met’s current revival of The Queen of Spades. “They are friends, not sisters,” the correction helpfully informs us, and La Cieca will add that other than that one…

on November 26, 2008 at 10:04 AM

La Cieca hears that the “TBA” Donna Elvira at the Met for the December run of performances will be Dorothea Röschmann (left) previously heard at the house as Susanna, Pamina and Ilia. She replaces the previously announced Petra Maria Schnitzer (not pictured). 

on November 24, 2008 at 8:26 PM

Not a Regie quiz, but worthy of note for the “what were they thinking” factor. Here’s a production of Otello directed by the usually visually acute Paul Curran. So why was costumer Paul Edwards allowed to get up the principal artists like they’re en route to a Cypriot fancy dress party? From left to right,…

on November 24, 2008 at 12:07 PM

As of this writing, Ben Heppner is still scheduled to go on tonight in the Met’s Queen of Spades, an event advertised on the company’s site with, under the circumstances, a rather unfortunate tag line:

on November 24, 2008 at 10:43 AM

In case you missed Friday night’s debacle.

on November 23, 2008 at 12:10 PM

The solution to our most recent Regie quiz? Seeing is believing! Download Yes, that’s right, the opera was again Aida! Now for this week’s Regie puzzler, which La Cieca promises is not going to be a Verdi opera set in ancient Egypt!

on November 23, 2008 at 2:43 AM

La Cieca has just about given up on the New York Times so far as accuracy goes, but it still rankles when a thoroughly disproven urban legend is casually quoted as factual truth. In a review of a novel called Winnie and Wolf, critic Patrick McGrath repeats the canard that Winifred Wagner supplied the paper…

on November 23, 2008 at 1:59 AM

La Cieca is always delighted to hear the merest whisper of a rumor that her old, old, old friend Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh has been encouraged to grace the lyric stage yet once more.  Therefore it is with the almost unutterable joy that your doynne notes that “La Dementia” will sing again in 2009 as a…

on November 22, 2008 at 12:56 PM

A tipster writes: Word is: The artistic administraion of the Met, always concerned about maintaining the highest possible levels of intenational artistic experience for their paying audience, are allowing Marcello Giordani to decide, after his Berlioz matinee, whether or not he wants sing the 8pm Butterfly.

on November 22, 2008 at 11:12 AM

In an interview in the Washington Post, Anne Midgette and Ruth Ann Swenson say the word “box” so often it starts to sound dirty.

on November 21, 2008 at 1:48 PM

Another astonishing discovery on YouTube, pointed out by a very cher member of the cher public. Courtesy of tenore23, here is Aprile Millo singing “Tu che le vanita” at the Arena di Verona. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hmDguWslDUs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

on November 20, 2008 at 11:11 PM

“The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.” That’s how La Cieca (as author of…

on November 20, 2008 at 3:49 PM

For your compare-and-contrast delight, here’s WNO’s alternative poisoness. You surely all remember the earlier exponent of this role.

on November 20, 2008 at 12:41 PM

… but La Cieca finally got the chance to get her beauty winks last night following a weekend of moving house. The Sunnyside Studios (where our editor JJ and his lovely vis-a-vis cohabit) are now on the ultra-fashionable northern side of Queen Boulevard, and it looks like they got out while the getting was good,…

on November 20, 2008 at 12:23 PM

Most everyone caught an “Oriental” vibe from our previous Regie quiz, but only one of you guessed correctly that the opera depicted was Aida, as performed at Staatstheater Stuttgart in October 2008, directed by Karsten Wiegand. Our next little quiz is right after the jump.

on November 17, 2008 at 11:52 AM

Anna Netrebko has her work cut out for her…

on November 14, 2008 at 10:12 PM

“I’m also confident that both the long-overdue New York premiere of Daniel Catán’s sumptuous Florencia en el Amazonas and Spike Lee’s fiery new staging of The Gospel at Colonus—a retelling of the Sophocles in the form of a gospel church service—will continue to bring new visions to our audiences and new audiences to our vision. …

on November 14, 2008 at 9:19 PM

“Maria Callas arrives in San Francisco in 1958 with her toy poodle and 17 pieces of luggage,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle 50 years ago (November 24, 2008).

on November 14, 2008 at 6:42 PM

La Cieca extends her congratulations to her little sister Opera Chic for a namecheck in the AP story by Ronald Blum on the Met’s 2009-10 production cutbacks. According to Blum’s story, dropping Ghosts of Versailles from the Met’s repertoire will save “more than $1 million.” In the unfortunately ongoing “more bad news” section, La Cieca…

on November 14, 2008 at 1:15 PM

Official word from the Met concerning rumored cutbacks in next season is that Ghosts of Versailles is to be replaced with a revival of Traviata, rolling over Angela Gheorghiu and Thomas Hampson. No word on what happens to Kristen Chenoweth, but Peter Gelb promises that the new productions are going ahead as scheduled. [via NYT]

on November 13, 2008 at 3:49 PM

Left to right: Lypsinka in As I Lay Lip-Synching and Anne Sofie von Otter in The Rake’s Progress. (Thanks to Opera Chic for finding the Stravinsky production photo!)

on November 13, 2008 at 1:29 PM

ORGIA

on November 13, 2008 at 11:47 AM
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