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.
La Cieca thanks all her cher public who participated in our first chat of the season.Â
Some very interesting responses to our previous Regie quiz included a correct one from Melot’s Younger Brother. The opera was indeed Król Roger, a fascinating work which (in audio form) will soon grace Unnatural Acts of Opera. Now, cher public, it’s up to you to decide whether our puzzler this week is the sort of…
La Cieca’s spy reports on the Met’s pre-season:Â
Keep watching parterre.com later this afternoon for a sneak preview of the Met’s Opening Night Renéessance.
Pirates three: Kevin Kline, Rex Smith and Patricia Routledge. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qbYScGigjd4″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The final act of Wagner’s Lohengrin, along with a preview from La Cieca of Monday’s festivities. Lohengrin, Act 3 Â
La Cieca doesn’t know how she manages it, but somehow Opera Chic managed to be first to get her hands on the official “debut” photos of The Schrott Tot. More perfectly adorable photo scans of l’il Tiago Aruã and his very attractive mom and dad are on the Chic’s site.
Need you ask who discusses the subject of nudity in opera (among other performing arts) in today’s Times? [W]hen nudity seems called for and natural, it can lend disarming humanity to a drama. There was, for example, Richard Greenberg’s “Take Me Out,†at the Public Theater in 2002, about a superstar baseball player who reveals…
Legendary Metropolitan Opera wig mistress Nina Lawson died last week at the age of 82. Above, a sample of Ms. Lawson’s coiffure for Joan Sutherland‘s first Met Norma at the peak of the Big Diva Hair era, circa 1970. [via NYT]
Cher public, you may recall that it was La Cieca who was the first to break the story that Gérard Mortier was under consideration to be the next General Manager of the New York City Opera, not quite a week before confirmation appeared in the moribund print media. Since then the irreverent intendant has made a…
Better loosen up those typing fingers, cher public, because La Cieca is bringing you another of her notorious online chats. On Monday, September 22 beginning at 6:30 PM EDT, La Cieca will present Opening Night in Exile, a chat celebrating the the broadcast of the Met’s 2008 opening night starring Renée Fleming, the diva and…
La Cieca has just heard that Patrick Summers will conduct all performances of Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Met this season, “replacing Mikko Franck, who is ill.”
At first La Cieca thought this next clip was an excerpt from the film version of La bohème lensed earlier this year in Vienna and currently in post-production. But the director of that film is Robert Dornhelm and (at least as credited) the director for this video is Vincent Paterson. Your doyenne is further not…
The winner of our non-traditional Regie quiz is Graciella Scusi for her clever interpretation of the scenes depicted as moments from Candide. La Cieca was particularly amused by the notion of the Old Lady’s doing a variation on “Find Me a Primitive Man.” The work was, of course, not Candide at all, but rather the…
In case you’re still wondering, here’s what the whole thing sounds like: The Whole Thing In her characteristically grudging fashion, La Cieca will say that this does sound like the sort of thing you will really like if you really like that sort of thing. And so, if you do like that sort of thing,…
Our own dear publisher JJ informs La Cieca that he will be interviewed tomorrow afternoon during CBC’s “Saturday Afternoon at the Opera” by host Bill Richardson. In this, his first international radio interview, JJ is expected to field hard-hitting questions on such topics as “The Busch Doctrine,” and he warns us in advance that his…
La Cieca doesn’t envy OONY’s Eve Queler, who sadly seems to be having her usual hard luck with casting. Word on the street is that Queler spent most of last week trying to find a tenor to replace the ailing(?) Yegishe Manucharyan in The Tsar’s Bride. As of today, the role is still TBA, barely…
Oddly convergent divas Meg Ryan and Renée Fleming model the New New look in faces for fall.
Artistic adminstrators at the Met and around the world are gnashing their teeth and tearing their hair this afternoon at Bryn Terfel‘s bombshell announcement that he will retire from opera “within three years.” The biggest local impact will be felt in the Met’s glossy new Ring cycle, in which (according to Brad Wilber) Terfel was slated…
La Cieca is happy to inform her cher public (balletomanes all, surely) that aerodynamic Ãngel Corella will return to the Met this fall to enliven what otherwise will likely turn out to be some dullish performances of Ponchielli’s La gioconda. According to your doyenne’s informant, the coruscating Mr. Corella will grace the stage as premier…
The heroic forces of VAI ride to the rescue once more with a cleaned up release of one of the most coveted (and pirated) live opera telecasts: the NHK Lirica Italiana production of La fanciulla del West, starring the luminescent Antonietta Stella. Â
The cher public have spoken: La sonnambula is the must-see event this season at the Met, with 159 votes (a plurality of 43% of all votes cast). Runners-up are Salome and Thaïs. Complete poll results after the jump.Â
Alaska Governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (center, in fur) is seen here shmoozing with chorus members following a performance of Götterdämmerung by the Lyric Opera of Wasilla.
“…the conception of Brundle, at least as portrayed by Mr. Okulitch, has poignant allure. Mr. Goldblum was a mad, wiry scientist with raging eyes. The young, boyishly handsome Mr. Okulitch makes Brundle more of a dreamer, awkward and soulful, who has lived in near seclusion, building his telepods and fantasizing about transporting himself, transcending the…
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
