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.
The Beautiful Voice is known for her improvisational skills both as an actress and as a musician (who can forget her “Over the Rainbow” or “O légère hirondelle?”) Now La Fleming has harnessed her spontaneity to create a variant text for her first public performance of a celebrated Puccini aria. Manon ho studiato UPDATE: The…
Our most recent Regiequiz was no match for the little grey cells of Monsieur RMP, who deduced right off that the opera in question was Il Turco in Italia. And now, let’s take a look at another opera, its identity perhaps obscured by modern costuming. Â
If you take a look at the comments sections of recent posts, you will note that a number of off-topic personal attacks (and responses to attacks, and responses to responses) have gone down the oubliette. La Cieca entreats her cher public to stay on-topic and to refrain from personal attacks because she really doesn’t want…
Finally, the closing acts of Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots are presented by your dilatory doyenne on Unnatural Acts of Opera. Les Huguenots Acts 4 and 5
It would be tempting to say that the Wagner dynasty has nothing on the Menotti family, except that it’s just not true. The generational intrigues of the descendants of the Meister (as detailed in Brigitte Haman’s Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler’s Bayreuth), reflect the superhuman scale of Wagner’s musical vision. The…
Naked barihunk (a phrase that will eventually become tautological, La Cieca predicts) Daniel Okulitch stars in The Fly, the new opera by Howard Shore and David Henry Hwang opening tonight at the Théâtre du Châtelet.
According to a press release from the New York City Opera, George Manahan will continue there as Music Director through 2012. In the inaugural Gérard Mortier season beginning in the fall of 2009, Maestro Manahan will conduct performances of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and Britten’s Death in Venice. Manahan is booked as well for Szymanowski’s…
The cabaret show “Viva la Diva,” directed by Our Own JJ and starring Dorothy Bishop, has been booked for an additional performance this week as part of the Pillowfight Theatre Festival. The show goes on at 9:00 p.m. on July 3 at The Green Room at 45 Bleecker. Tickets are $25 at the door. Already…
Guesses poured in for our most recent Regie quiz, but correct reponses were few and far between. The opera is in fact Martin’s Una cosa rara, and (credit where credit is due) the handsome though bewildering photographs were by Ken Howard. A more familiar title graces the quiz this time around. The imagery, however, is…
Members of the cher public indigenous to the District of Columbia and its environs will welcome Anne Midgette as music critic for the Washington Post, as leaked this morning on Ionarts. In fact, Midgett’s full-time appointment is good news on a national scale, given the media’s current scary cutbacks in arts coverage. The scribe’s current…
Pregnancy certainly seems to agree with Anna Netrebko! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/TIWw1ls4QwY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
While your doyenne is busy this weekend with “Viva la Diva!” you, cher public, may want to spend a few suspenseful moments perusing the latest iteration of Brad Wilber‘s MetFutures, hosted for the summer at Sieglinde’s Diaries.
What looks to be the Next Big Thing coming from the Met: offering their audio and video content for download a la iTunes. La Cieca is not clear on the details of this new program, but a job listing has just gone up on metopera.org for a Digital Producer who will be responsible for the web…
According to the blog AfterElton.com, Tony Award-winning barihunk Paulo Szot “is an out gay man.” Writer Brian Juergens says the blog “contacted his publicist and were told that yes, he is gay, and we’re welcome to say as much.”
Happy birthday to indefatigable maestro James Levine, who is 65 today!
Two superstars of the 21st century, Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez, bring exciting new life to a classic of the 19th century, Verdi’s Rigoletto. This new production of the warhorse was heard Saturday night in Dresden. Regie is by Nikolaus Lehnhoff and musical direction is by Fabio Luisi. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/PiyaNoNxOYY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
It took Bridget Jones practically no time at all to guess the correct answer to our most recent Regie quiz: the opera depicted was indeed Die Walküre. So now can you tell La Cieca which opera is being performed here? And do remember, everyone: guesses only! If you know the production, sit this one out!
Your doyenne continues to marvel at the riches preserved on YouTube. A random browse this evening turned up a particularly rare gem: a snippet of Aïda as performed by legendary Romanian divas Virginia Zeani and Elena Cernei. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/NyzITAvcuAk” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Those muckraking scamps over at Opera News are at it again, quoting a in their June issue a particularly inflammatory passage from the mad gay diaries of mad gay Cecil Beaton. Dear Cecil, you will recall, designed the Met’s celebrated 1961 production of Turandot that starred Birgit Nilsson. It seems that mere critical and popular…
Cher public, La Cieca can hardly believe that the musical event of the season has slipped her mind until just this very minute. She is talking, of course, about the concert tonight in Prospect Park by (in alphabetical order) Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu. The Thirteen/WNET website helpfully notes that “Gheorghiu and Alagna aren’t strangers…
Following a performance of Lucia in San Francisco, Our Own “sassy bald” High C’s models the notorious blood-stained t-shirt for none other than Natalie Dessay.
Our Own JJ chats with pal Dorothy Bishop about her upcoming cabaret “Viva la Diva.” [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/o_NYvOYmpoI” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] “Viva la Diva” graces the stage of the Zipper Factory Theater on June 29 at 3:00 PM. Online booking is available through OvationTix.
“Even though opera is an anachronism, a centuries-old art form replete with some of the creakiest plots imaginable, in 2008 opera – at least the Met Opera– is where the action is.” An alternative (or perhaps a response) to the Wall Street Journal‘s dire prognostications may be found in an analysis of the Met’s current financial position by…
In celebration of the recent Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, the New York Times puts their best man on the case, with exactly the adjective-engorged result you might predict: Out of Opera’s Cradle, Hunky Broadway Babies. “Back then, audiences were willing to lean forward and pay attention.”
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
