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.


Today is the 96th anniversary of the birth of magnificent Martha Mödl.

on March 22, 2008 at 2:05 PM

It looks like Gary Lehman will finally get a chance to use the full extent of his acting abilities when (inevitably) he takes over the final two performances of Tristan und Isolde next week. In honor of Gary’s return to the cast, the Met is splurging on an actual rehearsal for the maverick renegade heldentenor…

on March 21, 2008 at 1:48 PM

This season’s revival of Tristan und Isolde at the Met has led a number of you to wonder, “what the hell is Jane Eaglen up to these days?” 

on March 21, 2008 at 11:32 AM

As guessed so cleverly by Nerva, John and a couple of others, our previous Regie puzzler was in fact Gounod’s Faust, with barihunk Marian Pop as the mohawked Valentin. And now for another unusual take on a classic work. Can you guess the opera?

on March 20, 2008 at 10:07 PM

Well, La Cieca must say that she thinks it’s absolutely lovely that Renée Fleming is so generous a colleague. Not only did she lend Susan Graham a dress for her hosting duties on tonight’s Live from Lincoln Center, she lent Suzy her hair as well!

on March 20, 2008 at 9:10 PM

There are lots of jokes about stupid tenors, but have you heard the one about the tenor who was so dumb he couldn’t figure out how a jacket worked?

on March 20, 2008 at 5:30 PM

UPDATED at 5:10 PM: La Cieca hears confirms that soprano Angela Meade will make her Metropolitan Opera debut tomorrow night as Elvira in Ernani, replacing Sondra Radvanovksy, who is ill.

on March 20, 2008 at 2:50 PM

Our own JJ recounts how “John Doyle‘s new staging of Britten’s Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera sinks without a trace” in the current issue of Gay City News.

on March 20, 2008 at 2:05 PM

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/5B6rY8VEwUc” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

on March 20, 2008 at 10:41 AM

La Cieca has just heard a whisper that the Met’s new Robert LePage Ring cycle for the Met (beginning in 2010-2011) is already in the midst of a major cast change: Christine Brewer looks likely to be the new Brünnhilde instead of the previously announced Deborah Voigt. UPDATE: Now La Cieca has also heard another…

on March 19, 2008 at 8:00 PM

This last-minute jump-in moves forward Robert Dean Smith‘s Met debut by two seasons. His official bow will be in a revival of Die Frau ohne Schatten in December 2009.

on March 19, 2008 at 3:25 PM

The one and only Miss Kathleen Battle (currently on a recital tour climaxing in a return to Carnegie Hall) now has a state-of-the-art website!

on March 19, 2008 at 2:39 PM
on March 19, 2008 at 1:28 PM

Those A&R geniuses over at Sony BMG have done it again, signing 33 year old former shepherd and massage therapist/bricklayer Costel Busuioc to a recording contract after he placed first in the televised singing competiton “Hijos de Babel.” (The title of the show means “Children of Babel,” which La Cieca believes was also an episode…

on March 19, 2008 at 11:23 AM

Little Stevie reports on last night’s “danger carpet” incident during the Met’s Tristan:

on March 19, 2008 at 10:11 AM

“Marcello Giordani, in the title role, sounded at one moment like an important tenor and at others like an imperfect work in progress.” Bernard Holland, March 19, 2008. “The young tenor Brian Hymel, a very acceptable work in progress, sang ‘La donna è mobile” from Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’.” Bernard Holland, March 8, 2008

on March 19, 2008 at 8:39 AM

The most official-looking word La Cieca can find on Saturday afternoon’s Tristan HD adventure is here — and so, it seems, she was half right: Robert Dean Smith will sing the one performance, but only the one. Now, this was just an instinct before the online evidence was presented to her, but your doyenne was…

on March 18, 2008 at 7:02 PM

It used to be that us li’l online scribblers tried our best to imitate big-time print writers like James McCourt or Ethan Mordden. But now it seems, everyone wants to be bloggy. And since you asked, yes, La Cieca does have an example. Here’s Justin Davidson doing his best impression of Opera Chic!

on March 18, 2008 at 5:16 PM

Director of the Met and ENO Madama Butterfly (and librettist of the Met’s Osvaldo Golijovcommission) is dead at 54. Further details are not available at this time.

on March 18, 2008 at 10:08 AM

Cher public, La Cieca hopes you will join her tonight for a live chat during the Sirius and RealNetworks transmission of the Metropolitan Opera’s Ernani. Since the opera begins at 8:00, the chat room will open at 7:45.

on March 17, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Though La Cieca must say she can’t quite figure out whether the critic liked Gary Lehman‘s performance or not… “. . . Lehman has navigated quite well to date through persistently volatile and challenging financial markets, the sharp market wide decline in valuations across numerous asset classes, tight global liquidity conditions, and the strong headwinds…

on March 17, 2008 at 1:55 PM

 Controversial soprano Tiziana Fabbricini sings her first Adriana Lecouvreur earlier this month.  For some reason, the “Bajazet” monologue is given in . . . the original French? A French translation of the Italian librettese? No matter, once the singing begins, we get a glimpse of that utterly vital but increasingly rare quality — the sacro…

on March 16, 2008 at 10:20 PM

Edipo Re (Leoncavallo) Creon – Keith Lewis Oedipus – Alan Titus Jocasta – Yvonne Naef Messenger – Roland Bracht Shepherd – Johannes Chum Teiresias – Cheyne Davidson Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; Dennis Russell Davies. 1998.

on March 16, 2008 at 12:52 AM

As we know, the “Wall of LGBT Role Models” has been deleted from John Doyle‘s staging of Peter Grimes at the Met. In fact, there were a number of other explicit gay references in the production that were omitted or toned down after the dress rehearsal. For example, here’s a rejected costume for Anthony Dean…

on March 15, 2008 at 4:02 PM
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