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.
Okay, since when did Thomas Hampson turn into Sean Connery?
Our Own JJ was at the Met last night (and part of this morning) to review Tristan und Isolde for Gay City News. As such he witnessed the rather astonishing series of events that Atomic Wings told you about earlier. La Cieca cannot of course ask JJ to comment on the specifics of the performance…
The previous Regie photo (depicting Toby Spence with wiggy hookers) was from a production of The Rake’s Progress. Okay, so which opera might this be? (If you recognize the photo, cher public, DON’T blurt it out!)
As your doyenne predicted yesterday, tenor Gary Lehman will sing tomorrow night’s Met performance of Tristan und Isolde, making his company and role debuts! La Cieca hears from an authoritative source that Lehman will also Robert Dean Smith will be released from concerts in Milan and Luxembourg so he can sing the role opposite Deborah…
Cher public, you have striven valiantly but no one of you has managed to accomplish what was most likely an impossible task: the identification of 14 singers of Violetta in only a few notes. As a group mind, though, you came awfully close. And so, to put an end to this particular source of stress,…
parterre mascot Izzy Anderson returns with yet another bash at “La donna e mobile.” Video impresario Wenarto obviously is working his connections like mad since he has managed to film this scene on the Act 2 set from the Met’s Tristan.
La Cieca has heard that New York City Opera General Manager (Designate) Gerard Mortier is planning a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte for the 2012 season, directed by Austrian film director Michael Haneke.
La Cieca hears that the Met is skedding tenor (erstwhile baritone) Gary Lehman for a Tristan staging rehearsal tomorrow. As La Cieca understands it, Lehman is a formal cover for the role (after John Mac Master) and so . . . well, just about anything may happen on Friday night. And thereafter, actually.
Well, actually, yes, now you do. The New York Times is no longer the only major metropolitan daily whose music critic drools all over opera singers of the masculine persuasion. La Cieca is delighted to introduce the verbal stylings of David Mermelstein, who apparently is that gay man who has heretofore been trapped inside the…
The Met’s second season of “Live in HD†continues on Saturday, March 15 at 1:30 pm/est with the new production of Britten’s Peter Grimes. Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey sings the title role, Patricia Racette is the kindhearted Ellen Orford, and Anthony Michaels-Moore is Balstrode. Donald Runnicles conducts. Intermission features include live interviews hosted by star…
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La Cieca did a bit of nosing around about the abrupt departure of Jeffrey Vanderveen from IMG, and this is how the story is shaping up. Vanderveen’s upcoming gig is the creation of a new division at Universal Music Group devoted to the production and promotion of Tibor Rudas style arena concerts for Universal Classics’ recording artists.…
Musical America reports this morning that Jeffrey Vanderveen has resigned from his post as Senior Vice President/Director, Vocal Divison at IMG Artists. At IMG Vanderveen repped such superstars as Anna Netrebko, Thomas Hampson, Sam Ramey and Denyce Graves. [via wqxr.com]
A loyal reader writes: I wanted to let you know that the Tristan prima was a disaster. Only because of the Tristan (which, I guess we can’t relegate to a minor consideration), since it was otherwise mostly okay — if you can accept zero visual dramatic sense in the whole expedition. (As an extreme illustration of this…
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: March 9, 3:30 PM: After only 30 hours and on only the third try (or perhaps fourth, depending on how often you refresh the page), the New York Times has managed to report accurately the personnel and repertoire of a single selection at a concert that took place three days ago:Â
As you may recall, last year the BBC Music Magazine published a list of “The 20 Greatest Sopranos of All Time,” and one or two of you didn’t quite see eye to eye with their selection. Well, this year they’ve turned their attention to the top 20 among tenors, who are (in ascending order of…
This has to be the strangest staging of a Puccini opera ever! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/JGa1Z2UlvMY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Ah, La Cieca must have her little joke! But seriously, cher public, the previous Regiequiz depicted (as so many of you divined) Parsifal. But wait! If this is Parsifal. . . . . . then surely this…
La Cieca just heard that Ben Heppner has canceled the first night of the Met’s revival of Tristan und Isolde. John Mac Master will sing opposite Deborah Voigt.
It has been said that at parterre.com the only way to separate the men from the boys is by calling in the vice cops, but La Cieca begs to differ. Many of the regulars on this site call themselves opera queens, but La Cieca is betting that perhaps one, perhaps several, perhaps none of you…
Better to say “greatest misses,” La Cieca thinks, though even that phrase is flawed by a nearly Hollandaise level of inaccuracy. The errors and gaffes of the flannel-eared Times critic are surely too many and too egregious for one writer to anthologize; certainly they seem to have overwhelmed the Newspaper of Record’s squadrons of copy…
Il viaggio a Reims (Part 2)
Sarah Jessica Parker takes a spill at the Metropolitan Opera yesterday during a photo shoot with Annie Liebovitz for Vogue.
“You’d been so cruel to me at the party. Imitating me, making people laugh at me. I watched you get out of the car and I wanted to run you down, crush you. You saw the car coming. I hit the gates. Snapped my spine.”
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
