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.
As quite a few of the cher public surmised, the most recent Regiequiz depicted a production of Don Giovanni (at the Landestheater Linz, to be precise) featuring barihunk Martin Achrainer as the eponymous erotomaniac: Herr Achrainer has become something of a blogger’s darling of late, featured at Barihunks as well as Our Own site in…
La Cieca is once more available for dancing in the streets and shouting from the housetops for the (admittedly off-topic) reason that the Technicolor musical campfest Torch Song has made its long-awaited debut on DVD. Only in 1953 — with the Red Scare, the threat of nuclear annihilation and the growing threat from televsion bewildering studio exectives —…
Wondrous Wenarto is back and more bloodthirsty than ever. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/f876_Xw-LYA” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] The Wenarto interpretation is a worthy addition to the YouTube classics by Montserrat Caballé, Leonie Rysanek, Anja Silja and especially William Zauscher.Â
The entirety of the “old” parterre.com (including over 30,000 comments from you, cher public!) is preserved at the parterre box archive site.
Doesn’t it just figure that this story would break only a few minutes after La Cieca used the perfect headline on another story? Oh, well, anyway, Montsi will be fascinated! (via Defamer)
Okay, La Cieca knows a bit about fashion and even a smidge about clothing construction (you should hear her dishing the godets during Project Runway) but she must admit she can’t figure out what the hell Anna Netrebko is wearing here. Did she just take a dip in the pool? Was she performing a nude…
In this operatic adaptation of the Bette Davis classic Dead Ringer, sparks fly when twin sisters Margaret Phillips DeLorca (Grace Bumbry) and Edith Phillips (Grace Bumbry) meet again after 20 years! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://uk.youtube.com/v/8oRpMGQmyG8″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Again, La Cieca extends her gratitude to the amazing coloraturafan.
but she can be a little mysterious a times. The cher public averaged seven out of 11 answers correct on our Casta Diva Quiz, with a four-way tie-up for first position. (By which, La Cieca should perhaps add, she means that four contestants had exactly 10 correct answers, not that your doyenne resorted to some…
Glamhilde
Our previous modern-dress interpretation was, as many of you guessed, Falstaff. Now, what opera might contain these stylish folk? Reminder: if you recognize the production, hold your tongue whilst the others make fools of themselves!
A recently rediscovered telecast of Il trovatore from Covent Garden in the fall of 1964 features the Azucena of Giulietta Simionato. This is the only video record of the legendary mezzo in one of her greatest roles. (La Cieca is unutterably indebted to the YouTubers felipecunha and coloraturafan for alerting her to this magnificent document.)
Now, here’s a sentence La Cieca thought she’d never hear herself saying: “Oh, for the good old days when Jane Eaglen sang all the big Wagner parts at the Met!” Ho-jo-to-no!
Here is a new discovery for La Cieca, brought to her attention by Erstegeiger, for which many thanks. If Florence Foster Jenkins, Lucille Ball and Natalie Dessay had a three-way, and if one of them (or more) got pregnant, that baby just might grow up to be: Mabouba Sol della Vega! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://uk.youtube.com/v/QcEp9STHFUc” width=”425″ height=”350″…
Le cher public have spoken! La Cieca is delighted to have hosted yet another of her popular chat sessions, this one devoted to your choice, this afternoon’s broadcast of La traviata from the Royal Opera.
Announcing a new category on parterre.com, an award of sorts for examples of the garish, the gaudy, the over-the-top in things operatic. Not filth, mind you — we’re talking good, but just, you know, too much. La Cieca’s special jury prize for this type of operatic ham will be called “Le Jambon d’Or,” and our…
For no particular reason (oh, all right, she wants to try out some new software) La Cieca would like to have a little informal chat with her cher public this afternoon (Saturday) during the broadcast. Oh, but wait a moment! Which broadcast? With all the selections available on internet radio, your doyenne will have to…
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/swCCLgzP7Bo” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Here they are, cher public, your Normas. Very special thanks to bodacious Beau for creating both the quiz and the solution! La Cieca received several entries with 10 correct answers, so she’ll announce the winner of the amazon.com gift certificate.
Even among a galaxy of stars, Miss Leontyne Price sheds (how shall I put it?) a special radiance. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/-PDa4y4YxVM” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Miss Price was born on February 10, 1927 and the awards ceremony took place on January 26, 2008. La Cieca leaves the math as an exercise for the reader.
Okay, the score is tied and nobody has all 11 correct … so far. There are two Normas in the group that seem to defy identification. And so La Cieca has decided to give you a hint, or, in fact, three hints. Listen carefully, cher public. Both the mystery singers were born during the 1960s.…
It’s that Maury D’Annato again! Â As La Cieca believes Katharine Hepburn once complimented Mae West, “Oh, you, you’re just so goddamned epigrammatic!” Whatever the reason, tonight’s date with Lorin Maazel was like five hours with a pretty girl sitting ON MY TRACHEA.
As part of the “new look” of parterre.com, La Cieca is going to try inserting a player for each new episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. And this Act is perhaps a little more Unnatural than most, since it’s the beginning of a multipart tribute to parterre box icon Diana Soviero. Faust (Gounod) Acts 1…
La Cieca’s spy L’Inconnu in the City of Brotherly Love (which, given the circumstances, she supposes she should specify is Philadelphia) whispers: La Cieca favorite Stephen Costello is one of the only worthwhile reasons to catch David DiChiera‘s new opera Cyrano premiering tomorrow night at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. The men truly led the…
Officially, Anna Netrebko is expecting her baby “this autumn,” and La Cieca of course extends her and Erwin Schrott all the best wishes. However, let’s take a peek at a few recent photos of Netrebko… [Traviata at Covent Garden, early January] [Arriving at the Opernball in Vienna, February 1] [On set of Boheme film, around…
That sizzling septuagenarian Dame Gwyneth Jones, now in the fifth decade of her career, celebrates a “first” this weekend when she makes “her long awaited Scandinavian debut” singing Herodias in a new production of Salome with the Malmö Opera. Now, that is what La Cieca calls a lovely all-purpose costume! Should Dame Gwyneth add to her repertoire…
Tell us: What’s your favorite Verdi performance?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
