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 was just recalling that soon after she arrived in New York back in 19-mumble-mumble, she screwed up her courage to audition for that most august of impresarios, Ira Siff of La Gran Scena Opera. Back in those days your doyenne thought she had what it took to be a great prima donna (including […]
La Cieca is indebted to those Wellsungs for this idea:Â what’s your birth opera? Or, in other words, which opera (and cast, if applicable) was the Met performing on the day you were born? (You get this information, of course, from the Met Archives Database.) Unfortunately, La Cieca, being a Leo, was born outside the regular […]
One of the cher public sent in this tidbit from the recently-published edition of The Letters of Noël Coward: Went to hear Albanese as Manon Lescaut and it was a grave grave mistake on account of she didn’t ought to have attempted it for several reasons. Time’s Wingèd Chariot being the principal one. She sang most […]
Our previous Regie quiz didn’t stump many of you: the opera was Der Fliegende Holländer in productions by Calixto Bieito (doghouse), Peter Konwitschny (spinning class) and Christopher Alden (corpse bride). And now, what might this opera be?
Unfortunately, on this occasion, the text is all too apt. Fiorenza Cossotto in 2007 (!) demonstrates why it is better to quit while you are ahead.
Your doyenne didn’t even make it through the first paragraph of this opera-related article: “I’m not a patient person,” Anna Chatterton confesses over a quinoa brownie at a Toronto coffee shop… A female version of Don Giovanni by a veganess composer? It just doesn’t sound, well, promising, now does it?
…am dunklen Hage. Oh, and by the way, it’s always a delight to hear news about dear Lucine Amara!
In the second act of Carmen, the eponymous gypsy says “Holà !.. Lillas Pastia, holà !.. nous mangerons tout… tu me régales… holà ! holà …. Tiens, attrape… et apporte-nous des fruits confits; apporte-nous des bonbons, apporte-nous des oranges, apporte-nous du Manzanilla… apporte-nous de tout ce que tu as, de tout, de tout…” Well, that line is cut […]
Your doyenne has added a contact page so you may email her with all your tastiest soupcons!
Amazing Anja Silja in one of her bazillion roles: Lady Macbeth. [youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=BI4eYsxtZ8Q]
So the code for the new design is buggy. In the meantime La Cieca has a generic design in place and everything still works. Enjoy the newly unfettered discussion function!
It looks as if those whispers about a romance between two of opera’s most charismatic stars have been correct all along. La Cieca has just heard from a generally reliable source that Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott are now “officially engaged” and will set a wedding date “within the year.”
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More years ago than La Cieca would care to say, dear Gertie Dammerung wrote an hilarious parody of the song “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” which La Cieca published in the dimly-remembered print version of parterre box. Time passes. Then, only yesterday, La Cieca received an email from equally dear Hans Lick enclosing an updated version […]
Which star of a recent new Met production showed up at an industry party on Thursday night with her new girlfriend in tow? It seems the diva is extending her sojourn in Manhattan to spend more time with this new (and very young) flame she met in the restroom of a downtown lesbian bar.
La Cieca’s observant spy Joe Conda infiltrated the January 29 interview of Anja Silja and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, reporting that sadly the event was something of a non-starter. He blamed interlocutrix Nimet Habachy, who mostly lobbed “generic” softball questions. La Silja did have a few well-reasoned observations about role preparation and her distaste for the concept […]
Cher public, La Cieca acted with her usual impetuosity last night and migrated the blog to WordPress. For the last couple of months, Blogger has been slower and slower to post to FTP, and their Help Desk might better be called “Desk.” The frustration really peaked late yesterday afternoon when La Cieca got the “fishbone” […]
Now that Angela Gheorghiu is entering the ranks of “veteran” divas, let’s see how what’s her vocal estate at age 42. (Video is from La Scala in 2007.)
Or, to put it another way, could this soprano be what the Met needs for Roberto Devereux? While you ponder the future, you can enjoy the past: the final act of Verdi’s Macbeth is now on Unnatural Acts of Opera.
Please bear with La Cieca, cher public as she is experimenting with WordPress. Don’t worry, the old parterre.com won’t disappear! To read previous postings, please click here.
Here are the results of La Cieca’s informal and utterly unscientific poll of her readers, asking “Who should replace Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the Met’s production of Orfeo?” As you can see, a large plurality favored Ewa Podles, with David Daniels and Susan Graham also receiving numerous votes.
This is what makes conductors wake up screaming. From a performance of Madama Butterfly, Philadelphia, February 1967, with Montserrat Caballe in the title role, and Richard Karp doing what he can to keep things together in the pit. The trainwreck. (La Cieca likes to think of this excerpt as the “Berio Completion” of Butterfly.)
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Actually, no, Mark Twain didn’t say it. That means this public-domain quotation is available for use by Donald Runnicles, who, according to the August Opera News, is about to find out what it means: “Runnicles, of course, was not my appointment,” [David Gockley] […]
La Cieca hears that tenor Dongwon Shin saved the day at Opera Australia last night (or would that be tomorrow night?) when he jumped in on barely a day’s notice as Calaf in Turandot. And most of that “day” was spent on a plane from Chicago to Sydney! First reports are that the Sydney audience […]
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