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 hears (from very reliable sources indeed) that one of the first initiatives of the new Peter Gelb regime at the Met will be to build up Angela Gheorghiu into “house diva.” Apparently the new attitude will be “you’re going on, with or without that wig.” Another top-priority item on the Met’s agenda: a […]
The show goes on at Opera Barga tonight, though not exactly the same show as planned. Since the Berlin Sing-Akademie (hiss! hiss!) has managed to get an injunction against “their” Motezuma‘s being performed, Opera Barga has devised a “pasticcio” version using the original libretto (public domain) and music from several other Vivaldi operas. And the […]
The second “episode” of Norma is now available for download at Unnatural Acts of Opera. And speaking of Norma, can anyone confirm this story? It’s a regional production of the opera, sometime around the mid to late ’60s. The Adalgisa either learned the role in a big hurry or else was just congenitally not very […]
Did you know Unnatural Acts of Opera is the only all-opera podcast in the whole, uh, podosphere? Even better, this podcast features only live opera performances, preferably demented. Our opera this time is both live and demented, with even a soupcon of backstage drama to add an extra frisson. La Cieca presents the first act […]
Those of you who haven’t had the chance to hear the “Oper” section of La Cieca’s podcast of Ariadne auf Naxos should take the time today; starting tonight a new opera will be programmed on the free player. (Both parts of the Ariadne, as well as last week’s Macbeth, will remain available for downloading via […]
La Cieca has to say she is just plain appalled at the turn of events in the Opera Barga / Motezuma fracas. Not that she’s any particular fan of Vivaldi opera, but the behavior of the officials at the Berlin Sing-Akademie (who claim copyright ownership of this 270-year-old opera) strikes her as unartistic and just […]
San Francisco Opera, as always right on the crest of the wave, introduced its own podcast over the weekend. Pamela Rosenberg and Donald Runnicles yak about the 2005-06 season, which will include the premiere of the new John Adams piece “Dr. Atomic,” and some musical highlights of the rest of the repertoire are included too. […]
Backstage drama! The veteran prima donna suspects a conniving newcomer of trying to upstage her — both onstage and off! No, it’s not All About Eve, but almost! Now, on the parterre podcast “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos from the Salzburg Festival 1954. Lisa della Casa, Hilde Gueden and Irmgard […]
After a service interruption that lost all her files (grrrrr!) La Cieca has restored and restarted her Web radio show Il Gran Teatro della Cieca. Included in this rotation are the Macbeth and Turandot from her podcast, plus complete performances of L’incoronazione di Poppea, Samson et Dalila and Jenufa. Thank you for your patience, and […]
Music fans of all orientations, gay, straight and bi (oops, the Times says you don’t exist, my mistake), well, anyway, music fans around the world finally have news worth talking about. No, we’re not talking about Alberto Vilar, but you’re getting warm. Which is to say, it’s good news. Sir Elton John and George Michael […]
Everyone’s favorite Kiwi songbird, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, is being sued by an Australian promoter because she didn’t show for a series of crossover concerts. The diva was to appear opposite Oz pop star John “The Voice” Farnham, whom she found overly chatty onstage. Says Farnham, “[Dame Kiri] is probably not used to an audience […]
For the first “regular” show of “Unnatural Acts of Opera,” La Cieca presents Shirley Verrett in Act One of Verdi’s Macbeth in a live (and lively!) performance from La Scala, the opening night of the 1975 season. This was surely one of the greatest nights of Verrett’s career, when Kunst and Stimm met in perfect […]
It has come to La Cieca’s attention that not everyone listens to music on an Ipod, or, for that matter, wants to. Chacun a son gout, as she always says. To accomodate those of you who want to listen to “Unnatural Acts of Opera” over your computer’s speakers, she’s added a new gizmo to the […]
Which young Spanish-speaking artiste is going to the “dogs” with her sex, drugs and coloratura lifestyle? You’re not Bolivian, my dear, so lay off the marching powder before you turn into a mess o’ soprano! Which soprano should learn to care more about punctuality at her bel canto rehearsals? Toward her we feel nothing but […]
The reviews for Apple’s iTunes 4.9 are mixed but the consensus is “thumbs up.” La Cieca downloaded and installed the new version last night; very smooth. The interface with podcasts is something less than lavish, the one part of the application that feels “freeware.” But La Cieca realizes there are a lot of people out […]
The decentralization of the music business is progressing so quickly La Cieca can hardly keep up. (Though it’s not like she’s completely in the loop; as you know, she only recently found out that Giulio Ricordi had died!) The very latest (as of this morning) is that Apple has launched a new build of iTunes […]
“Unnatural Acts of Opera” — that’s what La Cieca is calling her new opera podcast. The “unnatural” in this case has nothing to do with sodomy or lasciviousness, but she’s sure she can hold your interest anyway, with extraordinary opera performances presented one act at a time. (Get it?) La Cieca stessa will offer commentary […]
Catherine Malfitano just doesn’t slow down. In recent seasons she’s expanded her repertoire to include a bewildering variety of roles: Kundry, Minnie, Carmen, Blitzstein’s Regina, Herodias, the Kostelnicka, Elle in La Voix Humaine (that’s her in the picture). She’s taught master classes. She’s performed a cabaret at Joe’s Pub here in New York. And now […]
The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, is using “sexual confusion” to prevent wear and tear on their costume collection: “The traps installed for the Royal Opera House make male clothes moths appear to other males as females, by sticking female pheromones to their bodies. “In a plot that could have come from an opera, males attempt […]
… so says soprano/mentor Renata Scotto, in a charming interview in the NY Times about her singing academy in Westchester. And, of course, there’s a lot more wisdom where that came from. Matthew Gurewitsch is the attentive interviewer. Now Playing at the D.M.V.: Renata Scotto.
Debuting today on Il Gran Teatro della Cieca, “Femmes Fatales,” a program featuring deadly divas. Featured are complete and demented performances of L’incoronazione di Poppea, Macbeth, Samson et Dalila, Jenufa and Turandot. The lethal lovelies in question are Anna Caterina Antonacci, Shirley Verrett, Oralia Dominguez, Anja Silja and Montserrat Caballe; victims and co-conspirators include David […]
Norman Lebrecht has lost his fucking mind. My second favorite in this rabid rant is how Wieland Wagner (the “competent” stage director) had the middle name “Adolf.” (Wieland was born in 1917, six years before his mother Winifred met the fellow Lebrecht insinuates was his namesake.) The number one brain-fart in the piece is Lebrecht’s […]
Mean, moody, magnificent Mari Lyn has finally (if posthumously) made her debut on DVD, thanks to the equally (if not more so) magnificent Donald Collup. Mme. Lyn, variously called “Hogcolleratura” and “La Traviyenta,” regaled the public access airwaves in the mid-1980s with a series called “The Golden Treasury of Song,” featuring the blond-bewigged “singing hostess” […]
La Cieca hears that performances of Medea featuring Anna Caterina Antonacci this summer at the Chatelet will be taped for eventual DVD release. The production is from Toulouse, where la Antonacci won rapturous reviews for her first incarnation of Cherubini’s antiheroine.
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