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.
Here’s ineffable Lainie Kazan, putting the “MDA” in the MDA Labor Day Telethon.
By La Cieca
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Starring Audrey Luna, Isabel Leonard, Iestyn Davies, Alek Shrader, Alan Oke, William Burden, Toby Spence and Simon Keenlyside, conducted by Thomas Adès. From November 10, 2012.
By La Cieca
An opera project by Marina Abramovic (2020) from the Bayerische Staatsoper.
By La Cieca
Starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker and Donovan Singletary, conducted by David Robertson. From February 1, 2020.
By La Cieca
Barbara Hannigan sings Poulenc’s monodrama led by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
By La Cieca
Starring Marlis Petersen, Susan Graham, Daniel Brenna, Paul Groves, Johan Reuter and Franz Grundheber, conducted by Lothar Koenigs. From November 21, 2015.
By La Cieca
“Peter Mattei, one of my two favorite baritones these days, in an unexpected title role, Britten’s Billy Budd.”
By La Cieca
Starring Kathleen Kim, Janis Kelly, Robert Brubaker, Russell Braun, James Maddalena and Richard Paul Fink, conducted by John Adams. From February 12, 2011.
By La Cieca
Renée Fleming garnered a most un-unvdivaesque flurry of pageviews in August.
By La Cieca
Samuel Barber’s gothic melodrama starring the great Carol Vaness.
By La Cieca
Starring Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey and Anthony Michaels-Moore, conducted by Donald Runnicles. From March 15, 2008.
By La Cieca
In lieu of the geoblocked COVID Fan Tutte, here’s Berg’s Wozzeck featuring the incongruously glamorous Karita Mattila and Sir Simon Keenlyside as the doomed couple conducted by Sir Mark Elder.
By La Cieca
Starring Nina Stemme, Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier, Burkhard Ulrich and Eric Owens, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. From April 30, 2016.
By La Cieca
In consonance with the Met’s evening programming this week of “20th Century and Beyond” works, we are proud to offer for your afternoon listening discussion Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio whatever-it-is featuring Jessye Norman.
By La Cieca
Starring Lisette Oropesa, Angela Meade, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Paolo Fanale, Ambrogio Maestri and Franco Vassallo, conducted by James Levine. From December 14, 2013.
By La Cieca
Starring Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Eric Halfvarson, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From December 11, 2010.
By La Cieca
La Cieca has heard that Columbia Artists Management Inc. will cease operations on Monday, August 31.
By La Cieca
“A program of the soaring arias and songs that have rocketed her to stardom around the world: selections from Wagner’s Tannhäser, Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, as well as Scandinavian songs by Sibelius and Grieg.”
By La Cieca
Starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez and Quinn Kelsey, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin (not pictured). From December 15, 2018.
By La Cieca
Michael Fabiano in one of his specialties as the dashing hero of Il corsaro torn between Tamara Wilson and Nicole Cabell.
By La Cieca
Starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Kathleen Kim, Stephanie Blythe, Marcelo Álvarez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From December 8, 2012.
By La Cieca
A recent I Masnadieri with risen stars Lisette Oropesa and Russell Thomas.
By La Cieca
Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Olesya Petrova, Piotr Beczala, Plácido Domingo, Alexander Vinogradov and Dmitry Belosselskiy, conducted by Bertrand de Billy. From April 14, 2018.
By La Cieca
Today’s offering is an electric performance of Verdi’s early potboiler Attila conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli with Nicolai Ghiaurov, Piero Cappuccilli and the weirdly exciting (or is it the other way around?) Mara Zampieri.
By La Cieca
