Parterre Box (often stylized as parterre box) is an online magazine devoted to opera, which cultivates an attitude that may be deemed to be campy, critical and opinionated with explicitly gay overtones.
 Issue #22 of Parterre Box | |
| Frequency | Bimonthly 1993–2001 in print.[1] |
|---|---|
| Founder | James Jorden |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Based in | New York City |
| Language | English |
| Website | parterre |
The publication was founded by the New Yorker James Jorden in 1993[1] during a period of under-employment as an opera director.[2] It appeared bi-monthly from 1993 to 2001 in print form. It is now solely published on the Web,[1] where it is considered an influential opera blog.
In May 2005, Jorden introduced the first regular opera podcast entitled Unnatural Acts of Opera. For this show, Jorden took on the drag persona of "La Cieca", a gossip commentator. La Cieca introduced a single act of what she called "demented" opera, concentrating on live vocal performances from around 1950 to the time the acts started.
A highlight of the 2006 season of Unnatural Acts of Opera was the first ever podcast of Richard Wagner's four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, an event Jorden termed "Götterdämmerung". Jorden has also contributed a number of opera video clips to YouTube, concentrating on his favorite divas, including Renata Scotto, Leonie Rysanek and Dame Gwyneth Jones.
The podcasts appear to have ended in 2009 and are known to be available in various services, including iTunes and in streaming form on the parterre.com website.
From 2009-13, Jorden contributed opera reviews to the New York Post.
References
edit- ^ a b c "Making it that way again". parterre box. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
- ^ Joshua Barone (December 13, 2018). "How an Underground Queer Zine Became the Best Blog in Opera". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
Further reading
edit- "You Go Diva!", The New York Times, April 27, 1997. Accessed April 7, 2022.
- "The Parterre Posse", The New York Observer, January 29, 2001. Accessed January 18, 2008.
- Lynn Neary, "When Opera Fans Attack", NPR: Morning Edition, June 26, 2003.
- "Voice of the Opposition", Opera News, July 2009. Accessed February 9, 2011.
- "The Bewitching Art of 'La Cieca'" by Zachary Woolfe, The New York Observer, July 8, 2009. Accessed February 9, 2011.
