Parterre box
Encyclopedia
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, about which it cultivates a campy, critical, strongly opinionated attitude with explicit gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
overtones. parterre box was founded by the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
er James Jorden
James Jorden
James Jorden is an American journalist, music critic, and opera director. He is the founding editor of the popular e-zine-cum-blog parterre box which covers the topic of opera from a queer perspective. Parterre box and Jorden have been featured in numerous notable media publications, including...
in the mid 1990s during a period of under-employment as an opera director. It appeared for a number of years in print form, but now it is solely published on the Web, where it is considered an influential opera blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
.
In May 2005, Jorden introduced the first regular opera podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
entitled "Unnatural Acts of Opera." For this show, Jorden takes on the drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
persona of "La Cieca," a gossipy commentator. La Cieca introduces a single act of what she calls "demented" opera, concentrating on the most exciting live vocal performances from around 1950 to the present. The podcasts are available through all the usual downloading services including iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
as well as in streaming form on the parterre.com website.
A highlight of the 2006 season of "Unnatural Acts of Opera" was the first podcast ever of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
, an event Jorden termed "Podderdammerung." Jorden has also contributed a number of opera video clips to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, concentrating on his favorite divas, including Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto is an Italian soprano and opera director.Recognized for her sense of style, musicality and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation, specializing in the bel canto repertoire with excursions into the verismo and Verdi...
, Leonie Rysanek
Leonie Rysanek
Leopoldine "Leonie" Rysanek was an Austrian dramatic soprano.-Biography:Rysanek was born in Vienna and made her operatic debut in 1949 in Innsbruck. In 1951 the Bayreuth Festival reopened and the new leader Wieland Wagner asked her to sing Sieglinde...
and Dame Gwyneth Jones.
Since 2009, Jorden has also been contributing reviews of opera to the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
.
Sources
- Ruffling the Met's feathers - 'Parterre Box,' a gay opera magazine. The AdvocateThe AdvocateThe Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
, Nov 25, 1997. Accessed via subscription 18 January 2008. - You Go Diva!, New York Times, April 27, 1997. Accessed 18 January 2008.
- The Parterre Posse, New York ObserverNew York ObserverThe New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
, January 29, 2001. Accessed 18 January 2008. - Lynn Neary, When Opera Fans Attack, NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
: Morning Edition, June 26, 2003 - Voice of the Opposition, Opera NewsOpera NewsOpera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City...
, July 2009. Accessed 9 February 2011. - The Bewitching Art of 'La Cieca', New York ObserverNew York ObserverThe New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
, July 7, 2009. Accessed 9 February 2011.