parterre box started as a homemade zine in 1993 and has grown to become the internet’s most enduring and reliable source for opera reviews, news, and gossip.

Founded by visionary critic James Jorden with the goal of “remembering when opera was queer and dangerous and exciting and making it that way again,” parterre has gone from stapled leaflets distributed in the Men’s room at the Met to a website that boasts an international cadre of writers, a long-running series of curated podcasts, real-time broadcast chats, and the opera world’s most discerning and opinionated readership. Rest assured that wherever there is opera of interest, parterre and its readers have their wickedly incisive fingers on the pulse.

Since James’s death in 2023, the website is being tended to by a team of several of James’s friends and collaborators including Christopher Corwin, Richard Lynn, Harry Rose, and tech and business maven Nick Scholl.

parterre is always interested in new stories and new writers – want to pitch something? Email [email protected]