Joel Rozen
Joel Rozen is a culture critic, anthropologist, and audiophile living in New York. His doctoral thesis at Princeton—still underway—is based on some field research he did in North Africa a few years ago; since then he’s enjoyed teaching in the city and writing about music. His love of opera can probably be traced back to high school, when he used to poach from his girlfriend’s dad’s CD collection. The orientation has changed and so has the digital format. What hasn’t is the Domingo/Studer Otello, which remains awesome, and unreturned.
Winsome, tony, and studded with overbooked bistros, Tanglewood is not exactly crawling with bohemians these days.
Reply
Sponsored
Call for submissions: parterre box‘s new Talk of the Town
parterre box is launching a new themed regular feature curated by our readers and opera fans across the world! We are asking for your favorite clips, recordings, and anecdotes to get people chatting, listening, and thinking.
If you’ve ever wondered what the Lost Boys’ abode might look like lined with mermaids, shopping carts, and unpeeled potatoes, look no further than Christopher Alden’s new production of Peter Pan.
Composer/librettist David Hertzberg’s The Rose Elf, which gave its world premiere in the Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs last weekend, is indeed a marvel of elfin proportions.
Between staging, music, and material, it’s hard to decide what feels most broken about New York City Opera’s American premiere of Brokeback Mountain.
Whether full-bodied and rich or comic and actorly, the baritone voice contains multitudes.
“Hey. Sorry to trouble you. I was wondering if I could have a word with my client.”
Heartbeat is, after all, a company that loves to tinker.
Doomed Lucia di Lammermoor was only halfway through her Mad Scene at the time of the incident.
For tonight’s distinguished premiere of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Algonquin Opera, there would in fact be far more blue hairs in the audience than blue collars.
b>Lawrence Brownlee, star tenor of stage and NFL games is a real “pillar of the community.”
Julia Bullock revisited a few well-trodden song cycles and lieder but pointed up their hidden politics.
Even dauntless Evan Ingersoll felt his nerves beginning to mount.
As far as prewar Italian verismo goes, L’amore dei tre re is a supernova.
After an early Saturday shift bar-backing at Aura Bar, Evan had trotted over to his friend Jesús Halévy’s for a late-night slumber party à deux.
Evan clicked over to the his favorite music critic’s weekly column, “Slings and Arias.”
Walls of tinted glass engirdled a heated portico-terrarium, where two figures could be seen polishing off the last of their Crêpes Suzette.
Wedlock, betrayal, sibling rivalry, feminism, and union strikes give the opera Morning Star much of its driving thematic material.
They all wished, for reasons at once superstitious and deeply misguided, to avoid over-rehearsing the sextet.
At last, Jesús Halévy had found the right size. The small ecru sweater was buried beneath a stack of extra-larges at the Macy’s on Herald Square.
Supernumerary callbacks for the Big Apple Singing Theater Association’s spring production of Bison Don’t Cry were held later that night at the Mariachi Playhouse.
As if the corner of Broadway and 53rd weren’t already busy enough, Evan Ingersoll couldn’t believe the line leading into the Mariachi Playhouse where BASTA tryouts were held.
The day of the big BASTA audition, Evan found the flier Paul Upczuk had passed him the previous weekend at Aura Bar.
It was already nearly two o’clock in the morning, late for a work night, and Nixon Ben Mahmoud was ashamed to find himself crying real tears.
Sponsored
Reach your audience through parterre box!
parterre box, “the most essential blog in opera” (New York Times), is now booking display and sponsored content advertising for the 2023-2024 season. Join Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Warner Classics and many others in reaching your target audience through parterre box.
parterre in your box?
Get our free weekly newsletter delivered to your email.
Exclusive opera reviews, commentary, top reads from us and our friends.
Delivered to your email weekly…ish.