Parterre Box chief has died
RIPNew York’s queer opera website has posted the death of its founder, James Jorden. He was 68 (or 69).
Jorden established a parallel opera environment in which the art was discussed primarily from an LGBT perspective, often in vivid relief to the solid judgements of Opera News, whose demise just preceded his. The community that formed around Parterre was geniune and committed.
Jorden was passionate, combative, knowledgeable, prejudiced, rude and generally incurious about much beyond the lyric art and the world outside New York. He was opera critic for the New York Post 2009-14 and thereafter for the New York Observer.
Parterre Box has opened a tribute page.
photo: Parterre
His passion for the art form is undoubted. While there is much that is informative on his site, sadly it often times degenerates into demented rants and screaming bitch fights. It is not for the faint hearted. RIP La Cieca!
I commented once mentioning his idol’s poor intonation and was attacked so viscously that I never returned.
Sorry, Jorden, not Jordan.
Exactly this happened to me. And I wasn’t even commenting about anyone, just quoting something a well-known singer said in an interview. He attacked me so aggressively that I pretty much stopped visiting the site after that.
I wish his spirit peace.
We were all attacked by Mr. Jordan at one time or another. He defined “bitch”.
That said, he provided a useful outlet for opera queens. Their generation is slowing disappearing.
RIP
I had several encounters with Mr Jorden over the years all of them deeply unpleasant and often disturbing. If you disagreed with him even slightly he would viciously attack you publicly and privately. His take no prisoners approach to everything was off-putting. He saw everything through a gay and far-left perspective and heaven help you if you strayed from the party line. Parterre could be intetesting but often it was like the Comintern. A dear friend of mine who was the theater critic for the WSJ was regularly smeared on that sight for unknown reasons. I think Parterre and Jorden did great damage to the opera world and contributed to the general perception that only bitchy nasty opera queens went to the opera.
Opera has long attracted a gay element, and that has never bothered me in the slightest. I hope it’s not homophobic to note that I loved much of the humor and cleverness on Parterre, and Jorden was worth reading much of the time. He attracted some excellent writers and many of the contributors were erudite, learned, creative and always entertaining. He is to be commended for providing that. But you are sadly on target with the irrational nastiness of the man and some of the intolerant Jacobins that contribute, especially when it comes to regie and political correctness bleeding into interpretations. I always tried to mind my manners and not be a troll; I always knew that my politics, being far more center-driven than anyone else on that site, were not going to be accepted. No point in picking a fight.
But he ran that site like the worst of a mean-girl high school emo clique and attacked innocent people for daring to offer a different perspective. Sometimes highly knowledgeable old-timers, merely nostalgic and offering warm and valuable memories, were flayed and flamed for no reason at all. When he switched over to Disqus I stopped contributing and his far-left ferocity was so off-putting that I used to take breaks for months at a time.
Yet I can’t deny that he built a great following and hosted a great forum. (After sitting through too many paint-peeling performances from Scotto he even forced me, after the fact, to re-evaluate her art and contributions.) I think it’s tragic that he died so young, too. He will be much missed by those whom he loved and I am very sad for them as well.
Far too much has been made of the “gay element” in opera, much as it has been with regard to Barbra, Judy, or Liza. Psychologists tell us that 10% of the human race is gay – and I assure you that neither Opera nor any of the aforementioned ladies command 100% of that 10%. If Opera has more than 3% or 4% of that 10%, I would be surprised.
It’s simple math, folks – do the math.
@Chris: I’m also astonished that someone far-left was not interested in a civilised exchange of opinions. Live and learn, eh?
If you can’t say something nice, please don’t say anything at all. Your personal spats with him are beside the point now.
A sentiment with which I agree, but many feel it is the first time they can express themselves honestly without being publicly shamed and humiliated. Sympathy, absolutely: absolution, not so much. Rest in peace.
I had no “personal” spats with him. They were all professional. That’s fair game. The measure of man is how he treats those with whom he disagrees not how he treats those with whom he agrees. Jorden failed on that account. Period.
I recall that. Mr. Teachout mentioned the issue of whether only people of certain ethnicities could perform a certain role, and Jordan attacked it as red meat for right wingers. Much to his dismay there was instead a very interesting discussion on the topic. I used Mr. Teachout’s recommendations to determine what Broadway shows to attend and was seldom disappointed.
What a horrible nasty comment. Nothing “far left” about him at all by the way – he preferred Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders and was generally unsympathetic to the Met’s unions (both mistakes on his part). Only in the U.S. is this considered “far left”. Anyway his kindness and generosity to aspiring artists, writers etc. in the opera world is legion and well documented on other sites.
“His kindness and generosity … well documented. You should have added “to those he liked.” It’s quite easy to “kind” and “generous” to those you like. But if he didn’t like you for whatever reason you became a target for his vicious comments, gossip, innuendo, and bile. That’s the problem. I had long conversations with the late Mr. Teachout about why Jorden was so vicious to him and he was perplexed. “I never met the man” was his response. He dared to write honestly and from a different perspective and that Jorden couldn’t abide. Even after Mr. Teachout’s sudden death Jorden continued to attack him. I’m sorry but that’s odious.
For a long time he had a mole inside the Met who fed him a lot of interesting and confidential information. Somehow I came to the conclusion that it might have evenbeen Sarah Billinghurst Solomon, the once powerful Assistant General Manager. But that ended some time ago, and the site’s usuefulness plummeted, descending into a gossipy rag, where campy LGBT content sometimes seemed to take precedence over the opera content.
Even it is heyday the site had inexplicable idiosyncracies. Jorden had a visceral hatred of Renee Fleming, and at times Parterre seemed to be a fan site for Anna Netrebko, and little else. He, and the site, had little interest in the German repertoire and he seemed little bothered by the excesses of regieoper, despite his worship of the vocalism of certain singers, which seems like a vestige of an earlier generation.
They mole may well have been Sally (protected by her husband’s $$$), but more probably another person who was ultimately and summarily sacked, despite their talent.
What absolute nonsense. Parterre had lots of reviews and discussions of Wagner, Strauss and other German opera. And the comments would tend to be a hell of a lot more interesting than the comments on slipped disc.
I find it disturbing to read some of the comments posted here from people who sound as if they have a personal ax to grind with Mr.Jorden.
To begin with, it is rather distasteful to malign someone who has just passed away. But in addition, I have to say, as a frequent poster on Parterre for many years, I don’t really recognize the James Jorden or Parterre that is being depicted. There is generally much more hostility on display on Slipped Disc. If Jorden was caustic in the early days, he certainly toned it down in recent years, and for me Parterre feels like a very collegial, supportive and informative place. The many sincere and heartfelt comments that have appeared today on the site attest to that.
Mr. Jorden never “toned it down”. He used words as his personal weapon. Tactful and diplomatic he was not.
Credit where credit is due, he provided a space for opera queens (not a pejorative, BTW) and for that he will be remembered.
I doubt he would have disavowed his reputation. It was part of his brand for which I believe he had pride.
He will be missed by those who needed an outlet for their passion.
That’s because anyone who was decent or would disagree with Jorden’s perspective left that site years ago. All that is left are the sychophants. Caustic? He wasn’t just caustic. He was vicious. Read some of his many personal attacks on Renee Fleming. And where was Mr. Jorden when his favorite was supporting the gay-bashing Putin? He was still praising her. I’m sorry but what I find distasteful is writing page after page of laudatory comments about a public figure without even the slightest acknowledgment that person had a very dark side and a great many personality defects.
“That’s because anyone who was decent or would disagree with Jorden’s perspective left that site years ago.”
Generalize much?
Agree. As a straight, middle-of-the-road suburbanite who has read and participated in Parterre for the decade I can attest that Parterre is more collegial than this forum. Unless someone chooses to be rude and obnoxious of course, in which case the gloves deservedly came off.
I don’t think it’s quite fair to say he was incurious about the opera world outside New York. Sure, he and his site covered NYC opera productions far more extensively than any other publication did or does, but I think of that as a service to his community. Where else would people hear about opera companies without a major marketing budget were it not for JJ (and, also to his credit, Fred Plotkin)? Thanks to JJ’s coverage, we often learned about really interesting and thought-provoking work that was underrepresented in mainstream journals. Moreover, Jordan regularly wrote and posted about the European opera and Regietheater scenes. He brought a major focus to directors such as Kosky early in his Komische Oper days, not to mention Herheim, and countless other directors’ works that are rarely seen in the USA to this day. His writings on Castorf’s Ring were probably the first serious and honest attempt to try to understand what exactly was going on in that puzzling and fascinating production. He will be missed.
Sorry to hear this. I was once on the receiving end of one of his barbed comments after I tried to post a comment on his website, but didn’t take it personally. It appeared he didn’t like outsiders, so I figured it’s his website. But I loved reading his opera reviews and agreed with most of them. He once wrote a good thesis on what could be done to fix the Met, but none of his suggestions were taken up by the Met. As an opera fanatic, he was the real deal. One by one, they are all dying off. Soon, there won’t be anyone left that remembers Callas, Tebaldi or Scotto (or for that matter, Renee Fleming). But perhaps La Cieca could be kept alive like Callas’ recording company does with her memory, by still continuing to publish his columns. Maybe a young reader will catch the sacred fire and wonder who this mysterious La Cieca was. RIP James. I loved you because you loved opera and was willing to share your love with us.
My experience was that he welcomed me as an outsider when I once entered (and won) one of his “guess this opera from this production photo” contests. I subsequently met him at a Bard Festival opera performance. I’m a garden variety straight white older female and he was extremely cordial and volunteered to help me learn how to post comments on Disqus. He will be missed.
“a parallel opera environment in which the art was discussed primarily from an LGBT perspective” and “prejudiced, rude and generally incurious about much beyond the lyric art and the world outside New York”. Neither is the least bit true – plenty of non-gay contributors to the site (including me on occasion) and the site regularly linked to and discussed extensively streams of operatic productions abroad. Many of the most frequent contributors live in London, Paris, Germany etc. and discuss the local scenes in great detail.
James Jorden, like Norman Lebrecht, had many enemies as well as fans. I enjoy reading both of them because of their passion and strong opinions. In a world where most people care about Beyonce and Taylor Swift, I’m glad to hear from people who are passionate about opera and classical music, EVEN if I greatly disagree with them.
I had recently interviewed Lucas Meachem. I asked him how he handles negative social media feedback. His response was “Well, I appreciate the sentiment. First and foremost, I believe that internet trolls can target anyone. What they’re essentially saying is, “I care,” and that’s what I choose to hear. Whether it’s positive or negative caring, it’s still caring. Social media is a numbers game, about reaching people. If someone leaves a negative comment, there are others who come to my defense. I enjoy seeing people passionate about opera, even if they disagree with my interpretation of a role.”
https://stageandcinema.com/2023/09/29/lucas-meachem-interview/
Mr. Jorden didn’t have enemies; Mr. Jorden made enemies. He made enemies of others who loved the art form. He made enemies of people whose crime was to disagree with him. I occasionally disagree with Mr. Lebrecht here and I say so. I have never once in all these years found myself attacked by Mr. Lebrecht for having done so. Not once. That’s the difference. It’s clear that Jorden wanted his site “cleansed” of people who were “not on his side.” Contrast that with Mr. Lebrecht who allows all viewpoints to be aired here and doesn’t attack those who disagree.
I think you’ve made your point about how you didn’t like James (and upvoted your comment multiple times). Let the man rest in peace now.
Many people stopped contributing. You are completely correct to note a purge process, and many remaining contributors were cheered and buoyed by that. I am sad and conflicted by the way I feel about how terrifying he could be if anyone dared not to assent completely on matters (especially on staging and politically correct reinterpretations) set against the fact that he was very clever, clearly talented, and he earned the love of many people who’d had no cultural acceptance elsewhere. I am so sorry he died as young as he did, under circumstances we don’t know. He all but invented cultural blogging, since its dial-up infancy, and provided a vital forum for other talented writers dispossessed of their outlets in print media. But the dark side, one that I wish I didn’t have to recall so acutely, can be denied and breezily dismissed only by those remaining on his site. In that, he leaves a very tragic legacy. Just very sad all around.
@MMLK: Lucas chooses to share his life on social media; this makes his reasoning somewhat redundant. It’s calculated, in the sense that ‘there’s no bad publicity’.
As Bette Davis said : “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good.” JJ “is dead … good!”
I used to look at the website : there was a reviewer who was knowledgeable about the Met, I think he was called Corwen.
One day there appeared a review of My Fair Lady. The writer , “our own JJ” seemed to think that it was primarily a love story, and ignored the fact that Shaw intended Pygmalion to be a satire on English manners, an issue well developed later by Lerner and Loewe.
I, ignorant that “our own JJ” was actually Jorden, mildly suggested that the reviewer had perhaps misinterpreted the piece.
This was met with abuse, much of it ungrammatical and some of it misspelt. I thought then, and think now, that this is no way to run a serious website.
Regarding Terry Teachout, the WSJ critic. Terry was proudly conservative. He criticized victim art and hated anything theoretical or experimental. His mild white-savior racism came through in his Duke Ellington biography where he promoted the myth of Ellington as an undisciplined artist.
I like him already.
I’m sorry some people felt injured by things James wrote. I knew him for many years, both professionally and socially, and I never had an unkind word from him—and we didn’t have that much in common, now that I think about it. Since I’ve lived in Europe for ten years now, we haven’t been meeting for a while but still interacted on Facebook, for example. It wouldn’t occur to me to claim that he was always measured or totally inoffensive in his patented barbs, but I can’t imagine him dishing out some of the cruel personal evaluations that I’m reading here.
I’ve honestly wondered if he suffered from grave mental illness. He wondered whether Anna Netrebko might be the greatest soprano (wait for it!) of all time. Greater than Tebaldi, Ponselle, Teresa Stoltz, Giuditta Pasta, Anna Renzi? Oh it’s too absurd even to start naming, in fact it rather vitiates my point.
And then the towering rages from him when one posits gingerly another opinion.
Also, I don’t cotton to this “Don’t speak ill of the dead.” He was deliberately unkind to many.
A vile, envious, intolerant,opportunistic, disgusting loser, unworthy of mourning or respect. I cherish his permanent cancellation with boundless glee. I noted with satisfaction on Parterre, a few months back, that he and his ilk are old and going to die soon. I have no doubt that my comment has something to do with this joyous occasion of his pathetic demise. I sincerely hope this will be followed by the permanent disappearance of his foul coterie. I have a bottle of champagne or 2 in the fridge.
And you think JJ was unbalanced? I think you just made the case for any hostility JJ deservedly showed to you and your ilk.
But what didn’t you like about him?
Karma will not be kind to you, my friend.
The idea that because he died we shouldn’t say anything negative- is nonsense. He was a “public figure,” and seemingly not a beloved one, so any reaction to his life is fair game. We all know-on a more exalted scale-the evil that men do lives after them.
As with some people here, and apparently with many others, I was also subjected to Jorden’s anger and hate filled responses. This was many years ago when the “:opera boards” were new, wild and unregulated. Having different opinions is one thing, but savaging people who hold to their own is something else. I often wondered how a creature like that could be motivated to such rage, and twisted perspectives over something that was so beautiful. I don’t buy that because he was talking about opera, at least putting it on some map, it was excusable. But, of course, some of it was calculated, to be noticed, to epater les bourgeois, to be discussed for his outrage, and in that way he was successful, knew what he was doing. However I recall one time when he found my email and started sending me garbage-and that was inexcusable, even frightening. He was in some ways in advance of where the internet would go, but the irony is he used it as a means of intimidation which the rest of the world took some time to catch up to. Horrible to say, but maybe he never outlived that part of his personality because he apparently died alone and needed a 911 call to discover his body.
My impression was he didn’t know a great deal about music, or singing in general, and specialized in a limited kind of diva cultism. His main statement about trying to revive when opera was dangerous and exciting, etc. always missed the point to me, and seemed like someone who had simply not been around for the last great age of opera. To be fair some of his later reviews when he didn’t have to attract attention could have some interesting observations about opera as drama. I was never that impressed with his great knowledge of opera or its history, but as he transitioned to his own site, which he controlled with an authoritarian hand, and not seeing him on public sites, I had lost track of him.
If I must say something positive?-he knew how to attract attention (FGS-look at the attention he’s getting now!) and he was nothing, if not persistent. I think what he represented is part of the descent of the operatic art form-but I don’t think he was a cause or an instigator of it, just part of the coarse slide of it to its present state. I could see how he thought getting press seats at the Met, or being mentioned by Gelb was a sign to him he had arrived, but for me they were nothing to celebrate.
Brilliantly stated.
Very interesting comment.
So people here are objecting to Parterre Box because its content seemed dictated by the personal preferences of its founder, and the comments evidenced an offensive political slant?
Yeah, nobody who reads Slipped Disc could ever imagine THAT!
All of both the good and bad said about JJ in these comments is true. He was passionate and seriously knowledgeable, and he also had a propensity for intolerance, exaggeration, and downright hostility that would flare up at the oddest times, sometimes without discernible provocation. But: he cared, he knew what he was talking about, and when in the right mood he was one of the three or four most competent reviewers of opera working in the English language. As far as I know, there are fewer than a dozen regularly published critics who are _even_ competent, so that is a big loss right there.
Thank you for saving me the time from having to write an identical response. I knew him (from the Net alone) for many years when he would sometimes respond to my writings/reviews elsewhere and likewise. Yes, he had his demons and was very bitchy but his talent and overwhelming dedication to opera much outweighed that. I, for one, will miss him.
I loved his humour and his passion for opera. Such a loss. RIP.
I hate to speak ill of the dead, but Jorden was hostile, overly opinionated, angry and frequently incorrect. He was often tossed off Opera-L and his website was a train-wreck filled with hostile feuds. It amazes me how many people are writing “woe is me” opinions on their Facebook feeds regarding the demise of this man.
You obviously haven’t visited Parterre in the last 10 years. I have, and I don’t recognize your description of Parterre. I am a straight, suburban, opinionated, middle-of-the-road, insists-on-good-behavior-not-tantrums type person. I see more hostility, anger and rudeness here than I ever have on Parterre Box.
Just about everyone at Parterre Box, definitely including James Jorden/La Cieca, has been on better behavior in the past ten years than in the previous ten.
Principally because many have died.
“Passionate” is often a polite euphemism for “deeply disturbed”. And this trait was scarcely limited to Mr. Jordan.
I used to read Usenet groups and there was more sober, polite, well-argued discussion in a single thread of rec.sports.baseball than in the entirety of rec.music.opera.
To be fair, rec.music.opera was particularly notorious for … what’s the phrase I want? … rhetorical excess.
I had no idea gays were attracted to the performing arts.
This has been one of the most interesting threads I’ve read for a long time. I’d never heard of this bloke but was fascinated by the lack of reserve on the part of those who clearly had at least one axe to grind. Your comments served as a fascinating counterpoint to those of his supporters, providing a complete outsider with a disturbingly full picture of the deceased, at least in his internet form. Thank you, everyone.
Below is a blurb that Mr. Jorden wrote about my mother, soprano Marta Eggerth, following one of her annual appearances at the legendary Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation gala concerts at Lincoln Center. It is written in the spirit of his wit. Enjoy!
But, for La Cieca’s money the hit of the afternoon was Marta Eggerth Kiepura, who twinkled and sighed and smiled a wistful little half-smile and finally consented to sing “just one little song.” A standing ovation heartened her enough to attempt “just one little encore.: No, my dears, Frau Kiepura was not
hiding behind the door when they were handing out brains. It was almost an embarrassment of riches that the Hungarian folk song, was ravishingly sung, two and a half minutes of spun silk…..The two divas Licia Albanese and Marta Eggerth exchanged kiss after kiss, then they brought down the house with their classic “no, after you” exit. Patrice Munsel’s take on the preceding love-feast “ These two great ladies of the stage could give all of us acting lessons.”: Me-ow!
Thank you and rest in peace, Mr. Jorden.
As an avid online battler of Jorden and his arrogance for 26 YEARS I can say the article above is spot on. Period. May he rest in peace and I hope he did not suffer in his waning hours. Now…let’s move along.
He banned me for noting his obsessive hatred of Renee Fleming. I made a new account
Every time I – a straight, European opera lover for more than fifty years – remembered to look at Parterre Box I learned something, laughed at something and felt freed up to post things forbidden elsewhere. I don’t mean gossip (I don’t know any) or attacks (not my style) but insidery technical matters which in other places are considered not-quite-playing-the-game in the cosy world of arts journalism and cultural promotion (questions about a singer, an opera, a production, whatever) For example about the hidden miking of stars on famous opera stages. Ooh er. Parterre handled everything calmly and well in my admittedly only occasional acquaintance. RIP.
What was the cause of death?
I knew James Jorden, who was a good friend of my spouse, Jason McVicker, aka “Enzo Bordello” to Parterre Box readers. I thought he was entertaining and sharp-as-a-tack witty. James didn’t like me because I’m not witty. Perhaps he was too witty, because there was always a zinger with every sentence he spoke, then he’d let out a little laugh. I guess my time is up….