OPERAPLOT 2010 – The Lowdown
Dates: 9am EST Monday 26th April to midnight EST Friday 30th April.
Judge: Jonas Kaufmann
Headlining House: Opera Theatre Company based in Dublin is offering two tickets to their Marriage of Figaro production in May, 3 nights hotel stay and up to 1000€ towards flights.
Other participating houses (full details here – updated as new houses join)
Atlanta Opera, Edmonton Opera, Fort Worth Opera Festival, Opera Australia, Opera San Jose, Portland Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Scottish Opera, Seattle Opera, Vancouver Opera,
Other prizes
Universal has put CD and DVD sets of Wagner, Haydn and Mozart into the pool. In addition to be fantastic in their own right, these prizes help solve the problem of opera houses not being especially portable….a bit of a snag in a global competition. Tickets for the Vancouver aren’t very useful to a winner living in Atlanta.
How it works:
Anyone can enter. Contestants must have a Twitter account.
The idea is to summarize the plot of an opera in 140 characters- the Twitter maximum – or less.
Each tweet must carry the #operaplot tag, so everyone can follow along.
Contestants can enter up to 10 times.
5 winners will be chosen by Jonas. They will each get to choose a prize out of the pool in a randomly selected order.
A few facts about last year:
32 opera houses in 4 countries
Over 500 entries
Danielle DeNiese judged the comp
It ended up with Priscilla Barrow, an inner city school music teacher in DC, getting an Opera Ball fairy tale courtesy of the Washington National Opera and #operaplot winner Stephen Llewellyn
Compressing the plot wasn’t enough of a challenge for some. By the end, people were writing haiku, limericks and even doing the whole Ring cycle in one tweet.
Top 5 from 2009
@leboyfriend – There was a young lady called Fricka Who . . . who . . . *snore* ‘Wake up — it’s over.’ It’s good, I just wish it were quicka. [The Ring]
@wordsmusic – Here’s my castle. Are you afraid? No, I’m going to open all those damn doors! Are you afraid? No, let me in! Who’s that? Oh shit. [Bluebeard]
@musicbizkid – Let me get this straight: unfathomable treasure if I betroth my loopy daughter to a ghost? Deal. She’ll meet you by the fjord. [The Flying Dutchman]
@DrGeoduck – Who wants to live forever? Me! No, wait, i changed my mind. *dies* [The Makropolus Case]
@voxdixit – Monk: Repent, courtesan! (Meditation) Courtesan: Okay! Monk: Wait, there is no God after all! Courtesan: Too late, I’m dead! [Thais]
A bit about me
A freelance classical music journalist and ghostwriter from Toronto. I write a lot of books on business as well as arts journalism for the Toronto Star, the CBC and Sony. Online, I am Miss Mussel of TheOmniscientMussel.com. I’m doing this mostly because it’s really fun. Opera fans are usually pretty nerdy and love to play games, so #operaplot is a really good fit.
So … if you aren’t already on Twitter you might want to sign up and start having fun on April 26!
