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Cosi Fan Tweeti... ROH asks bloggers to write opera
Lawrence Conway10 Aug 2009
A new opera composed entirely of "tweets" is being produced by the Royal Opera House in a bid to shake off its old-fashioned image.
The venue has teamed up with micro-blogging website Twitter to produce "The Twitter Opera" which will be completely composed from publicly contributed messages.
The ROH will join the 140-character tweets into a libretto, set them to familiar opera tunes and new music by composer Helen Porter, and stage the result at its Covent Garden home next month.
Contributions to the tweet opera are being published on the ROH website, and the 35 offerings so far vary widely.
One Twitter user penned: "A small bird twitters over there, He sings without a single care, If only we could be so free, Without the worries and the "
Another offered: "Darling, I must tell you. I can't stand you - no, stronger. You are a horse. And now escape is what I long for".
A third wrote: "Nuts, I love hazelnuts. Bang! The bird dropped from the sky, dead, its tiny wings were frozen."
Alison Duthrie, from the ROH, said: "It's the people's opera, the perfect way for everyone to become involved with the inventiveness of opera as the ultimate form of story telling."
But some critics say the exercise is a publicity stunt that could threaten the opera house's reputation.
Jeremy Pound, BBC Music Magazine deputy editor, said: "It was an accident waiting to happen. Whenever there is a new fad, you know that someone in the art world is going to grab hold of it by the horns.
"As long as it's just a one-off, it isn't too bad. They should be careful that it doesn't overtake the serious stuff that they do."
Jonathan Lennie, Time Out's classical music critic, said: "Opera belongs to everyone.
"This is good because it is experimental. It demystifies the process of creating opera."
Excerpts from the final libretto will be performed from 4 to 6 September.
