Thursday, April 23, 2009

Opera Tweet

A few months back I ran into Cynthia Moxley, a long-time fan and supporter of the KSO, after a pops concert. We chatted for a few minutes and she asked me if I twittered. I have to confess that I didn't even know what that was. And, honestly, I still don't. But now I have a Twitter account because I came across an irresistible contest while reading the classical music news. Described as “the most fun opera nerds can have in 140 characters or less” the contest invites people to condense the basic plot of any opera down to a single witty tweet. Opera companies around the world have taken notice of the contest and many are offering up tickets as a prize to the winning tweet.

The winning tweet from the last contest was: “Seamstress pals around with bohemians in a December-May affair Receives muff as parting gift” Describing La Boheme.

A few of my favorites are:
“He goes thru hell to retrieve her. They say don’t look back. He does anyway. No do-overs.” (L'Orfeo)
“Naive geisha carries a tune, carries a torch, carries a child. Can’t carry on. Hari-kiris herself.” (Mme Butterfly)
“If a cigarette doesn’t kill you, the girl who made it will…” (Carmen)

The contest begins April 27th and ends on May 2nd. To give you some creative fuel for your entries, the Rossini Festival is taking place in downtown Knoxville this coming weekend. The UT Opera Theater will present Mozart's Don Giovanni, which features a talking statue, while the KSO and the Knoxville Opera Company will team up to perform Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, where all the main characters spend the second act dressed as clowns. And who said opera was boring?!

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