After diving into Twitter last month, one of my happiest discoveries was #operaplot, a competition (launched by this brilliant individual) to summarize opera plots within the confines of Twitter’s 140-character limit — massive, epic narratives constrained to absurdly small dimensions.
The contest had basic rules, fabulous prizes donated by web-eager opera companies around the world, a celebrity judge, and no barriers to entry (not even a Twitter account was required). The responses were voluminous and hilarious. Winners have just been announced. A few favorites:
@voxdixit – Monk: Repent,
courtesan! [Meditation] Courtesan: Okay! Monk: Wait, there is no God
after all! Courtesan: Too late, I’m dead! [Thais]@DrGeoduck – Who wants to live forever? Me! No, wait, i changed my mind. *dies* [Faust]
@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]
Beneath the goofiness lie a thousand lessons about how to engage passionate enthusiasts in the on-line world. But the goofiness, alone, is an absolute good. Well done, Miss Mussel.
I hope many classical music organizations take the whole #operaplot concept and apply the lessons learned to their social media strategies.
Miss Mussel was gracious enough to grant me a quick e-mail interview on my blog
Distillation is a wonderful thing.