{"id":579,"date":"2011-04-11T08:40:17","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T08:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=579"},"modified":"2011-04-11T08:40:17","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T08:40:17","slug":"nothing_happens_melisande_dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2011\/04\/nothing_happens_melisande_dies\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Nothing happens; Melisande dies.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"left\">\n<div align=\"left\">In T minus 20 minutes, this year&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23operaplot\">#OperaPlot<\/a> begins again. The contest, started by blogger <i><a href=\"http:\/\/theomniscientmussel.com\/\">The Omniscient Mussel<\/a><\/i> (yes, we know that sounds like a stripper name but she&#8217;s not), is in its third year. Of #OperaPlot&#8217;s inception, Miss Mussel told <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/culture\/charlottehigginsblog\/2009\/apr\/21\/classicalmusicandopera-twitter\">The Guardian<\/a>:<\/i><\/div>\n<p><i><br \/><\/i><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I started this contest a month ago on a whim.  I was writing programme<br \/>\nnotes for the RNCM and tweeted that I was having trouble with word<br \/>\ncreep&#8230; one of those mundane details Twitter disparagers claim not to<br \/>\nbe interested in.  @pattyoboe, an oboist blogger from California<br \/>\nsuggested I should tweet the notes.  That seemed impractical but then I<br \/>\nthought, what about opera?  Tweets are the perfect antidote to<br \/>\nconvoluted plot summaries&#8230;so I launched the contest with a single<br \/>\nTweet.  I only had about 50 followers at the time but word got out and<br \/>\nby the time the contest ended three days later, the whole world (ok, the<br \/>\nwhole opera world) knew about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"left\">This year&#8217;s esteemed judge is a familiar face &#8217;round these parts: <i>LIfe A Pitch<\/i>&#8216;s Favorite Alberich, Eric Owens. He&#8217;ll be reading your Tweets in his free time while singing with the Chicago Symphony<i> <\/i>here and in Chicago. Maybe Riccardo Muti can lend a hand. Here&#8217;s Eric introducing the contest:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gAlrq_m4W-E?rel=0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"390\" width=\"480\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div align=\"left\">So, Twitches, <a href=\"http:\/\/theomniscientmussel.com\/2011\/04\/operaplot-2011-rules-and-faq\/\">submit your entries<\/a>! Opera houses, <a href=\"http:\/\/theomniscientmussel.com\/2011\/04\/operaplot-2011-prize-pool\/\">submit your prizes<\/a>! <\/p>\n<p>Also, there is some talk of Eric doing a dramatic reading (\/singing?) of the winners, so stand by for that. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In T minus 20 minutes, this year&#8217;s #OperaPlot begins again. The contest, started by blogger The Omniscient Mussel (yes, we know that sounds like a stripper name but she&#8217;s not), is in its third year. Of #OperaPlot&#8217;s inception, Miss Mussel told The Guardian: I started this contest a month ago on a whim. I was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}