twitter opera

August 19th, 2009

an opera built from tweets, to be performed by the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, in September. the story is bird-related, and seems surreal enough for grand opera.

This is the summary (today) of the story thus far:

In brief, at the end of Act One, Scene One, William is languishing in a tower, having been kidnapped by a group of birds who are anxious for revenge after he has killed one of their number. Hans has promised to rescue him. The Woman With No Name is off to her biochemistry laboratory to make a potion to let people speak to the birds.

The Telegraph reported on this story, quoting the BBC Music Magazine’s Deputy Editor:

“Whenever there is a new fad you know somebody in the art world is going to grab hold of it by the horns,” he tells the London Evening Standard.

“They should be careful that it doesn’t overtake the serious stuff they do.”

(serious?) I don’t think much of opera was really considered particularly “serious” back in the day. i think any time a genre (like “opera”) is re-imagined, it’s always bound to be a good day.