The Royal Opera House is planning to stage a Twitter opera. Skip related content
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'First' Twitter opera getting ready The plot will be worked out by twitterers contributing one line at a time, then put to music by professionals.
Officials claim it will be the world's first online opera story. But some harbour doubts about the quality of the work that will be performed in September.
"It's a gimmick, but not a malign gimmick," London music critic Norman Lebrecht said. "I wouldn't put too high hopes on it. It won't produce great opera."
He said the use of internet technology to concoct a collective work of art is not new - but that success stories have been very rare.
"In the earlier days of the internet there were a number of collaborative novels, including some started by major writers, and none of them worked," he said.
Fans are contributing to the libretto line by line, their imaginations limited only by the Twitter format, which allows a maximum of 140 characters to be posted at a time.
Alison Duthie, director of ROH2, the Royal Opera House's contemporary programme, said the use of Twitter is part of a wider effort to get more people interested in the art form.
"We wanted to engage with audiences in the creation of an opera," she said. "We felt it would be a good way to be interactive with the public and with audiences. We wanted to explore how to get people involved at a creative level." The plot that is taking shape is surreal and, at the same time, very dramatic, she said.
More than 350 people have contributed so far, with more signing on every day as word of the unusual project spreads.
