London Survives Twitterdammerung

The world’s first Twitter opera survived its opening night at the Royal Opera House, and London Bridge is still standing.

No word yet on whether the Royal family is okay.  Queen Elizabeth has an iPod — actually two — and has handled progress well so far. It’s probably a safe bet to say the monarchy has survived.

Twitter Opera Twitterdammerung: a cheap gimmick? Photo: Andrew Crowley It’s best to read Telegraph critic’s Igor Toronyl-Lalic’s review of Twitterdammerung. OMG — he wrote “yikes” in his review. How NOT British!

In an attempt to engage young people in opera, the challenge was this. Build an operatic story around: “One morning, very early, a man and a woman were standing, arm-in-arm, in London’s Covent Garden.”

Critics screamed that the effort would tarnish opera forever but the Royal Opera House said they would “demystify” opera, come hell or high water.

Overwhelmed with how to meld 900 twits, they delivered a 25-minute extract of the project on Saturday evening, as part of the Deloitte Ignite arts festival. A