#operaplot RETURNS!

It is with great anticipation that the all of opera nerddom awaits the opening of this years #operaplot twitter competition. This competition began last year as the brain-child of Marcia Adair, known to her tweeps as missmussel. The goal of every entry is to summarize an entire opera and include “#operaplot” in the space of 140 characters, the length of a tweet. The coveted prizes of the competition range from free opera tickets to entire opera trip packages.
    Last years competition rocked the opera marketing world as a “gee, I wish I would have thought of that” idea. The winning contestant was selected by the lyric soprano Danielle De Niese. The winner, Stephen Llewellyn of Portland, gave his prize package at the Opera Ball of the Washington National Opera to Priscilla Barrow, an inner city music teacher who had a fairytale evening.
    This year’s competition will open tomorrow at 9am EST and end Monday April 30th at the stroke of 12 EST. The competition will be judged by German tenor Jonas Kaufman, who has a daunting task ahead of him considering how last year some contestants began to incorporate haiku, limericks and even attempted to compress the entire Ring cycle in the span of a tweet. This years coveted prize has been provided by Dublin’s Opera Theater Company, who is offering two tickets to their Marriage of Firago, three nights stay at a hotel, and up to 1000€ towards flights.
    #operaplot Competition Guidelines
- Anyone can enter. Contestants must have a Twitter account.
- The idea is to summarize the plot of an opera in 140 characters, (the Twitter maximum) or less.
- Each tweet must carry the #operaplot tag, so everyone can follow along.
- Contestants can enter up to 10 times.
- 5 winners will be chosen by Jonas. They will each get to choose a prize out of the pool in a randomly selected order.  
 For more information please contact http://theomniscientmussel.com/