oboeinsight

I, once again, didn’t place in the #operaplot contest. Hmm. Third year. Third loss. Three strikes, I’m out? I wonder!

I must admit my heart wasn’t as into it this year. Maybe it was due to the odds of winning but I’m actually thinking it’s because I just wasn’t feeling the creativity bug. I can’t say why, but I’m in a slump when it comes to creativity. I’m sure you’ve even noticed my blog is sort of getting stale. (Hmmm. Is it time to hang it up? Oh dear ….)

Oooh … please don’t tell me the blog has always been stale. Then I just might cry! Um … kidding. Really. Sort of. Maybe. You decide. ;-)

But if you want to read the winners go here. (Warning: the f-bomb does occur. That, too, sort of tells me I’m probably not a good contestant for #operaplot. I like to do rhyming. I like puns. I can be silly. I just don’t like the racier stuff and I won’t swear. Man, I’m sounding — and feeling! — like an old fogey! Even writing “old fogey” means I’m … well … an old fogey!

“Fogey” is a very funny word if you write it or say it enough.

Hearty congratulations to the winners, and enjoy your prizes!

Me? I feel like a winner every time I find myself in the pit playing for opera. And that’s prize enough for me! :-)

I was doing a bit more searching on #operaplot blogs (I will try to put together a list of links sometime this weekend to other opera lovers who were involved in the fun) and I ran across a 2009 article about how Miss Mussel began this event in the first place:

I started this contest a month ago on a whim. I was writing programme notes for the RNCM and tweeted that I was having trouble with word creep… one of those mundane details Twitter disparagers claim not to be interested in. @pattyoboe, an oboist blogger from California suggested I should tweet the notes. That seemed impractical but then I thought, what about opera? Tweets are the perfect antidote to convoluted plot summaries…so I launched the contest with a single Tweet. I only had about 50 followers at the time but word got out and by the time the contest ended three days later, the whole world (ok, the whole opera world) knew about it.

GEE … how about that!?

So never mind a prize. I feel sort of like a winner already.

Or is that whiner? Hmmm.

Yep. #operaplot is nearly over for 2011. Eric Owens has already read some of his faves. I wasn’t included. But I’m not crying. The fun is in making the stuff up … right?

Well, sort of. It would be fun to win some year!

One thing I’m well aware of: I don’t know all that many operas! Some of the ones I tweeted were actually not ones I knew; I just studied up. But next year (if Miss Mussel does this again) I want to only tweet those I’ve heard.

So I finished up with my goofy little entries. This year Miss Mussel reported there were many more entries. I’m not counting on a prize at all. I didn’t feel all that creative for some reason. But of course I still entered my allowed 25. I’m going to guess that if this happens again next year the allowed entries will be lower. Poor Eric Owens is going to have a lot of reading to do! (I’d simply quickly cross out all that don’t hit me right away if I were him.)

Side note: Eric Owens plays oboe. Sadly I don’t believe that helps me in any way. Oboe makes no appearance in my plots!

So here are my entries, exactly as I had to post them to keep them at 140 characters. See if you can figure ‘em all out. (Some operas appear more than once, as you will see, I’m sure!):

APRIL 11
• Donnie G, puddin’ n pie, kissed the girls & made ‘em cry. A statue came to talk a spell & Donnie G. went down to hell. #operaplot
• The evening’s young but I am not; I’ll drink this potion down. The Devil with this #operaplot! Nowhere to go but down.
• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Does Judith find our marriage heaven? Can’t believe she fell for me, now she sees her destiny. #operaplot
• “Hey there, wanna join my Bible study after that beer? Then maybe later we can ride off into the sunset.” #operaplot

APRIL 12
• The words? The music? How to choose? Will one man win, the other lose? To supper now, I’m too confused. #operaplot
• Dear Miss Manners, Mom is a total drama queen. She hates the guy I love (a real prince) & told me to stab him w this knife. Help! #operaplot
• This crazy opera’s one wild ride, but hey what do I see? Composer didn’t write the music for act number 3! Holy Cow! #operaplot
• Holding court for him’s no jest, he’ll mock each soul in sight. But now the curse is in the bag & he’s in for a fright. #operaplot
• “Batter my heart.” “Better: batter on chicken! Weather or not, it’s time now to act. Besides I’m hungry! Food is the bomb!” #operaplot
• Ah telepods you rotten things! Transported, now I cry. That’s one experiment that failed – I’ve turned into a fly. #operaplot

APRIL 13
• Breaking News: 337 year old woman found! “She’s as cold as they come,” attorney Kolenaty said. Breaking news update: Dead. #operaplot
• The trail’s scent might be quite strong but things are looking grim: his sense of smell has disappeared due to a barber’s trim. #operaplot
• Cinderella, dressed in yella, gave a bracelet to a fella. She wins out & sisters lose & nowhere do you see glass shoes. #operaplot
• A burning bush & rules on stones, all sung in 12 row order tones. A golden calf, a cloud, some fire & love for God Moses’ desire. #operaplot
• “Dear stepdaughter what’s the matter?”"Put his head upon a platter!”"Dance for me the deed is done (now I wish she’d been a son).”#operaplot

APRIL 14
• Candle, key, cold hand: poetry. Momus (he acts jealously). We live, we love, we fight, we cry, we part, I’m back & then I die. #operaplot
• Breaking News: Geisha girl, mother of one, stabs self after recording first episode of new radio show: His American Wife #operaplot
• OK, so like it starts with this guy singing to a TREE. OMG! I mean … A TREE?! He loves his tree! & everyone has weird names, 2. #operaplot
• Farming&fishing&drugs, oh my! Craps, 1 man killed: people cry, a storm, more death & she leaves town, Porgy goes 2 track her down.#operaplot
• Shave & a haircut –– no nose! #operaplot

APRIL 15
• Captain doesn’t really fly.A girl leaves Erik for the guy.The captain leaves,he misunderstood!She takes a leap.It all ends good.#operaplot
• They cannot mask the love they have, but they will not succumb. His killer pardoned, he will die. It’s all so very glum. #operaplot
• Mom kills dad; I’m quite mad. Dead brother lives? Gee, what gives? I tell my brother: kill my mother! Task is done, I die stunned.#operaplot
• Makes sense to me: Kill the 1st 1 I see. Oh no it’s my son! This won’t be fun. But things wind up fine though Electra will whine. #operaplot
• She dances with veils in quite the mad state, the next thing you know, his head’s on a plate. #operaplot

So there you have it. And now I am done … wasn’t that fun?

By the way, there is still time for you, if you haven’t tweeted any entries yet. The contest closes down at 11:59 PM EDT. Go here for the rules & faq and here for so much more!

Yep. It’s 9:00 AM EDT, which means you may now start your engines … or at least your operaplots! More info here.

Everyone is, I’m sure, all atwitter about it!

So put THAT in your pipe and tweet it.

So it’s about to begin again. The Omnicient Mussel has announced a lot about the twitter operaplot event, so check it out! April 11 through 15 are the dates, and the judge this year is Eric Owens! Here are the rules & FAQ.

Will I participate? Hmmm.

Dunno.

I feel as if I’m running on empty when it comes to all things creative and witty. Could it be that my pun ‘n poetry skill (which was already lacking last year) has totally disappeared? I wonder.

But time will tell. I didn’t think I’d participate last year either, and then I wound up jumping in with gusto. But Jonas Kaufmann didn’t like me. Sigh.

Yeah, I sort of took it personally. Rejection is a killer.

As an American and someone who both lived in and loves New York City, I am puzzled and embarrassed by the conspicuous absence of support for Operaplot plotters from other New York City opera houses.

Gale Martin ponders New York’s lack of generosity when it comes to operaplot. Check out Miss Mussel’s prize pool. Only thing there from the big apple is American Lyric Theatre. Why don’t the Big Guys wanna play? Or even the somewhat smaller big guys?

So what’s up, you guys? Huh?

Yeah. I’m talkin’ to you.

Nope. I’m a loser. Sigh. Well, except for a “side pot” which was a CD of Anna Karenina … but I feel a tad guilty about that one since it’s from my very own Opera San José. So oh well. I’m no operaplot queen, as it turns out. Who knew? ;-)

Will I do it again next year?

Oh probably. Right now I feel as if I’ve used up all my little ideas, and I know they aren’t quite as clever as the winners’ were, but I continue to wish and dream and all that jazz. Besides, it was just too darn fun!

Wanna see who did win? Here are the deserving winners. Congratulations to all of you!

Thanks, Marcia Adair, for putting this thing together again. It was a great diversion from reed making, to be sure. :-)

Prizes are being given out. Tomorrow is the Big Day (no, I really doubt I’ll win, but I can dream, can’t I?), but Miss Mussel handed out some prizes today. Check out the winners! They are all deserving, to be sure.

In addition, prizes have been handed out elsewhere. Opera San José gave out tickets to opening weekend of Anna Karenina, and the recipient was none other than @mlaffs, who has a blog here. (Note the blog name! Maura and I have met, and I’m so happy she was the one to get that prize!) And hey, they even awarded me with a CD of Anna Karenina (that’ll come in quite handy!), and I was given an “honorable mention” at OPERA-TOONITY. Many thanks, too, to JCM for including one of my operaplots as a fave.

Now I’ll have to start planning for next year!

Okay, I’m done, the operaplot deadline has passed, and I actually submitted a whopping 25 (the max allowed). I’m going to guess MIss Mussel limits the entries next year; how Jonas Kauffmann is going to go through all of these I don’t know!

While we are told we have 140 characters in which to get our plot out there, we really only have 130 (or 131 if you don’t put a space between the plot and the #operaplot tag that is required). Sometimes that was a challenge. Obviously you have to draw out only a portion of the plot; operas can get rather complicated!

I’m not sure if all of mine will be understood by everyone. One requires knowledge of a song from White Christmas to really “get”. Some might be a bit vague, but I always try to have a hint that opera lovers will catch. None of mine are the sort that appeal to the folks who like those funny ways of spelling words (like using numbers as letters), and I don’t use symbols because those don’t always translate to someone else’s page (I’m probably using the wrong codes when I do that). I did receive some very kind kudos from some, but I know others really weren’t impressed. There you go. It’s all a matter of taste, yes?

But here they are, ready or not. Can you guess the operas? Hope so!

• She dances just to get a head.
• Why would he leave true love? Only the shadow knows. It all results in bedlam.
• No virgin village this, but there’s one fish in the sea who is. Will it be the death of him? Naw. Grab the money & run for fun!
• When a girl can’t get the guy she wants she takes care of him in a pyramid scheme. At least he doesn’t die lonely.
• Sisters! Sisters! Never have u seen such fickle sisters. Turks arrive & they fall so quick. Fiances return; it was all a trick.
• Cold hands, warm heart. Come Spring, we will part. Cough cough, say goodbye. Warmer hands, but still I die.
• Ah, that old black magic. Wishes are granted; knowledge & power of genius are his. But the devil is in the details.
• Love is in the air and at Bullier’s! But her sordid past nixes marriage; it’s something she just can’t swallow.
• Leaving your husband & child isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In the end she finally gets on track.
• A ghostly resemblance & a hairy strangulation. Whew! Murder is all illusion. That does it, I’m gonna escape this dead city.
• Fall in love with an ass? Dream on.
• Whoa, he sure faked well in front of that firing squad. Oh. Wait. Guess I’ll take a flying leap.
• He’s made a long list, checked it more than twice. Everyone knows he’s naughty, not nice. Dinner time for Statue & Don.
• It’s all relatives except the biggest winner, Gianni.
• Oh say can you see my American wife? She will come take your child, and you’ll take your life.
• It won’t end well; U love your friend’s wife. He will find out & you’ll lose your life but 1st pardon is given; all is forgiven.
• A Golden Opportunity! Buy the chocolate. Find the ticket. Get the tour. Will Charlie win Wonka’s heart? Willie?
• Always trouble! Man, wanting to stroke soft fur can get a person shot in the head. That’s so not mice.
• 3 Rhine maidens like to sing; this is how we start the Ring. It won’t end for several days, with lots of death & one large blaze.
• I love her, she loves me not. What’s he have that I ain’t got? Mmmmm, elixir hits the spot! (I even rhymed with #operaplot!)
• Families feud. Lovers wed. Potion taken, she looks dead. Lovers sing. Lovers die. Feud is over. Now goodbye.
• She threw the wrong baby into the fire, now the gypsy’s only desire is avenging her mom, & then she’ll retire.
• His painted on smile does nothing but chill her and his clownin’ around will be a real killer.
• If he’d stuck to loving his tree instead of wanting me there wouldn’t be three acts of misery. At least it all ends happily.
• Smokin’ hot story: Seduction. Desertion. Prediction of death. Rejection. New lover. She takes her last breath.

Here is our judge this year, Jonas Kaufmann:

And here he is, joined by a few others (Renee Fleming, Barbara Vignudelli and Paolo Cautoruccio), singing some of La Rondine.

Bevo al Tuo Fresco Sorriso

I often feel like I can’t come up with a darn thing for the twitter operaplot contest, and yet I keep trying. Go figure! I guess I am competitive after all. Hmmm.

I had totally forgotten what I did last year, so I’m glad that they are up for me to see (and get embarrassed over). Some are so bad I can’t post them here. Some are moderately acceptable, so I’ll admit to them, although they just aren’t clever enough to win anything.

I’m sure you can guess the operas:

@pattyoboe – Smoking hot might win the guys, especially with her fiery eyes. But it’s bound to kill her too, ’tis true. No bull

@pattyoboe – opera haiku: sad sack hides daughter/cad tries to get her in sack/daughter dies in sack

@pattyoboe – They both may die a Shakespearean death, but this time they take their last breath together. Lucky kids.

@pattyoboe – I must marry who mom said/Why can’t you love me instead?/I’ll shoot myself with your husband’s gun/Kiss/Die/Opera done

… the weird thing is that I had forgotten about these and some new ones are awfully close to what I did last year. More embarrassment! Sigh.

So far I’ve submitted seven this year. I’ll post ‘em all when the contest has ended (Friday). Or maybe I’ll post ‘em all. I might decide they simply aren’t presentable enough. We’ll see!