Many
performing venues, from theaters to symphony halls to opera houses, are experimenting with inviting audience members to tweet their impressions during a live performance. The phenomenon of Tweet Seats is taking hold, with varying success and acceptance. We have been delighted with the
Twitter activity during our Opera at the Ballpark performances, where the big space and relaxed atmosphere make it less distracting to see people focused on their small screens along with the big one.
San Francisco Opera unknowingly hosted a live tweeter in 2010; Dylan Tweney wrote in Wired: "After all, people have live-tweeted Steve Jobs keynotes, ballgames, breaking news events and even births. Twitter is very well suited to giving people a glimpse of something as it happens, adding a communal (and even global) dimension to real-time events. So why not opera?"
Why not, indeed! At San Francisco Opera, because we do not want other patrons distracted, we do not allow tweeting at regular performances, but we will have a limited number of Tweet Seats at the final dress rehearsal for John Adams' Nixon in China on Tuesday, June 5 at 2pm.
Our goal is to have a mixture of voices, from opera novice to opera knowledgeable, chime in with their impressions of this work that has been dubbed “the greatest American opera of the last quarter-century” (Associated Press) and hailed by The New Yorker: "Not since Porgy and Bess has an American opera won such universal acclamation as Nixon in China."
Interested in tweeting about a working rehearsal in action? See the Tweet Seat application form here and please spread the word! Application deadline is Friday, June 1 at noon; Seats are limited and applying does not guarantee a seat.
For more on Nixon in China, see our production page here.