Poll: Are tweet seats in theaters a good idea?

Culture fans, brace yourselves: Twitter is poised to invade live performances in a major way as arts groups across the country entertain the idea of reserving sections of the house for people to tweet during events.

The trend of tweet seats started a couple of years ago as various arts organizations tested the concept at certain performances. In 2010, the Pacific Symphony encouraged audiences to tweet during an outdoor performance at -- where else? -- the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine.

Other groups that have at some point encouraged live audience tweeting include the Lyric Opera in Kansas, the Carolina Ballet, the Dayton Opera and the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. This month  came news that the new Tateuchi Center in Bellevue, Wash., is being constructed with its own wireless antenna to allow audiences to tweet, text and access Facebook during live performances.

The phenomenon is even starting to gain a toehold on Broadway. As reported by USA Today, the current Broadway revival of "Godspell" intends to use tweet seats at some point in its run.

The trend is part of an effort by arts groups to cultivate younger audiences. But organizations risk alienating loyal subscribers who would be bothered or annoyed by the glare of digital devices and the flurry of thumb activity from their neighbors.

We know what Patti LuPone would think of all of this. (Hint: Take cover.) But what do you think? Make your opinion heard by taking our poll.

Opera rules to live by, according to Twitter

A lively hashtag on Twitter is #operarulestoliveby, instigated by the Twitter account of the Royal Opera House. Some of the most clever entries playfully tweak the predictably of opera's plots.

Below are some of our favorites, starting with two from Bob Kingston of Portland, who tweets under the name @operaskank.

Share your personal choices in the comments.

 

-- Sherry Stern

@sherrystern

Photo: The Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden. Credit: Reuters

Monster Mash: London riots impact theaters; Ai Weiwei lashes out

 

Civil unrest: Some London theaters have canceled shows due to the ongoing riots, but none yet in the West End. (The Stage UK)

Not quiet anymore: Artist Ai Weiwei has lashed out against the Chinese government on Twitter, stating that colleagues who were incarcerated have suffered mental abuse and physical torture. (Telegraph)

Pricey: Cirque du Soleil's "Iris" at the Kodak Theatre is charging some of the highest ticket prices ever for an L.A. theatrical event. (Los Angeles Times)

Disappointing: The Broadway musical "Catch Me If You Can," based on the movie, will close on Sept. 4 having played 170 regular performances. A national tour will begin in 2012. (Broadway.com)

Cancellation: Robert Crumb has pulled out of an appearance at the Graphic arts festival in Sydney, Australia, later this month after being described as a "self-confessed sex pervert" in a newspaper. (The Australian)

Labor trouble: The Montreal Symphony, headed by artistic director Kent Nagano, is mired in union negotiations. (CBC)

For sale: Artwork that belonged to actor Tony Curtis is heading for auction. (Associated Press)

Two-hander: Sigourney Weaver and Tom Wopat will perform in a New York remounting of Anne Nelson's play "The Guys" to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. (Theatermania)

Remembrance: Chicago's Field Museum will mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with a new exhibit. (Associated Press, via Chicago Tribune)

Mistrust: The musicians union of the bankrupt Philadelphia Orchestra isn't buying management's latest statements about the orchestra's endowment. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Connect the dots: Damien Hirst will exhibit his dot paintings simultaneously at Gagosian Gallery locations around the world. (L Magazine)

Bucking the trend: The Seattle Opera has announced a balanced budget for the 2010-11 season. (Seattle Times)

Legendary restaurant: Art and other memorabilia from the recently closed Elaine's in New York will go up for auction. (New York Times)

Immortalized: An artist has created conjoined nude sculptures of pop stars Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. (TMZ)

Also in the L.A. Times: An interview with "Saturday Night Live" alum Ana Gasteyer about her new cabaret show in Hollywood.

-- David Ng

Photo: Police in London detain suspected rioters. Credit: Kerim Okten / EPA

Monster Mash: 'King's Speech' on Broadway; Ai Weiwei tweets again

Cashing in: "The King's Speech" -- the play from which the Oscar-winning movie was developed -- appears to be headed for Broadway in the fall of 2012. (Showbiz 411)

Busy fingers: Artist Ai Weiwei has returned to Twitter for the first time since being released by Chinese officials in June. (BBC News)

Popular: The 25th-anniversary touring production of "Les Miserables" has broken records at the Ahmanson Theatre. (Los Angeles Times)

Public art: A group of artists is working to build the world's largest working clock to go on display at the Burning Man Festival this month. (Sacramento Bee)

Circular: Richard Serra's "Sequence" sculpture gets a new home in Stanford University after leaving L.A. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Listen in: Audio of the New York Philharmonic's June performance of "The Cunning Little Vixen" by Czech composer Leos Janacek is online. (NPR)

Alois and Klara: An online auctioneer is hoping to sell portraits of Adolf Hitler's parents. (Art Info)

Money trouble: The Edgar Allan Poe home and museum in Baltimore is in danger of shutting down due to a lack of funds. (New York Times)

Blanche: Nicole Ari Parker has been cast alongside Blair Underwood in the upcoming Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." (Playbill)

Back from the dead?: The bankrupt Syracuse Symphony could see another life thanks to plans by Syracuse University. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Hardly masterpieces: Affordable art is becoming more readily available to consumers. (Los Angeles Times)

Also in the L.A. Times: Charles McNulty reviews "Hairspray" at the Hollywood Bowl; Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, is preparing a stage version of his 2010 memoirs for this week's Ojai Playwrights Conference.

-- David Ng

Photo: Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter flank Colin Firth in "The King's Speech." Credit: Weinstein Company

Whom to follow on Twitter? Start with 25 of Culture Monster's favorites

Friday, July 15, is the fifth anniversary of the first public tweet, a milestone that may warm your heart or boil your blood. In that time around 260 million people, including 13% of online Americans, have told the world about their dinner, their dog and their duodenum. (I wish that last one was a joke. Sadly, no.)

Haters describe Twitter as a cesspool of narcissism. They are not entirely wrong, but Culture Monster is willing to look beyond the spam and oversharing to  find much to delight in.

Across all arts disciplines are lively communities sharing news, striking up real friendships and playing impromptu parlor games like #conductormovies. Let's face it, there aren't many other places where you have instant access to people who creatively mash-up movie titles with conductors' surnames.

Twitter also gives some our favorite artists a chance to address the public directly. Dancers like Devin Alberda and Maria Kochetkova, from New York City and San Francisco ballets, respectively, have embraced Twitter to lift the cloak a little on one of the mysterious branches of the arts.

Institutions have joined the party as well, although mostly as newswires. Some, like the BBC Music Magazine, get how Twitter works and are a pleasure to keep up with.

Each week more than 1 billion tweets are sent, which can make keeping track of everything a bit overwhelming. To give you a leg up, our staff has chosen 25 accounts well worth your attention. Read on and then share your favorites to follow in the comments section.

Monster Mash: Broadway legend Arthur Laurents has died; national Latino museum gets vote of support

Theater legend: Arthur Laurents, the writer-director behind "West Side Story," "Gypsy" and other theatrical works, is dead. He was believed to be 93. (Los Angeles Times)

Show of support: A federal commission has recommended construction of a museum on the National Mall honoring the history of American Latinos. (Los Angeles Times)

Tribute: The National September 11 Memorial and Museum has released a computerized guide to the location of every name inscribed on its bronze parapets. (New York Times)

Historic landmark: Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, located in Hollywood, is getting another makeover. (Los Angeles Times)

Rumored: Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is said to have spent $1.2 million on an artwork by Salvador Dali at a recent auction, after being outbid on two Picassos. (New York Post)

Speaking out: A  blogsite has translated nearly 100 of Ai Weiwei's tweets into English. The artist has been imprisoned by Chinese officials for more than a month. (Telegraph)

Who knew?: An underground urban art scene is flourishing in Dubai. (Reuters)

Massive: A giant sculpture of a girl's head by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa has been unveiled in New York's Madison Square Park. (Associated Press)

Money trouble: A new performing arts center in Orlando, Fla., may be saved by wealthy board members. (Orlando Sentinel)

Two-time Tony winner: Frank Langella will return to Broadway in Terrence Rattigan's "Man and Boy," set to open Oct. 9. (Playbill)

Also in the L.A. Times: Theater critic Charles McNulty reviews Tony Kushner's new play at the Public Theater in New York; Julie Taymor is scheduled to participate in a national theater conference in L.A. in June and San Diego's Old Globe announces its 2011-12 season.

-- David Ng

Photo: Arthur Laurents, standing, with Richard Rodgers, in 1964. Credit: Associated Press

Winners announced for #operaplot Twitter contest

Now in its third round, the #operaplot Twitter contest has become a must-read for classical-music fans around the world. The online contest requires individuals to summarize the plot of an opera in the length of a Tweet, which is 140 characters or less, including spaces.

This year's contest, judged by bass-baritone Eric Owens, features five winners who offered humorous tweets about Wagner's "Das Rheingold," Verdi's "MacBeth," Schoenberg's "Moses und Aron" and Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and "The Marriage of Figaro."

The contest is organized by Marcia Adair, a Toronto blogger who is also an occasional contributor to Culture Monster. Here are this year's winners, with some editing for adult content:

The return of #operaplot contest on Twitter

Long-winded opera and terse Twitter make for an odd couple, but online classical-music fans have shown that a harmonious duet is possible, especially when the two are mixed with the right amount of irreverent humor.

One of the more successful applications of Twitter in the realm of opera, the contest known as "Operaplot" has become a must-read for classical devotees, with big prizes awarded. The online competition requires individuals to summarize the plot of an opera in the length of a tweet, which is 140 characters or less, including spaces.

Concision is a must in the Operaplot game, but cleverness is usually what wins the day. Among the victorious tweets of the past are:

Mozart's "Don Giovanni": Kissed the girls and made them cry. Stabbed one's dad and watched him die. Offered chances to repent, he opted to be Hades sent. Men! 

Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman": Let me get this straight: unfathomable treasure if I betroth my loopy daughter to a ghost? Deal. She’ll meet you by the fjord.

Verdi's "La Traviata": Father is less than enthusiastic about son’s love affair with aging, bankrupt, terminally ill prostitute. Can you believe it? 

Wagner's "Ring" cycle: There was a young lady called Fricka Who…who…*snore* "Wake up & it’s over." It’s good, I just wish it were quicka.

Royal Danish Ballet will live stream and tweet weekend's Guggenheim performances

Can’t wait for the Royal Danish Ballet’s return to Southern California after a 16-year absence? This weekend you can watch a 90-minute preview online.

Before the company embarks on a cross-country tour that includes six performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts (May 24–29), the company is offering a repertory sampler in New York on Sunday and Monday. Seats at the snug little theater where the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process event takes place sold out quickly, but both evenings will be livestreamed at www.ustream.tv/channel/worksandprocess (or on the link below).

Ten RDB principals and soloists will perform excerpts from ballets by August Bournonville, the celebrated 19th century Danish choreographer whose works have given the company its singular profile and continue to anchor its repertory –- and dominate the tour programming. The dancers will also venture into contemporary territory in “Lost on Slow” by Jorma Elo, the Finnish choreographer whose works are hot properties among ballet companies these days. (The full work is part of the Nordic Choreographers program scheduled for Segerstrom.)

Classical-music fans invent titles for 'budget' classics on Twitter at #BudgetClassical

Classical music doesn't often inspire passionate pile-ons on Twitter -- at least not on the Justin Bieber or Kim Kardashian level. So we're happy to note a popular Twitter trend, viewable at #BudgetClassical, in which users riff on the titles of famous classical pieces by re-imagining them as low-budget versions of themselves.

The trend has been seen on Twitter in the past, but it was revived this week and has inspired a number of creative tweets.

L.A.'s own classical radio station KUSC (91.5 FM) has also gotten into the act, taking time out from its pledge drive this week to tweet its own "budget" classics such as Berlioz's "Eggs & Benedict Overture" (after "Beatrice and Benedict") and Bela Bartok's "Picokosmos - Etudes for Casio Keyboard" (after "Mikrokosmos").

Here are some recent #BudgetClassical tweets that are especially witty:

@mahlersoboes: The Abduction from the Seedy Strip Club (after Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio")

@violinscigars: Adagio for String (after Barber's "Adagio for Strings")

@stravinskyite: The Merry Wives of Winston-Salem (after Nicolai's opera "The Merry Wives of Windsor")

@ellisrobbie: Short Ride in a Toyota Celica (after John Adams' "Short Ride in a Fast Machine")