Opera by You

The Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland is crowdsourcing an opera for its 2012 season through a new project: “Opera By You 2012.” Any member of the web community can contribute to the creation of an opera – helping to create the story, write the libretto, compose the music, and design the sets and costumes – from beginning to end. Savonlinna is providing the performers, the crew, and an orchestra for the final production, which will premiere at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in summer 2012. Here’s a link to their site. (Make sure to click “English” on the top right.) They are using a collaborative film production platform called Wreckamovie.com.

This is the first time an opera company has utilized crowdsourcing technology to create a new opera, so it will be interesting to see whether Savonlinna is successful at attracting new audiences (and holding on to them) and whether other opera companies will replicate the process.