Flash Mob Opera

November 30, 2005 2:14 PM

Brand New Flashmob Opera from Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield.
posted by srboisvert (8 comments total)

I love the idea of having a flashmob perform an opera - but I am not sure that having the BBC ready to capture the event really puts it into the category of a flashmob - more like a TV performance. Is there anywhere to find out more about the people and how this was put together?
posted by rongorongo at 3:16 PM on November 30, 2005

Flashmob great idea but that sounds liek a tremendous butchering of Faust. Goethe had a reason for writing it other than the presented meaning. Some things in the story are neccessary which I am sure will be left out.
posted by jackdirt at 3:23 PM on November 30, 2005

>>"the opera features well known arias and choruses from popular operas and includes music by Bizet, Handel, Mozart, Offenbach, Verdi and Wagner, mixed alongside contemporary classics, sung by opera singers, local choirs, flashmobbers and flashdancers."

HUUURRRRRRR
posted by naxosaxur at 3:27 PM on November 30, 2005

Is there anywhere to find out more about the people and how this was put together


The FAQs at flashmob.co.uk goes some way to explain .. ("Flash mobs are run by individual people for the fun of it. There are no organisations behind real Flash Mobs")
posted by Schroder at 4:43 PM on November 30, 2005

I thought this fad died out last year?
posted by mrgrimm at 5:48 PM on November 30, 2005

(except for critical mass, of course)
posted by mrgrimm at 5:49 PM on November 30, 2005

Wow, I just learned that bbc now runs/owns the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy h2g2.com... whoa.
posted by adzm at 1:02 AM on December 1, 2005

Is there anywhere to find out more about the people and how this was put together?
Basically, there was a story set in a shopping centre concocted (the Faustian element being quite apt given the fact that Meadowhall is colloquially known in Sheffield as Meadowhell), and it was performed with well known arias by professional musicians. The Flashmob element, i.e. the section containing members of the public that had been given instructions about what to do by text message after details of the event spread by word of mouth or places like the Sheffield Forum, was a dance section, and then the final chorus at the end.

"Flash mobs are run by individual people for the fun of it. There are no organisations behind real Flash Mobs"
Seems a strange assertion, a bit like saying there are no organisations behind "real" blogs. It may have started out that way but why can't an organisation stage a Flashmob? Really, it's just a bit of fun, nothing to be taken terribly seriously.
posted by chill at 5:44 AM on December 1, 2005