SF Opera offers free 'tweet seats' in exchange for live-tweeting show

Inside the War Memorial Opera House Inside the War Memorial Opera House Photo: David Paul Morris, The Chronicle Photo: David Paul Morris, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 45 Caption Close SF Opera offers free 'tweet seats' in exchange for live-tweeting show 1 / 45 Back to Gallery

For anyone savvy on social media trying to catch some arias on the cheap, the San Francisco Opera has an offer for you.

The French opera "Carmen" opens on the War Memorial Opera House stage May 27. Before opening night, the SF Opera is looking for opinionated and cultured tweeters to attend the show's final dress rehearsal on May 25 at 1:30 p.m. -- and to keep their phones out and live-tweet through the whole thing.

The Opera suggests scene-by-scene coverage or other posts and live updates about the production. They are pretty upfront about the free seat offer: "We'll give you an opera ticket in exchange for your stellar social media skills!"

The so-called "tweet seats" are limited, so the opera has set up an online application form due by May 19. It asks for basics like your Twitter handle and contact info and also if you blog (and a link to it) and if you have an arts-related Facebook group.

A disclaimer at the bottom of the application makes it clear that SF Opera can deny tickets for any "previous posts with undesirable content" so opera, live music and singing fans should clean up their timelines before jumping on this opportunity.

This isn't the first time the SF Opera has combined social media with librettos. Last summer tweet seats were offered for Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro."

Lucky tweeters will know if they have a seat to the show by 5 p.m. on May 20.