The opera world has given us some memorable characters, from Carmen to Madame Butterfly to the Barber of Seville. Now it's time to return the favor -- 140 characters at a time.

In a surprise marriage of classic arts and new media, the Royal Opera House of London recently invited users of Twitter to create the storyline of a brand new opera. The project began July 31, when the Royal Opera House launched a dedicated Twitter profile, @youropera (http://twitter.com/youropera), and tweeted the beginning:

"One morning, very early, a man and a woman were standing, arm-in-arm, in London’s Covent Garden. The man turned to the woman and he sang…"

Of course, this being Twitter, a bird theme soon took wing. On August 3, a user with the handle @rc made the first contribution:

"A small bird twitters over there, He sings without a single care, If only we could be so free, Without the worries and the..."

After the first week, the story looked like this:

"In brief, at the end of Act One, Scene One, William is languishing in a tower, having been kidnapped by a group of birds who are anxious for revenge after he has killed one of their number. Hans has promised to rescue him. The Woman With No Name is off to her biochemistry laboratory to make a potion to let people speak to the birds."

This should be interesting.

Since then, @youropera has attracted nearly 2,000 followers. On the official Royal Opera House blog, a "mysterious opera director" provides updates and thoughts on the story. The finished piece will be performed throughout the weekend of September 4, 5 and 6 at the Royal Opera House for "Deloitte Ignite 09," a festival curated by Time Out London to "champion innovation in the arts" and "to bring new artists into the building."

The project is certainly creating a buzz -- or at least a few tweets. How will the opera turn out? You're certain to hear about it... on Twitter.