Here’s the story line of “The Best Life“, as explained in the program that will be handed to all 1100 audience members in Harvard’s Sanders Theatre:
IgBill — the program that will be handed out to audience members — includes all the words to the mini-opera “The Best Life”. You can download a PDF version of IgBill, by clicking on the image.
The story:It’s the day before the greatest competition ever held — a competition to choose which ONE of the millions of species of life is THE BEST LIFE. The competition will be televised live, everywhere, and the public is going nuts, eager to pay huge prices to watch. All the species of life — every single species, millions of them! — are going to be together, IN ONE ROOM, for the competition. By special arrangement with Sanders Theatre, all these species will assemble here, in the theater, during Act 2 of the opera. If you have an aisle seat, please mind your feet. Also by special arrangement with Sanders Theatre, all the lawyers who will deal with the consequences of Act 2 will assemble here in the theater during Act 3. If you have feet, please mind your feet.
LIVE WEBCAST: Watch the live webcast of the entire ceremony, including the mini-opera, on Thursday, September 17, 2015, at 6:00 pm (US eastern time) on the ceremony web page. (The webcast actually begins a little earlier, at 5:40 pm.)
[Tickets to attend the ceremony in person have been sold out for weeks. It’s possible that a few tickets will become available shortly before the ceremony. Those tickets would be sold exclusively by the Harvard Box Office.]
CAST: The opera stars Maria Ferrante (soprano), Scott Taylor (baritone), and Daniel Rosenberg (chemist), with a two-person single-species orchestra composed of Patrick Yacono and Dr. Thomas Michel and their instruments, and the All-Species Chorus (swelled in Act 3 by many of the scientists who are in the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony).
