In a savvy marketing move aimed at attracting a wider audience, Vancouver Opera has invited four local bloggers to live-blog their experiences of Carmen, which opens tomorrow night.

Miss604, NetChick, Beyond Robson, and Delicious Juice have been given tickets to the January 27 opera performance, which they'll attend with laptops in tow.

"We want these bloggers to come in and give their thoughts and their opinions of what the opera was like, what their experience of the opera was like, and tell their readers who may have never been to an opera before," explained Selina Rajani, Vancouver  Opera's communications manager.  "Basically we want to show this new audience what goes on at a live opera."

The bloggers will be given a space in the lobby one hour prior to the performance and during intermissions in which to post their musings on the performance, and will not be clacking away on their keyboards during the show, Rajani assured.

The bloggers and their fans who catch the opera bug may want to keep track of Vancouver Opera's behind-the-scenes action on its own blog: http://vancouveropera.blogspot.com/