Christoph Schlingensief - The Flying Dutchman

The Amazonas Opera Festival invited Christoph Schlingensief to direct Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman at several venues around Manaus - a Brazilian city of over a million inhabitants. The festival director Luiz Fernando Malheiro, who caused a world-wide sensation with a production of Wagner's entire Ring trilogy for the first time in Brazil at the Teatro Amazonas two years ago, was the musical director of The Flying Dutchman. Schlingensief and Malheiro started the opera festival with a large parade of musicians, audience members, local samba schools and modified carnival floats through the city and along the Rio Negro while several parts of the opera were performed at open-air venues. They hoped this would demonstrate the popular character of Wagner's music and reach and involve as many viewers as possible in the project. In addition to directing, Schlingensief's work on The Flying Dutchman included the production of 18 short films which he made in Manaus and later presented at the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Together with his film "African Twin Towers", these films were the main focus of the first solo exhibition of Schlingensief's works at an art institution.

Artistic directors: Luiz Fernando Malheiro (BR), Christoph Schlingensief
Participants / artists: Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus (BR), soloists: Lício Bruno (BR), Maria Russo (USA), Sávio Sperandio (BR), Richard Bauer (BR), Martin Mühle (BR), Flávia Fernandez (BR), set design: Christoph Schlingensief, Tobias Buser (CH), costume design: Aino Laberenz, lighting: Voxi Bärenklau, dramaturgy: Jörg van der Horst, Matthias Pees, video: Meika Dresenkamp, sound: Uwe Altmann, Jens Krull

Venues and schedule:
Teatro Amazonas Opera House, Manaus (BR), 22 April 2007
Haus der Kunst, Munich, 25 May 2007 - 16 Sep. 2007