AVANTASIA: 'The Flying Opera' DVD Artwork Unveiled

AVANTASIA — the project led by EDGUY frontman Tobias Sammet — is putting the finishing touches on its two-disc DVD, "The Flying Opera - Around The World In 20 Days", for an early March release via Nuclear Blast Records in Europe and Avalon Marquee in Asia.

According to a press release, "The DVD is a documentary of the legendary 2008 world tour of AVANTASIA, when the band hit the road for the first time to write a new chapter in metal history; traveling around the world with a giant all-star ensemble to bring the metal opera on stage and play on three continents within a few days, crossing the dateline and eventually playing to a total of 400,000 people within only a few weeks. The first DVD contains a live concert with a running time of almost two hours featuring footage filmed at the headlining shows of Wacken Open Air (Germany) and Masters Of Rock (Czech Republic). On the second DVD there will be a movie, 'Around The World In 20 Days', that gives fans the opportunity to join AVANTASIA backstage and take a look at the surroundings and the thrill behind the scenes that go along with an extensive undertaking such as this. The DVD set will portray AVANTASIA 2008 when it all started."

"The Flying Circus - Around The World In 20 Days" will be available as a two-disc DVD set featuring the documentary movie, a live concert film, and additional bonus material. It will be also available as a double live album on CD and as a limited-edition two-CD/two-DVD box set.

Commented Tobias: "I am so proud of this DVD package and the featured footage, even though it took a little longer to finally complete it. It gives people an idea of what an impact the first appearance of AVANTASIA on stage had, and you will get an idea of how everything went beyond our expectations and what the roots and the seeds for the current AVANTASIA tour are. It portrays one year in AVANTASIA's history, maybe the most important year in the project's history because that is when a studio project became a traveling institution.

"There are many metal operas, but we made it something real, something to take hold of. Something alive..."

AVANTASIA kicked off its "The Metal Opera Comes To Town" world tour 2010 on November 30 at Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland. Joining Sammet in AVANTASIA's touring lineup are a number of special guests, including GAMMA RAY/ex-HELLOWEEN guitarist/vocalist Kai Hansen, Bob Catley (MAGNUM),Jorn Lande (MASTERPLAN),Amanda Somerville, Olli Hartmann and Michael Kiske (HELLOWEEN).

Fan-filmed video footage of the second show of the tour — which took place on December 1 at Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland — can be viewed below.

Although rumors keep circulating about further shows from AVANTASIA in 2011, a statement on Tobias' official web site makes it clear that after AVANTASIA's December 2010 world tour, there will be no more tours or festival appearances from the project apart from the Wacken Open Air show in August 2011.

AVANTASIA released its new epic masterpiece on April 3, 2010 as regular CDs ("The Wicked Symphony" and "Angel Of Babylon"),two separate double picture vinyls, and as a beautiful collector's edition with an AVANTASIA picture book.