The French author Jules Verne’s well-known adventure story “Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt-jours” served as inspiration for Hans Visser for this musical journey. A multi-media journey around the world in 80 minutes. The beginning and end of this journey is the city of London in the late 19th century.
Where there’s a will there’s a way… Jules Verne was driven by his ambition… he wrote more than 100 books… He studied science, nature and was interested in technology, and his logical way of thinking made it possible to see into the future and make predictions that, in the end, actually came true. Aeroplanes, submarines, trains, rockets…
London 1872. This is where Fogg and Passe-Partout, his ideal valet who owes his name to the fact that he is able to adapt to any situation, begin their journey. They wagered that they could travel around the world in 80 days. We follow them on their crossing from England to France, with Paris as their destination…
Paris – Geneva – Brindisi. The journey from Paris across Italy ends in Brindisi where they boarded for Port Said. On the way to the Middle East.
To the Middle East with the Nautilus
We make a cultural detour. We head towards Caucasus, to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, with beautiful mountains, music and dancers.
From Georgia by boat to the Crimean Peninsula, where the famous Russian playwright Chekhov wrote his most famous plays: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard…
To India with the Trans-Siberian Express
On arrival in India, he rescues the beautiful young widow Aouda from Sati (burning to death on her husband’s funeral pyre). Because she is not safe in her own country, Fogg takes her with him to Hong Kong, where she has an uncle. Ultimately, at the end of the journey, he marries her.
In the story, in China Passe-Partout misses the boat to Japan. The exemplary valet oversleeps and is taken by wheelbarrow to a Chinese junk where he is dumped and, in this way, still manages to follow his master in the direction of Japan… It is no surprise that Passe-Partout overslept… Around the turn of the century, opium was readily available in Hong Kong, it being supplied by the British occupier for free in order to disrupt Chinese society.
Japan, a beautiful country with cherry blossom and impressive traditions.
Verne was fascinated by the United States. For Jules Verne, the symbol with which the Americans gained control of their entire continent is the American railroad. In his stories, Verne sees trains and rails as works of art. The trains closely followed around the bends of the Sierra Nevada, sometimes clinging to the mountainsides, along deep ravines, with long bends going towards the Grand Canyon. Through the heart of the Wild West.
