 An Amazonian riverboat, not much different from those of Fitzcarraldo's day, leaves the Port of Iquitos |
The lunatic movie director Werner Herzog back in 1982 made a film about the fictitious and equally eccentric Irishman Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, whose dream of an opera house (based on the famous Manaus Opera) in the Peruvian jungle somehow necessitated the moving of a ship across a mountain. Despite the absurdity of the plot, "Fitzcarraldo" is fondly remembered by the Peruvians, with a street and a waterfront bar in the Amazon city of Iquitos carrying his name. In Manaus itself, the third annual Amazon Opera Festival has just finished a successful season.
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