In the year 9 A.D amidst scenes of barbarous hysteria, a gargantuan score was performed in Teutoburg, all of which has been lost to us forever. 

The battle of Teutoburg is a crucial point in European history as it marked the end of Roman expansionism towards the North, hence the delay of by at least 400 years, massive Christianization of the Nordic people - and by association, cultural integration. The German tribes on the Oriental side of the Rhine would not be latinised, thereby keeping their languages and religions for many more years to come. From this battle, lead by Arminius, chief of a German tribe, the course of Roman Conquests was finally reversed. 

The encroaching Nationalism throughout contemporary Europe inevitably questions the loss of cultural identity. It is a problem concerning all nations, whether they are facing the Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialism, or they are emerging from the frozen influence of the Soviet culture, or they lose themselves in an over-whelming Americanism, each of us is involved. At a time when the definition of a "new Germany" has become one of the big questions in Europe, this historic battle takes on meaning of a rather symbolic nature and has become the ideal scenario for Ferdinand Richard's ambitious musical project. 

The four acts, because of their very different sources, will be musically treated in very different ways. In the meantime the visual design remains spare and basic in respect to the authors and their texts. The conceptdesigner, Pierre Guyoux, has designed a multivision projection stemming from a reservoir of more than 200 original images. 

Out of barbarity we create a civilization which is in itself constantly threatened by barbarity.