Creation of a unique experience and press motif for press, public and booksellers on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Brockhaus and the launch of the 21st edition at the book fair in Frankfurt October 2005.

As an eye catching platform for the promotion, a ring of 30 replicas of the Brockhaus Encyclopedia, each of them 3,40m high, was set up on the Agora in Frankfurt. A phonetic opera for 30 + 1 voices was composed and performed by Theo Bleckmann and the choir Semiseria. Text passages from the Brockhaus enclopedia were used for the libretto. The opera took place in the installation, with the choir standing high above the audience in the Brockhaus replicas, and the soloist in the middle of the circle, surrounded by the audience.

The event became the key visual of the exhibition. And was named one of the “Pictures of the Year 2005” (Focus). The world wide press reaction was overwhelming. The installation was shown as footage for various German news shows on TV, fotos of the installation were published world-wide - New York Times, Seattle Times, Daily Times Pakistan, Canberra Times, El Mundo, El País, Washington Post… Editorial articles about the new Brockhaus-Edition in combination with a foto of the installation at the fair were published in over 60 German newspapers with an overall circulation of over 8 million copies.

The installation of 30 replicas of the Brockhaus Encyclopedia placed in a formation reminiscent of Stonehenge was a tribute to the timeless validity of the knowledge of the world in the encyclopedias of Brockhaus. Knowing that there was only one chance to see the performance of the opera, the interest in and attendance of the event by press and audience was extremely high – and they just loved it!