1968: Students and civil rights activists around the world take to the streets, Martin Luther King
is assassinated, and the reformist programme of the Prague Spring is crushed by the invasion of
Warsaw Pact troops — a politically symbolic year. That same year, Hans Werner Henze’s oratorio was
due to have its world premiere in Hamburg. However, the premiere was disrupted by protestors and
a police intervention in the concert hall. The scandal made Das Floß der Medusa (The Raft of the
Medusa) famous overnight. The libretto is based on the ignominious true story of a shipwreck off the
west coast of Africa. While those responsible for running the ship aground sought safety in lifeboats,
154 crew members and passengers were left to the mercy of the ocean on a makeshift raft.