Through music, art and dance from the collective creation of willing Burning Man participants including a Vodoun Priest and Priestess from Haiti and opera singers from Europe, this ensemble of 400 nymphs, satyrs, sculptors, fire artists, mask-makers, musicians, costumers, choreographers, demons, and angels, will be unleashed at midnight to metamorphose and reveal the primal being deep within ourselves. Carrying their altars, standards, and ceremonial objects of adoration, the five sects devoted to the Playa Spirits - the green-mudded snake-people of Damballah; the red, fire wielding knights of Ogoun; the white-veiled, erotic Ezilis; the black-draped, morbidly obscene yet capricious Guede; and the energetic drummers and builders of Couzin Azaka - invade the flaming Sacrosanct Pentagon and the Totems of Life and Death in a ceremony of Mystery and Sacralization. 

At the climax of the rite, the altars, stages and giant totems are set ablaze. Frenetically dancing to the fire, the Children of the Spirits, followed by all Burning Man participants in attendance, shall pierce the flaming Portal of Life and Death in an Initiation by Fire, into the NewEra.

In order to prepare the creation of an opera inspired by Voodoo, Executive producer Pepe Ozan, along with OHC emissaries, producer Twan, opera director Christopher Fülling, and mutual friend Andrea Zoltar, decided that it would be wise to go to Haiti to do the intensive research required for realistic representation on the Playa. What they found there was far beyond their wildest expectations.
By the time they returned to their respective homes in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Berlin, they were fully initiated Voodoo priests and a priestess.
Apparently, they would do anyhting for the opera...

Feel free to read Twan's summary of the Haitian journey, as it was posted to the burning-opera email discussion list or the "Vodou Mystical Journey" link below.

Also linked is the script for the 1999 Opera, the sect guide, and other details pertaining to "Le Mystere de Papa Loko".

Voodoo Mystical Journey

Script: Le Mystere de Papa Loko

Sects:Le Mystere de Papa Loko

1999 Photo Gallery