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Mounting an Avantasia tour is a massive project, due to the numerous guest vocalists that appear on each album. The Flying Opera: Around The World In 20 Days was recorded at Wacken Open Air and Masters Of Rock in 2008, as Avantasia did some live shows supporting The Scarecrow. There are a few different editions of The Flying Opera available. This review is of the 2 CD set, but there's also a DVD that includes all the same music along with extras like a documentary.

Avantasia has recorded several CDs over the past decade, and their catalog is well-represented on The Flying Opera. There are songs from 2001's The Metal Opera and 2002's The Metal Opera Part II, with nearly half the songs coming from The Scarecrow.

All of the numerous guests that have appeared on past Avantasia albums of course are not on The Flying Opera, but Tobias Sammet (Edguy) did a great job of lining up several of them. Jorn Lande (Masterplan) sings lead on 5 tracks, and really gets the Wacken crowd going on “Another Angel Down.” Andre Matos (Angra) also handles vocals on 5 songs. Others making an appearance are Bob Catley of Magnum on three songs and Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray sings on one track.

The band Sammet put together is outstanding, and he also sings on a few tracks. Sascha Paeth and Oliver Hartmann are the guitarists, with Hartmann singing lead on one song. The rest of the band includes bassist Robert Hunecke-Rizzo, keyboardist Miro and drummer Felix Bohnke (Edguy). Amanda Somerville is the backing vocalist and also sings lead on “The Toy Master.”

The nature of Avantasia doesn't allow for a lot of improvisation or jamming, but Matos leads the Masters Of Rock audience in a spirited sing-a-long of "Inside." The songs definitely have the added energy a live performance provides. And since Avantasia doesn't do a lot of touring, The Flying Opera is the next best way to experience an Avantasia show.

(released June 7, 2011 on Nuclear Blast Records)

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.