007 In Austria: 'This is so Bond'

Floating Stage with ‘Tosca’ Set at Bregenz

While filming on Quantum of Solace continues at the Seebühne floating opera stage in Bregenz, the main cast members of the film assembled together for a photocall at the Austrian location.

Daniel Craig was joined by Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric (Dominic Greene) and Anatole Taubman (Elvis) and director Marc Forster as they posed for photos yesterday at the eye-opening ‘Tosca’ stage that will play a role in film.

View Photographs:
Set One (16 photographs) /
Set Two (7 photographs)

The 007 production arrived in Austria on 29 April to begin preparations for the shoot. Residents in Bregenz welcomed the cast and crew with open arms as cardboard cutouts of previous Bond actors were constructed throughout the town and several other special events and parties were held.

Shooting will continue until 9 May when the production is expected to return to Pinewood Studios.

Floating Stage with ‘Tosca’ Set at Bregenz

“This is so Bond” – these were the words of Callum McDougall, Executive Producer of the 22nd James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, when he first saw the Floating Opera Stage of the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Bregenz, a dramatically picturesque town in the westernmost province of Austria, famous for its annual summer opera festival, is buzzing these days with Hollywood glamour and celebrity excitement – people lining the streets trying to get a glimpse of James Bond actor Daniel Craig, witness a dramatic car chase or just attend many of the special events and parties created around the movie shoot.

Unusual and spectacular venues are a key ingredient of James Bond movies, and the Floating Stage of the Bregenz Festival definitely is unusual and spectacular. The annual Bregenz Summer Festival in July and August will present Puccini’s masterpiece Tosca this year and is again expected to attract thousands of visitors to the shores of Lake Constance and the charming town of Bregenz.

“The Tosca stage set with its gigantic blue eye fits in perfectly with the storyline of the new Bond movie,” said director Marc Forster earlier last year. The shoot requires that a complete performance of the opera Tosca is staged over several evenings, including over 1500 soloists and extras, orchestra, chorus members, technicians and audience. The spectacular scenes are currently shot on stage and backstage as well as inside the Festival Opera House in Bregenz until Friday, May 9.

Austria has been an exciting location for a Bond movie before. Vienna provided the location for The Living Daylights (1987) where several spectacular and memorable scenes with Timothy Dalton where shot in the Prater amusement park and on the Giant Ferris Wheel.

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