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Even if you don't think you're interested in opera, give it a try (the opera starts eight minutes into the 151-minute programme.) The last scene, at about 131 minutes, is intensely moving. And yes, the Endstation bus was hired for the production (probably the biggest prop ever), but the principals mainly used scheduled bus services to move from location to location. The block of flats whose interior and exterior were used as locations is regarded locally as a ghetto block, but that didn't stop a couple of dozen of the residents from being given walk-on roles. The orchestra played in a shopping centre while the cast moved from location to location (usually by scheduled bus services or trams) and sang with headphones and mikes. Each principal had her or his own sound technician just off-camera, and between them they had worked out codes of gestures for such messages as "give me more orchestra", or "give me more me". What was almost unbelievable, considering the technical and human complexity of the production, was that it all went off without a single (noticeable) hitch.
Once or twice in my life telly has done something that spectacularly justifies its existence, and this production - which went out live on Arte, SF and other channels to Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria and Italy, and to the rest of the world as streaming video - elevated the wretched goggle-box to a height of new respectability and worthiness.
The DVD is due out in November. It will have a programme about the making of the show (in two versions - German and French) as well as the opera itself. It will probably be available online from Arte.
More information when I have more details de source sûre; di fonti secura; aus erste Hand; ex ore equi. (Dunno the Greek.)
Also worth a look: the announcement of this joint Arte-SF production from Maya Boog's (ie Mimi's) agent.
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