On February 28 1989 Azart Foundation bought the 1918 ship “Elisabeth” near Groningen, in the North of Holland. Already the first bridge became the first problem: the bridge was too low. We had to cut 1,3 meter of the main mast that later delivered excellent services as a deck stove. The ship was renamed Azart.

The ship was launched as “The Opera Ship” and already the young composer Klaas ten Holt was writing his first opera, to be performed in 1990. In the meantime, surfing on a wave of Russian Fashion in Europe, Azart organized in a few months a preparatory tour that would bring the ship to seven cities in two countries. Azart presented a spectacle of the Moscow theatre group Oleg Kisiljov and Moscow music group Nikolaj Kopernik. At the same time the hull of the ship hosted a permanent exhibition of young Russian artists. The Berlin Wall still stood firm!