Das Floß der Medusa, by Hans Werner Henze, is based on the painting of the same name by Géricault, which commemorates the victims of the shipwreck of the Medusa (1816). The painter portrayed hope and the proximity of freedom, while also suggesting they were illusions.

The famous director Romeo Castellucci makes the link to the current situation in the Mediterranean, where countless people are dying every day. Das Floß der Medusa tells the story of the French frigate Méduse, which was wrecked on the sandbanks off Mauritania in 1816. The French government left the 150 victims to their fate. This scandalous episode from history was immortalised in the enormous painting Le radeau de la Méduse by Théodore Géricault.