- back in 1999 Avantasia was designed to be a studio project, lasting for two albums only
- both albums were produced between Oct 1999 and June 2000
(with the production being interrupted for a few weeks when Tobias went to produce "The Savage Poetry" with Edguy)
- the announcement of "The Metal Opera" marked the first use of the title "Metal Opera" and would establish the phrase as a genre name
- the album's story is partly based on real witch trials that had been held around Tobias' home town Fulda and the prince-bishopic Mainz during the 16th and 17th century
- the production of Avantasia and the respective record contract, which had been signed in 1999, marked the beginning of Tobias' career as a professional musician as for the first time he earned money being a musician even though he had already released three official albums with Edguy at that point
- in 2019 "The Metal Opera" received a Diamond award for more than 400,000 copies sold in Europe
The album is currently available as disc and double vinyl from AFM-Records
