IPhoto Libary cannot be open

Question

I have recently returned from a trip and tried to organise my photos in order to publish, print, etc.
My MBP has a 256Gb SSD and the MacOS partition is pretty small (dumb choice from me, I know) so I created a new library on the NTFS partition.
After importing photos from cameras and iPhone, created events, albums, flagged hundreds of pictures, etc I tried to create a slideshow with 660 pictures. The slideshow export took ages and eventually hanged so I had to cancel the export but the CPU was still 100% from the slideshow daemon (I wonder why the export didn't use more CPU's).
I quit iPhoto just to let the Mac breathe and when I tried to reopen it it wasn't possible: it asks me which photo library to use, I pick "Other Library...", navigate to the library folder and try to open the previously created library but it doesn't do anything. I don't get an error message (as in other similar posts) and the Open button flickers when I double-click the library or press the Open button.
This are the methods I tried to make it work:
open iPhoto with Command+Open, Command+Option+Open, Command+all modifiers+Open but it still opens with the same window: choose library (no option to rebuild, verify, etc)
double-click the library hoping to run iPhoto. In Pathfinder it just goes into the package contents, in Finder it runs iPhoto which asks me what library I want to use. Really? iPhoto got started by clicking right that library that I need. 
moved the library to a freshly formatted drive with a MacOS partition (HFS+, extended, journaled) but with the same result: it cannot be open
restarted Mac (I come from the Windows world )
tried iPhoto Library Manager: it opens the library, sees every photo and movie but no events, albums, etc. I tried to rebuild the library but it creates a new one with no events, flagged photos, etc.
I have another library created on the same NTFS partition with pictures from a previous trip and I cannot open it either.
How can I find out what is the problem, what is the error or the "thing" that doesn't allow iPhoto to open my libraries even from the Mac partition? I looked into the console log but nothing shows up when I try to open a library.
How can I recover my photos and the way I organised them?
This is very annoying as I lost 2 full days trying to publish my photos and got stuck with this issue.
Thanks in advance for any help!
PS: I have iPhoto 9.5.1, Mavericks 10.9.4, MacbookPro Retina

Answer 1

Is the "Ignore ownership on this volume" flag set on the external drive?
This are the methods I tried to make it work:
open iPhoto with Command+Open, Command+Option+Open, Command+all modifiers+Open but it still opens with the same window: choose library (no option to rebuild, verify, etc)
After moving the library you need to select the library in the Finder to launch into the First Aid tools, not click the iPhoto icon. iPhoto needs to be directed to the library.
Select your moved library on the external drive with the correct formatting, hold down the ⌥⌘-keys, double-click the library to open in iPhoto, hold down the keys, until the First-Aid panel opens.