Excerpts from Richard Wagner’s first opera Die Feen (first performed in Munich in 1888) take us on a journey into the Wagnerian cosmos of mythical figures: King Arindal must rescue his love, the beautiful fairy Ada. To break the spell she is under, he must perform superhuman feats that take him all the way to the underworld and help him fulfil his desires and finally even achieve immortality.

The streets are dark. Die Feen resounds from the speakers of parked cars. As the music piece evolves, it travels from one car to the next. Each of these passages is accompanied by the car’s interior light illuminating. Ten parked cars are activated in this manner, culminating in a long line of light and sound.

The metal car chassis with their combustion engines and mass-produced contrast the mythical imagery used by the young Richard Wagner. German Romanticism encounters the urban present; the reality of metropolis with the symbolism of the late 19th century. Industrial artefacts become hybrid actors, blurring the dichotomy of nature romanticism and a belief in progress.