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 metal car chassis with their combustion engines and mass-produced design form a contrast to the mythical im­agery used by the young Richard Wagner. German Romanti­cism is juxtaposed with the urban present; the reality of the 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.