OK.

Yes, I have always thought death masks useless.

Now on the wax museums? Those are 'stunts.' I have no problem with people enjoying them. I have not been to Trossoud's, but from video visits I've seen, I'd say they attempt to get a likeness, including clothing, and they impart some sort of mild expression. They usually don't go for radical expressions of poses.

Sculpture is something different. The artist is imbued with craft and knowlege of the human body, the more exquisitely tuned the better. But then, in execution, the artist choses a pose and an expression that conveys something. The entire gamut of human experience is his to choose from. I suppose, especially in the 20th century, the artist can even choose to convey 'a soul who has lost his soul,' in otherwords a nearly desolate person.

My point all along is that people visitng a museum see a bust of Bach and they immediately react as if it were art. They are looking for meaning. We are all trained to look for meaning in the human face. There are more muscles in the human face than all other muscles elsewhere in the body, combined [fact check needed, i have not checked that, just read it somewhere or on Jeapardy]. Evolution has taught us to read faces, searching for danger and attraction. We are attunded to the slightest tension, stress, relaxation, guardedness, willingness, etc.

If the forensic recreation is put on display, so be it. I think they should have some sort of written explanation that it is deliberately expressionles, as you said, the equivelant of a death mask. I also wish they had commissioned more than one artist to interpret in 2D, including at least one who would have attempted to match the visage with the majesty of the music.

::::: Opera :::::