Ted Hearne/Daniel Fish: over and over vorbei nicht vorbei

09.02.2024 / 19:00 – 22:00
With Daniel Fish, Mikhaela Mahony

A contemporary opera

What do we remember? Who and what shapes our memory? How can we remember events in which we were not involved? And what influence does memory have on the present and future? over and over vorbei nicht vorbei is a staging by Daniel Fish and Mikhaela Mahony who came to Berlin with a DAAD Arts & Media fellowship in 2023 for the preparations of the piece It the draws on historical musical material as a starting point for a remix of different musical styles and practices, setting German and English, past and present, and the archival with creative-recombinatory into a dialogue with each other.

Using fragments from songs from the American and German contexts, over and over vorbei nicht vorbei deals with the individual and collective process of remembering and brings two cultures into a dialogue about the questions: How do societies deal with violence in their past? And how do next, younger generations look at the crimes of their ancestors?
In changing arrangements, juxtapositions and repetitions, the text fragments set themselves in ever new relationships to each other. Connections emerge, which are cut again, only to be formed differently once more. Inner images emerge and disappear again.

The composition by Ted Hearne, directed by Daniel Fish, unites voices of different generations: US singers Eliza Bagg and Isaiah Robinson meet ensemble member of the Komische Oper Berlin Tom Erik Lie, and the Berlin youth choir of the Vokalhelden. They are accompanied by an ensemble of musicians from a variety of stylistic backgrounds of both countries, creating a score that heavily relies on electronic music.The vocal lines draws on popular and operatic traditions, occasionally morphed by vocal processing.

Heimathafen Neukölln
Karl-Marx-Straße 141
12043 Berlin

Photo: Paula Court