over and over vorbei nicht vorbei

"Memory isn't magic... How many genocides took place after the world was reminded not to forget Auschwitz? The urge to remember can stoke grievance, encourage vengeance, power vendettas... Because memory of the past is always selected to serve the present, it's no better than propaganda."
- Susan Neiman, Learning from the Germans

over and over vorbei nicht vorbei draws on historical musical material as a starting point for a bold and confrontational remix — of different musical styles and practices, past and present, German and English, the propagandistic and the avoidant, and the archival with recombinant.

Fragments of both popular love songs (such as Stop! In the Name of Love and Das ist die Frage aller Fragen) and “toxic” songs (Vörwarts! Vörwarts! and I Wish I Were in Dixie’s Land) from American and German pasts are combined into one narrative. In doing so, this groundbreaking new opera interrogates the individual and collective process of remembering, bringing two cultures into a dialogue sprung from the questions: How do societies deal with violence in their past? How has Germany looked at the Holocaust and Nazi violence? How has America looked at slavery, at the aftermath of slavery and the continuation of racism in the U.S.? And, how do younger generations look at the crimes of their ancestors?

Hearne’s use of love songs centers “frameworks of guilt and responsibility, victim and perpetrator” while his reclamation of songs we might rather forget points to the shared humanity and yearning for lost community at their core. Building upon their acclaimed opera The Source, Hearne and Fish continue to interrogate the impact ordinary people have on the cultures of violence around them.

The composition by Ted Hearne, directed by Daniel Fish, was commissioned by Komische Oper Berlin and premiered February 2024. A new remounted production of over and over vorbei nicht vorbei is currently in development.