The video opera "ODE. Over the Course of Time” uses Beethoven's 9^th Symphony to question the foundations of a contemporary as well as millennia-old idea of humanistic freedom. With twelve synthesizers and the children's choir Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe, the opera embarks on a journey through the history of ideas in Europe – from antiquity to the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution to our present day. Detlef Heusinger works internationally as a composer, director and conductor and heads the SWR Experimental Studio in Freiburg.