''Neither'' is the only opera by

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

, dating from 1977. Its libretto is a 16-line poem by

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

. Composer and librettist had met in Berlin two years earlier with plans for a collaboration for Rome Opera. However, Beckett told Feldman that he himself did not like opera. Feldman had echoed Beckett’s sentiment, so that the work emerged in Rome as a setting for soprano soloist only, accompanied by orchestra. It could theoretically be termed a “monodrama”; however, given the creators’ disdain for opera, the label “anti-opera” fits better.

Recordings

* HatHut, hat (now) ART 180: Sarah Leonard, soprano; Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt; Zoltán Peskó, conductor * Col Legno, WWE 1CD 20081: Petra Hoffman, soprano;

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orchestras operated under the auspices of Bayerischer Rundf ...

; Kwamé Ryan, conductor

References

External links

* The Modern World, pages on
Feldman and Beckett

JazzLoft page on recording of ''Neither''

Neither Wealth Nor Splendor: Getting Morton Feldman’s and Samuel Beckett’s 1977 opera NEITHER from a Workshop Performance in NYC to the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Obstacles Concerned.
{{Authority control English-language operas Operas Operas by Morton Feldman Works by Samuel Beckett 1977 operas