Event

NEITHER: Jonah Bokaer at the Hudson Opera House

An Opera by Morton Feldman
Staged by Jonah Bokaer
Libretto by Samuel Beckett

Jonah Bokaer, recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Choreography (2015), realizes his Fellowship project with a choreographed staging of Morton Feldman's NEITHER (1977), with libretto by Samuel Beckett, specifically for the architecture of the Hudson Opera House.

NEITHER is the only opera Morton Feldman ever composed, and is rarely staged. Bokaer has devoted nearly eight years to developing his approach to the work, and these performances unveil his staging for the first time. A special guest soprano sings live for the occasion.

NEITHER is the result of a 1976 encounter in Berlin between Feldman and Beckett to discuss collaborating on an opera. Over a liquid lunch, both men professed their dislike of opera, and the resulting work is often called a monodrama, although Feldman described it as an anti-opera. The one-act opera, which premiered at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1977, is written for a soprano soloist and chamber orchestra with a 16-line poem by Beckett serving as the libretto.

Choreography and Direction by Jonah Bokaer
Dramaturgy by Youness Anzane
Performed by Faris Al-Shathir, Samir Bitar, Jonah Bokaer, Tsvi Bokaer, James Koroni, and Special Guests

These performances are made possible with support from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Choreography, the National Endowment for the Arts / Art Works program, and in-kind support from Second Ward Foundation.