**Hans Schulz is an unofficial *goffer* for the Staatsoper Stuttgart in Germany. Long-time buddy from my days in and around Civil Rights era humiliations, Hans did a telephone fandango the other day…which tore me apart. This is not just for sopranos**.

ROX: So…what’s the deal with Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett?

HS: When Feldman and Beckett set out to write an opera *ensemble* in ‘76, they were together on one single significant point: neither of them liked opera.

ROX: Whoaa, Beckett didn’t like opera?

HS: Let’s use that point as a point of departure, shall we? Beckett initially refused Feldman’s request for a text, but when he realized the composer shared his intense antipathy to the form, he changed his mind.

ROX: What did they produce?