FELDMAN & BECKETT: WORDS & MUSIC

Claire Booth & Ensemble 360

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Monday 18 May 2026, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s

Book Tickets
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FELDMAN Why Patterns? (30’)
BECKETT Rockabye (20’)
FELDMAN Two Intermissions (1950) 1 & 2 (4’)
FELDMAN Samuel Beckett, Words and Music (42’)

Visionary titans in their respective artforms, the warm friendship of Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett resulted in some of the most extraordinary collaborative artworks of the 20th century. This evening devoted to their work also includes Claire Booth’s first public performance of Beckett’s hypnotic high-speed monologue ‘Not I’. 

‘Samuel Beckett, Words and Music’ is among their finest collaborative work: Feldman’s singular, sparsely repetitive music matching Beckett’s distilled and fragmentary text. Originally written as a radio play, it presents a cryptic trialogue between the ailing master Croak and his two servants, Words (played by an actor) and Music (represented by Feldman’s score for chamber ensemble).  

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Image: Melissa Nolan Photographer: Futoshi Sakauchi 

About the Artists

Claire Booth

“An actor-singer who can raise the dramatic heat as soon as she enters the stage” (Opera Now), “that most questing, resourceful and intelligent of sopranos” (Daily Telegraph), British soprano Claire Booth has been widely acclaimed for her “radiant, rapturous, wonderfully nuanced performances” and voice of “piercing purity [and] luscious richness” (The Scotsman). She is renowned for her breadth of repertoire, and for the vitality and musicianship that she brings to the operatic stage and concert platform, with a versatility that encompasses repertoire spanning from Monteverdi and Handel, through Rossini, Berg and Britten, to a fearless commitment to the music of the present day. Booth has won the 2025 RPS Singer Award with the jury celebrating an artistry that “knows no bounds.” Read more.

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players.