Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff began composing at the young age of 12 and her experience as a singer combined with her linguistic expertise, sensitivity and innate understanding of the human voice led her to specialize in composing opera, chamber music, orchestral works and vocal music. Since 2005 she composed four operas, of which three are published with Edition Peters.

Alma (2024), Die Banalität der Liebe (2017) and Baruchs Schweigen (2009) all focus on female main characters and their struggles with love, family and society.

Alma (2024)

Alma tells the story of Alma Mahler, as it was never told before. She is known as the Wife, the Lover, and the Muse who inspired great artists. But little is told about her role as a mother and the children that Alma bore to the four artists who loved her – and whom she tragically lost, one after the other.
In five acts Alma tells the story about all of these children commencing with the death of her daughter Manon Gropius in 1935. We then follow Alma Mahler to the past – to 1919, when she lost her son Martin Gropius at less than a year old, to 1912 when she aborted Oscar Kokoschkas child, to 1902 when young Maria Mahler dies of Diphtheria and finally to 1901 when she met Gustav Mahler and buries her compositions, her spiritual children.
The libretto, written by Ido Ricklin, is inspired by Alma Mahler’s biography but gives it a free interpretation.

Alma will be premiered on October 26, 2024 at Volksoper Vienna, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber. Find out more about the performance and get your tickets here.

 

Die Banalität der Liebe (2017)

This opera, with a libretto by Savyon Liebknecht, tells the love story of young Hannah Arendt and her philosophy professor Martin Heidegger. For dramaturgical enhancement Liebknecht added a third main character, Rafael Mendelssohn, Hannah’s childhood friend. All characters are duplicated as the opera takes place on two time levels. As a 69-year-old lady, Hannah Arendt looks back on her life in 1975 shortly before her death.

Die Banaliät der Liebe was premiered on January 27, 2018 at Staatstheater Regensburg, conducted by Tom Woods and directed by Itay Tiran.

[...] Ella Milch-Sheriff has created with virtuosity, a merciless opera [...] an uplifting and disturbing
journey, often ironic, about the rift in German-Jewish relations. [...] It is a virtuoso operatic evening that raises questions that are not easy to answer."
Achim Heidenreich, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 1, 2018

 

 

Baruchs Schweigen (2009)

Baruchs Schweigen is an autobiographic chamber opera based on the composers father’s diary entries from 1943.

The libretto by Yael Ronen tells the story of a daughter that follows the instructions in her father's will and returns to her parental home. It is the first time she learns about the dark and cruel history of her father, who rarely spoke about his past. The daughter hears about a brother she never knew existed, about the deceased members of her father's family and about the ghosts who have accompanied her throughout her life and whose existence she has always been able to sense, but whose stories she did not know. These discoveries shed new light on her dark childhood and give her the opportunity to find a new path in the lasting relationship with her dead father.

Baruchs Schweigen was first performed on February 25, 2010 at Staatstheater Braunschweig, conducted by Burkhard Bauche.

 

[...] Ella Milch-Sheriff creates a compelling psychogram [...] Milch-Sheriff's musical language is sometimes dramatic and effervescent, sometimes chamber music-like, sometimes very song-like, while remaining committed to a tonal basis [...] Great applause for this remarkable premiere, with Ella Milch-Sheriff receiving the greatest acclaim from the audience. With this opera, she has above all shown great courage in dealing so profoundly with her own life story.

Christian Schuette, Opernnetz.de, , February 28, 2010