On October 26, Ella Milch-Sheriff’s new opera Alma premieres at Volksoper Vienna, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber and with direction by Ruth Brauer-Kvam. The libretto, written by Ido Ricklin, is inspired by Alma Mahler’s biography but gives it a free interpretation.
This biography is a veritable tragedy and thus as made for a grand opera.
Ella Milch-Sheriff
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 us 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 Kokoschka’s 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 only child to have survived childhood is Anna Mahler, her second child with Gustav Mahler. As the second protagonist of this opera, she enters into a dialogue with Alma and helps to understand the complex psyche of her mother.
For further information and tickets please see Volksoper Vienna.