Alma Opera Synopsis

The story of Alma Mahler as never told before. She is known as the Wife, the Lover, and the Muse who inspired great artists. For years she was scorned and derided as "The Widow of the four Arts" but little is known of her bereavement. Little is told of the children that Alma bore to the four artists who loved her - and whom she tragically lost, one after the other. Who was the real Alma?

LIST OF CHARACTERS

1. Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel-Schindler, 56-year-old and grows younger and younger, Dramatic soprano

ALMA'S CHILDREN (in order of appearance)

2. Anna, Mahler’s daughter, 30-years-old throughout the opera, mezzo-soprano

3. Manon, Gropius’ daughter, died of Polio, 18-year-old, lyric soprano

4. Martin, Werfel’s son, died of Hydrocephalus less than a year old, Counter-Tenor

5. The Unborn One, Kokoschka’s child, still-born at birth, High soprano

6. Maria, Mahler’s daughter, died of Diphtheria at the age of 5, silent role

THE MEN (in order of appearance)

7. Franz Werfel, 3rd husband, a writer, tenor

8. Walter Gropius, 2nd husband, architect, a dancer, silent role

9. Oscar Kokoschka, lover, painter, Bass-baritone

10. Gustav Mahler, 1st husband, composer-conductor, Bass-baritone

MIXED CHORUS

Men and women, high society of Vienna at Manon’s funeral

Priester, Bariton (small role)

Party guests

Doctors and Nurses

Men and Women at the concert in Krefeld

Three Midwives

The Orchestra members of the Vienna Staatsoper.

SYNOPSIS

"There is poison
In my blood, my womb, my milk.
Everything that grows within me
Everything that feeds on me - dies.
From the moment you were conceived inside me -
You are dying"

PART I

ACT I - MANON

The 1935 Viennese élite are flocking to the funeral of a “princess” - Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler-Gropius and Walter Gropius, who died at 18. They are not moved by grief, but by curiosity and 'schadenfreude' at Alma’s sorrow. But Alma is not at the cemetery. Drunk and embittered, she is shut in her house.

Anna, Alma’s only remaining daughter, beckons her to go to the cemetery. Alma refuses - “She never attends funerals”.

In a brutal duet between mother and daughter, hostility and grudge between Alma and her rejected daughter are exposed. In her despair, Alma calls out to Manon, her beloved dead daughter. Magically, Manon appears to her mother and her half-sister. She is relieved to be dead, freed from the fuss and pretense that her mother's social life imposed on her.

In a flashback, we witness a party in which Alma entertains the Viennese Elite. Alma voices her antisemitic views and her disillusionment from former husbands. Alma destined her beloved "Arian" daughter as her successor - a muse for artists, a woman whose greatest talent is to evoke love and inspiration in men.

Back in the present, the dead Manon disowns the promise of such an existence, and disappears forever.

Alma is left heartbroken and grieving. She gave up her music and devoted her life to her children. She blames herself for spiritually “killing” Manon, just as she killed her other children.

Anna is furious, claiming that she could go back to composing music and instead she became lover of many.

ACT II - MARTIN

1919. Sixteen years earlier, Gropius, although handsome and successful, has become distant, and boring. Alma Gropius meets the young Jewish author Franz Werfel. Even though Werfel is short, stocky, and physically unattractive, Alma becomes passionately infatuated with his talent and sensuality. Their affair leads to a pregnancy, and in the height of this sequence, Alma and Werfel re-enact the night in which passionate lovemaking almost caused a miscarriage.

Martin was born alive, but later became terminally ill. Guilt-ridden Alma abandoned her son. infant Martin Gropius lies dying in a hospital bed. His mother, Alma Gropius, is absent. She is in Weimar, where her husband, Walter Gropius, founded the Bauhaus design school. He died alone and was buried alone.

The dead child calls out to his mother.

Alma swears to Anna never to mention this dead child.

INTERMEZZO

Anna is left alone, contemplating her life beside a promiscuous mother. She recalls the string of lovers that Alma took after Mahler's death - and above them all, the manic painter, Oskar Kokoschka.

ACT III - THE UNBORN ONE

1912. Seven years earlier, Anna Mahler is a child, watching her mother's lover painting countless portraits of her mother. "Uncle Oskar" confesses his mad jealousy, seeing every man as a potential rival who may steal Alma from him.

Alma and Kokoschka remember their first passionate meeting, when an immediate and mutual desire for one another ignited a love affair. Kokoschka is desperate to marry, but Alma is reluctant. Kokoschka's violent obsession, masochistic tendencies, and fits of jealousy, frighten her.

As Kokoschka goes to bed with Alma, he is confronted by a strange creature. It is the unborn child-to-be of Alma and Kokoschka, newly conceived.

Kokoschka is delighted with the prospect of becoming a father, yet the Unborn One realizes Alma's plans to undergo an abortion.

Both father and unborn child appeal to Alma to keep the baby, but she is resolute. Kokoschka blames her for killing a genius's offspring. Alma denies him the title of a genius, as he will never match up to her late husband, Gustav Mahler. Kokoschka is hurt and becomes violently offensive.

As Alma turns to leave, she admits she would have stayed, had her lover been able to produce a masterpiece. However, she doubts that Kokoschka will ever amount to more than, as she calls him, a Degenerate Artist.

Left alone with the Unborn One, Kokoschka creates a life-sized doll of Alma. In his obsession, he fails to notice that the Unborn One dies, apparently aborted by Alma. He tears the doll violently.

PART 2

ACT 4 - MARIA

1902. Ten years earlier, Alma Mahler is newly married to famous and successful composer-conductor Gustav Mahler. She is four months pregnant, and attends a concert in Krefeld, where Mahler conducts a premiere of his 3rd Symphony.

During the concert (unheard), we hear a stream of Alma's thoughts, anxieties and hopes, ending with a sense of victory. The audience is thrilled with Mahler's music, and Alma feels the baby inside her, kicking for the first time. It is a triumph.

The scene changes to the countryside. The married couple stroll in the woods by their summer house. Alma starts feeling neglected and unnoticed, while her husband is solely focused on his music. When she tries to find solace in her own music, she is scolded by her husband for interrupting the silence he requires for his own creativity.

A fit of anger turns into screams of labor, as Alma goes through her first, traumatic, child-birth. Midwives scramble to help the agonized mother, and Mahler is beside himself with fear and guilt. Both Alma and Mahler swear this will be the first and last birth that Alma will ever have to undergo.

The child, Maria, is born at last. Mahler is filled with joy and pride, but Alma is depressed and feels empty. She yearns for the Music she once wrote, and finds little comfort in Mahler's success. Even the "Alma Motif", which Mahler writes for her, fails to cheer her up. This hurts Mahler. He believes Alma has "everything a woman can want". However, he is rejoiced to hear that in spite of what they swore earlier, Alma is yet again with child - Anna.

After Anna is born, Mahler is composing his "Kindertotenlieder", to Alma's great dismay. She believes this to be a bad omen, and is completely disillusioned of her marriage life. Watching Mahler playing with his older daughter, she utters the words "This child must cease to be".

Horrifically, Alma's words come true. In the summer of 1905, following ten days of severe illness, Maria dies of Diphtheria. The bereaved Alma faints.

In her oblivion, Alma envisions a prophetic scene. All the children she will have and lose, appear before her, telling her of their future pains and deaths, begging for motherly love. Alma's future life and agonies are laid in front of her and terrify her.

As the dead children leave, Alma is left with her only remaining child - Anna, whom she never loved enough. Alma believes Anna was spared because she was not infected by Alma's poisonous being. Alma regards herself as a woman dead from within, having been spiritually killed at the age of 22.

ACT V - ALMA

1901. At the Stage of the Vienna Hofoper, Gustav Mahler is conducting a General rehearsal of "Le Nozze di Figaro". By the end of the rehearsal, Mahler is applauded by a personal guest, the young and beautiful Alma Schindler, whom he met in the previous evening.

Alma is determined to become a known composer and to write an opera, which will be conducted by Mahler himself. Mahler regards this dream as merely "lovely", but Alma demands to be regarded as a serious musician.

The "Orchestra" congratulates Alma for having charmed a successful man, possibly into marrying her, but Alma rejects these prospects. She wants to become "somebody".

Mahler's desires, however, are rather warm. He visits Alma at her home, where she insists that she must focus on her artistic work. In the heated conversation that follows, Mahler turns out to be dominant and patronizing. However, Alma admits she is rather attracted to him.

Alma weighs the pros and cons. As she wonders whether Mahler is the right man for her, and. the "Orchestra" interfere, happy to gossip and meddle. Even Mahler himself is unsure of such a match, admitting that he might not be able to commit himself to the bonds of marriage.

The more Alma is confronted with Mahler's faults, the more she becomes inclined to marry him. However, things take a dramatic turn when Mahler arrives with a harsh demand. He insists that, if Alma is to become his wife, she must cease, completely, her artistic work. He will not have a colleague for a wife. Mahler demands that Alma dedicate her whole life to her husband and HIS music.

Alma is terribly hurt. She hates Mahler's music, and finds his demands cruel. Life without writing music seem impossible to her.

Anna, who has been watching the life of her mother in retrospect, realizes the cause of Alma's future bitterness and self-destruction. It was the loss of her music, caused by Mahler's ultimatum. Having realized the root of all the future tragedies, Anna begs Alma to change her fated course of life. She advises her to refuse to oblige Mahler's demand, and refuse the marriage.

Still, Alma believes that Mahler is not only her beloved man - he is the one who will make her whole. She decides to give up her music, for her man.

Alma burns her music sheets, her "spiritual children", at a sacrificial bonfire, from which she wishes to re-emerge. She envisions herself as the happy wife of Mahler, and a loving, nurturing mother to his children, while her children and husbands-lovers watch her.

The opera ends as the guests gather in Alma's house waiting for Mahler to come and propose while Anna still tries to stop her and the guests encourage her to say "yes", Mahler comes, kneeling in front of Alma while the guests sing to them what a happy life expect them. Anna and all the children and men watch her, a young bride-to-be, looking forward to the happiness she anticipates as "Alma Mahler".