Alma
Opera in Five Acts
By Ella Milch-Sheriff
Libretto: Ido Ricklin
Reviews
Der Standard, 28.10.2024
The premiere of Ella Milch-Sheriff's opera about Alma Mahler-Werfel was enthusiastically applauded for its colorful music and dazzling subject. […] The duo Ella Milch-Sheriff (music) and Ido Ricklin (book) nevertheless managed to create a potential stage hit. The music by Milch-Sheriff is a miracle of variety: sometimes a kind of Viennese song sounds from the orchestra pit, sometimes melodic
arches arch in an elegant Art Nouveau manner, sometimes pulsing free-tonal chord mists waft, urgent rhythms pulsate or deformed brass fanfares roar. Even Mahler and Mozart quotations fit effectively into this melting pot score. Not to be forgotten: the compact performance of the choir and orchestra under Omer Meir Wellber, also celebrated by the audience. The signs are good for a
long life for this Volksoper novelty.
Christoph Irrgeher (translated from German)
Kurier, 28.10.24
Phenomenally sad and absolutely worth seeing: "Alma" at the Volksoper tells the life of the muse Alma Mahler-Werfel as a bitter story of suffering with impressive music. […] From the pit comes, under the excellent direction of Omer Meir Wellber, a kaleidoscope of music from the Viennese turn of the century. It is Wagnerian when Alma asks Manon from the realm of the dead like Klingsor asks Kundry in Parsifal. It is Mahlerian, of course. New music free from ideology, which is particularly good at drama, which entertains and seduces one to sympathize. It is new music even for those who otherwise reject new music.
Georg Leyrer (translated from German)
Kronen Zeitung, 28.10.24
Success for Ella Milch-Sheriff's “Alma” at the Vienna Volksoper - A triumph for the Volksoper! […] Thunderous applause, cheers, ovations for Alma, Ella Milch-Sheriff's opera about Alma Mahler- Gropius-Werfel, Vienna's social icon around 1900, but also for Ruth Brauer-Kwam's stage-effective production, the conductor Omer Meir Wellber and especially Annette Dasch's Alma. No one needs to be afraid of Milch-Sheriff's new music: dramatically hyped up, colorful, full of offbeat waltzes, tangos, tight marches and catchy quotes from Gustav Mahler's Third, for example, it fits in with the story. Confident: Omer Meir Wellber at the podium of the impeccable Volksoper orchestra.
Dr. Karl-Heinz Roschitz (translated from German)
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 28.10.2024
Her life as a grand opera. Idolized and hated, now set to music as a tragic heroine: the premiere of a feminist piece. […] The three-hour piece, which roars along rhythmically in harsh tones, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber whips up both musicians and audience with fury. […] Ella Milch-Sheriff does not even try to show Alma in all her facets and contradictions, or even to understand her power of fascination. She simply assumes the latter. This works because Annette Dasch is quite naturally the center of the action. She does not put on a show, she does not shine through her ostentatious virtuosity. In her singing and playing she combines calm, dignity, vitality, charisma, harmony and effortlessness. In this way, beyond the artistic and erotic hustle and bustle, of which Alma was always the center, she can show a strong, emphatic and vulnerable woman who never gives in but always makes compromises, even to the point of self-denial, in order not to be marginalized. Ella Milch-Sheriff composes from the same approach. She quotes and draws on Mahler, Schönberg, Berg, Mozart, Shostakovich, she amalgamates the echoes in a vital and responsive sound language that
offers warm darkness without becoming late romantic, molusco-like or soft.
The sounds are a reflection of Alma's psyche, just as the balancing act between musical and avant-garde opera, between intellect and grand entrance, is. Milch-Sheriff wants to be understandable.
The story on stage requires no prior knowledge, it does not require any strenuous analysis, is immediately understandable and creates an increasing emotional pull…
Reinhard J. Brembeck (translated from German)
BR Klassik, 27.10.24
Alma Mahler-Werfel, wife and lover of great men, prevented from being a composer: The opera "Alma" by Ella Milch-Sheriff achieved a unanimous premiere success at the Vienna Volksoper. […]
Milch-Sheriff's music is of that modern style in which moods and stylistic nuances are easily explained by the respective dramatic context. The Manon act is based on dented waltz sounds à la Shostakovich, the Werfel act has a lot to do with tango rhythms, and the Kokoschka act repeatedly features grotesque marches. She repeatedly uses musical adaptations that may seem like quotations but are not - for example in the Heurigen music at the beginning - and even actual takeovers. […] The third act right before the interval, and the composer Ella Milch-Sheriff pulls out all the dramatic stops, and Omer Meir Wellber at the podium doesn't need to be told twice and brings out all the brutal forces with the Volksoper orchestra.
Walter Weidringer (translated from German)
Salzburger Nachrichten, 28.10.24
Exciting premiere of Alma at the Vienna Volksoper. The Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff is hardly known in this country, her commissioned work showed ingenuity and instrumentation skills and a pronounced sense for effective musical theater. […] Conductor Omer Meir Wellber drives the Volksoper orchestra to peak performance as an expert, from soft string carpets to delicate
accompanying figures to rhythmically effervescent expression. […] All of this together drove the audience to enthusiasm, a large part of which was received by Ella Milch-Sheriff. And rightly so.
Ernst P. Strobl (translated from German)
Neue Züricher Zeitung, 29.10.24
Ella Milch-Sheriff turns the life of the busiest widow in cultural history into a hearty spectacle at the Vienna Volksoper. […] previously, Milch-Sheriff had entertained with a colorful, varied and polyphonic sound language. In the pit, Omer Meir Wellber skillfully coordinated the turbulent musical events. The short-term music director of the house and long-time artistic partner of the
composer was the one who was able to persuade Milch-Sheriff to award the premiere of her Alma opera to Vienna.
Stefan Ender (translated from German)
Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, 28.10.24
Gripping premiere of the opera Alma by Ella Milch-Sheriff at the Vienna Volksoper. Musically, Ella MilchSheriff succeeds in creating a compelling score, which remains predominantly tonal… or creates music that one would think one had heard before. In the third act, which is about the unborn child Oskar Kokoschka';s approach, the music does indeed increase to excessive drama, but still creates a lot of expected music. But that's not a bad thing, the composer succeeds perfectly in playing on the emotional piano of music history and finding the right thing for the moment. […] Conductor Omer Meir Wellber also follows this line, bringing out the ecstatic in this score with the equally well-disposed Volksoper orchestra, and is thus a perfect steward of this work.
APA, 27.10.24
Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff and her librettist Ido Ricklin have managed to take a fresh look at the legendary femme fatale of the fin de siècle at the Vienna Volksoper. […] The emotionality is found less in the vocal lines than in the music. Milch-Sheriff's score is energy-driven, more emotional than many contemporary works, without sacrificing comprehensibility of the text. Waltzes, the
imperial anthem and, at the end, Mahler and Bach are absorbed and modulated. The result is a multifaceted piece of music which, under the tight rein of former Volksoper music director Omer Meir Wellber, does not fall apart stylistically in the pit, but finds a sensitive tonality for the individual scenes.
Martin Fichter-Wöß (translated from German)
Il Ponte, 4.11.24
When you think of Alma Mahler, the first thing that comes to mind is the long list of famous men – three of whom she even married – who have had love affairs with her. You never imagine, however, her relationships with her children. […] This is precisely the perspective in which the libretto of the opera Alma moves – five acts very well constructed by playwright Ido Ricklin for the Israeli composer Ella. But it is above all the musical performance that enhances the work, starting with Omer Meir Wellber, who led the Volksoper Orchestra, drawing vivid sounds from it. The conductor was very careful to highlight the captivating aspects of a writing that is traditional overall, underlining its mimetic aspects and the numerous reminiscences of Mahler.
Giulia Vannoni (translated from Italian)
Scherzo, 5.11.24
The music of the Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff, well-constructed and with opulent instrumentation, gives unity to the story, narrates it to us effectively and allows us to clearly glimpse all the different moods that the protagonist and the rest of the characters go through. […] There is passion, frenzy and almost wild rhythms in the erotic scenes, and delicacy and emotion in the passages with the dead children. There are also continuous references to the historical moment – distorted waltzes, jazz rhythms, cabaret music or any of the Viennese heurigen. The vocal writing is demanding but within order. In this, her fifth opera, she shows that she has the key to success.
In the musical direction, Omer Meir Wellber ensured a high-quality performance and a theatrical pulse without ups and downs, always with energy and putting emotions on display. He especially shone in a tough third act, where a tragedy was brewing between the child who wants to be born and the mother who wants to abort it.
Pedro J. Lapeña Rey (translated from Spanish)
Van Magazine, 13.11.24
It was a coup for the Volksoper: the premiere of a full-length opera about the life of a woman who is considered the embodiment of the Viennese fin de siècle and who posterity is somehow not yet finished with. It was admirable how unreservedly Annette Dasch threw herself into the role of Alma Mahler-Werfel, née Schindler, including violent sex scenes, including human depths: staying away
from the funeral of her daughter Manon (she doesn't like the event, she prefers to attend premieres); including the unsparing look at the withering body of someone once celebrated as the "most beautiful woman in Vienna". […] The role is also demanding vocally. Omer Meir Wellber conducted the always catchy music of the Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff with verve; she wants
to ignite, and it does.
Holger Noltze (translated from German)
Photos by Barbara Palffy/Volksoper
Articles
