We have detected that you are using an adblocking plugin in your browser.

The revenue we earn by the advertisements is used to manage this website. Please whitelist our website in your adblocking plugin.

New Opera About Alma Mahler Premieres in Vienna

By Sara Schabas on October 28, 2024

Alma Mahler
Alma Mahler c. 1908 (Photo from the Austrian National Library)

Ella Milch-Sheriff’s opera Alma opened at the Vienna Volksoper this Saturday. The opera tells the story of Alma Mahler-Werfel, composer and muse to fin-de-siècle Vienna’s greatest artists.

Driving the news: On Saturday, October 26th, Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff’s opera Alma premiered at the Vienna Volksoper. With a libretto by Ido Ricklin, the opera Alma Mahler-Werfel (née Schindler)—the composer, muse, and wife to Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel—and her experiences as a mother. It stars soprano Annette Dasch in the title role.

A bit of context: Alma Mahler-Werfel (1879-1964) has been the subject of countless novels, biographies, films, and paintings. However, this opera is the first to centre the complicated historic figure. Mahler-Werfel is notorious for her antisemitism (despite marrying and having relationships with various Jews) as well as her decision to doctor letters from her husband Gustav before publishing them. Her enigmatic contributions to music history have led musicologists and historians to coin her output “The Alma Problem.”

The Vienna Volksoper advertises Alma as an opportunity to explore one of Vienna’s great female personalities through the eyes of a female composer. It promises to be full of intrigue, to say the least.

Sara Schabas
lv_banner_high_590x300
comments powered by Disqus

FREE ARTS NEWS STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX, EVERY MONDAY BY 6 AM

company logo

Part of

Terms of Service & Privacy Policy
© 2025 | Executive Producer Moses Znaimer