Folk opera premiere

“Alma”: muse, mother or monster?

Folk opera hit: Annette Dasch (Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel), Annelie Sophie Müller (Anna, Mahler's daughter)(Bild: © Barbara Pálffy/Volksoper Wien)

Success for the world premiere of Ella Milch-Sheriff's "Alma" at the Vienna Volksoper: director Ruth Brauer-Kvam delivers an all-round stage-effective production: thunderous applause, cheers and ovations!

A triumph of a work commissioned by the Volksoper! How long has it been since we've seen anything like this! 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".

Annette Dasch (Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel), Martin Winkler (Oskar Kokoschka)(Bild: © Barbara Pálffy/Volksoper Wien)

Annette Dasch (Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel), Chorus of the Volksoper Vienna(Bild: © Barbara Pálffy/Volksoper Wien)

Nobody needs to be afraid of Milch-Sheriff's new music: Dramatically charged, rich in color, full of quirky waltzes, tango, tight marches and catchy quotes - for example from Gustav Mahler's "Third" - it nestles up to the story. Sovereign: Omar Meir-Wellber at the podium of the impeccable Volksoper Orchestra.

Chorus of the Volksoper How(Bild: © Barbara Pálffy/Volksoper Wien)

Annette Dasch (Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel), Annelie Sophie Müller (Anna, Mahler's daughter), Martin Winkler (Oskar Kokoschka)(Bild: © Barbara Pálffy/Volksoper Wien)

Annelie Sophie Müller (Anna, daughter of Mahler), Annette Dasch (Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel), Lauren Urquhart (Manon, daughter of Gropius)(Bild: © Barbara Pálffy/Volksoper Wien)

Brauer-Kwam's staging is not squeamish: she lets Annette Dasch, the reluctant mother of four children, "muse and lover of four arts" (Mahler, Gropius, Kokoschka, Werfel) and society star, bare her soul and - in sex and birth scenes - her body (in the nude). Alma - a man-devouring, ageing monster, a sphinx? Or a deeply troubled, lonely woman? The scenes in Falko Herold's Glashaus stage set are captivating: In 1935, after the funeral of her daughter Manon, Alma, 55, looks back on her four children, to each of whom one act is dedicated, on relationships, disappointments, the renunciation of becoming a composer because of Mahler. Choreographer Florian Hurler stages a pantomime of the four men around them: Josef Wagner, Florian Hurler, Timothy Fallon and Martin Winkler are convincing. Confident: Annelie Sophie Müller as Mahler's daughter Anna.