5 good reasons to choose Alma

Are you still thinking about getting tickets for the world premiere of the opera Alma? Would you like to find out more about what to expect from this outstanding performance? We have put together 5 good reasons for you!

Take a new look at the most famous woman of the Viennese fin de siècle

Alma Mahler-Werfel is one of the most famous women of Vienna's fin de siècle. Her life is as legendary as her men, numerous myths surround her, she has been called a muse and a femme fatale, her life story has been described in countless books, films and plays. But the opera Alma by composer Ella Milch-Sheriff and librettist Ido Ricklin manages to focus on a little-known aspect of Alma: Alma, the mother. “Of Alma's four children, only one daughter - Anna Mahler - survived childhood; in my opera, she is the second protagonist,” says composer Ella Milch-Sheriff. In the opera, Anna now enters into a dialog with her mother in order to understand her better.

Discover one of the most exciting contemporary female composers

“For years, it was a dream of mine to write an opera about Alma,” says Ella Milch-Sheriff. The Israeli composer was born in Haifa in 1954. Her oeuvre includes symphonic music as well as chamber music compositions and includes five music theater works to date. “Opera is the ultimate genre in which everything is united,” she says. ”It is a total theater and musical event in the best sense of the word. I believe that people will return to opera houses in today's world if we are smart enough to choose themes that interest the younger generations.” The music of Alma moves between touching, lyrical moments and dramatic climaxes. It is highly emotional and therefore perfectly suited to the large music theater stage.

Immerse yourself in a fascinating period of cultural history

The author Franz Werfel, the architect Walter Gropius, the painter Oskar Kokoschka and the composer Gustav Mahler - in the world premiere of Alma, a whole host of famous artistic figures take to the stage, immersing you in an exciting period of cultural history. While a new era is dawning, a new form of art and expression is being researched in the salons and artistic circles. Alma brings back this exciting time and sheds new and unusual light on it.

Listen to a musically outstanding performance

In the leading roles of the world premiere, you will experience singers who combine musical quality and emotional expression in their acting and thus promise a great evening of musical theater. Annette Dasch slips into the role of Alma, Annelie Sophie Müller into that of her daughter Anna. Timothy Fallon, Martin Winkler and Josef Wagner complete the outstanding ensemble, as do Lauren Urquhart, Christopher Ainslie, Florian Hurler and many others. Omer Meir Wellber conducts the Volksoper orchestra. “I composed the opera Alma in the knowledge that he would conduct it,” says the composer. “This fact alone, I think, has taken me to a level musically that I have never reached before. It is a great privilege to work with such great musicians and to be close to them.”

Experience an aesthetically fascinating production

Director Ruth Brauer-Kvam is well known to Volksoper audiences as a performer and is also popular as a director, staging the contemporary opera Leyla and Medjnun at the Kasino. For Alma, she creates a fascinating, dilapidated, bizarre world, a bit like a ghost train of a bygone era. She has the perfect team for this. Falko Herold's stage design is based on the studio of Alma's daughter Anna, who was a successful sculptor. Alfred Mayerhofer's costumes bring the fin de siècle to life and occasionally venture into the grotesque. Alex Brok's lighting and Martin Eidenberger's video design create atmospheric images, while Florian Hurler's choreography structures the music with movement.