Presented By: School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD)
The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York
A play by Joseph Horowitz (premiere performance)
Directed by Jack Tamburri
Esther van Zyl as Alma
Joseph Horowitz as Gustav
Ninety minutes without intermission. There will also be a post-performance discussion.
Gustav and Alma Mahler arrived in New York City in 1907. He had been invited to lead the Metropolitan Opera; his glamorous wife accompanied him to the New World. His embattled American career places their legendary marriage in sharp relief. Nineteen years Gustav’s junior, Alma was his constant companion and occasional soul-mate, sometimes his muse, always his caretaker, a woman otherwise restless and unfulfilled. Her husband’s life was intensely interior, sporadically alert to others’ needs and desires.
Horowitz writes: “My play is based on my 2023 novel with the same name. Its central event is Alma’s affair with Walter Gropius and her wrenching decision to remain with Mahler. As The Marriage illuminates, there are things to be learned about Gustav and Alma that cannot as readily be observed in Vienna or Budapest as in Manhattan. Mahler was a great personality and, when circumstances permitted, a great man. He arrived in America weakened and fatigued. His energy and idealism were aroused by the New World, but fitfully – he remained a chronic outsider.”
ABOUT THE GUEST ARTIST
JOSEPH HOROWITZ is an award-winning author, concert producer, film-maker, and broadcaster. He is one of the most prominent and widely published writers on topics in American music. As an orchestral administrator and advisor, he has been a pioneering force in the development of thematic programming and new concert formats. Horowitz’s most recent books include a novel, The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York, about which Clive Paget wrote in Musical America: “With his unparalleled knowledge of fin-de-siècle classical music in America, Joseph Horowitz [has] brought us closer to Mahler and his wife Alma than any other author I have read. . . . At times, your heart breaks for them both. . . . In Gustav and Alma Mahler, Horowitz has created two of classical music’s most convincing fictional portraits.” Another Horowitz book, Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music, tells a story that “must be heard if classical music is to contribute to the national discussion on racial justice” (according to Mark Clague of the University of Michigan). A former New York Times music critic, and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Horowitz works as an artistic consultant for orchestras throughout the US, and also regularly produces 50-minute “More than Music” documentaries for National Public Radio.
Esther van Zyl as Alma
Joseph Horowitz as Gustav
Ninety minutes without intermission. There will also be a post-performance discussion.
Gustav and Alma Mahler arrived in New York City in 1907. He had been invited to lead the Metropolitan Opera; his glamorous wife accompanied him to the New World. His embattled American career places their legendary marriage in sharp relief. Nineteen years Gustav’s junior, Alma was his constant companion and occasional soul-mate, sometimes his muse, always his caretaker, a woman otherwise restless and unfulfilled. Her husband’s life was intensely interior, sporadically alert to others’ needs and desires.
Horowitz writes: “My play is based on my 2023 novel with the same name. Its central event is Alma’s affair with Walter Gropius and her wrenching decision to remain with Mahler. As The Marriage illuminates, there are things to be learned about Gustav and Alma that cannot as readily be observed in Vienna or Budapest as in Manhattan. Mahler was a great personality and, when circumstances permitted, a great man. He arrived in America weakened and fatigued. His energy and idealism were aroused by the New World, but fitfully – he remained a chronic outsider.”
ABOUT THE GUEST ARTIST
JOSEPH HOROWITZ is an award-winning author, concert producer, film-maker, and broadcaster. He is one of the most prominent and widely published writers on topics in American music. As an orchestral administrator and advisor, he has been a pioneering force in the development of thematic programming and new concert formats. Horowitz’s most recent books include a novel, The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York, about which Clive Paget wrote in Musical America: “With his unparalleled knowledge of fin-de-siècle classical music in America, Joseph Horowitz [has] brought us closer to Mahler and his wife Alma than any other author I have read. . . . At times, your heart breaks for them both. . . . In Gustav and Alma Mahler, Horowitz has created two of classical music’s most convincing fictional portraits.” Another Horowitz book, Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music, tells a story that “must be heard if classical music is to contribute to the national discussion on racial justice” (according to Mark Clague of the University of Michigan). A former New York Times music critic, and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Horowitz works as an artistic consultant for orchestras throughout the US, and also regularly produces 50-minute “More than Music” documentaries for National Public Radio.
Cost
- Free - no tickets required
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