Alma and the Genius

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Musical dates
Title: Alma and the Genius
Original language: German
Music: Tom van Hasselt
Lyrics: Tom van Hasselt
Premiere: February 2, 2015
Place of premiere: Hall of Mirrors of the Theater des Westens , Berlin
Place and time of the action: in this world and in the hereafter,
then and now
Roles / people
Place of the premiere:
The Theater des Westens in Berlin

Alma and the Genius is a satirical musical by Tom van Hasselt , which tells the story of the deceased personality of the art, music and literary scene Alma Mahler-Werfel adapted to a modern context. The musical is conceived as a two-person piece and is described by the theater publisher Felix Bloch Erben as a one-woman show for diva and pianists . Alma and the Genius premiered on February 2nd, 2015 in the mirror hall of the Theater des Westens in Berlin .

action

Alma is a woman who is in love with herself today, wearing jeans and high-heeled shoes. The überfrau, however, has very human weaknesses, because she is extremely narcissistic and loves to put herself in the limelight. Alma, whose name also stands for “the multitudes” in Latin, sings about her experiences with countless men, about how she once wrapped them around her finger, but also about her existence as a widow. Meanwhile, the pianist who accompanies Alma on the piano longs to be kissed by this muse like his countless historical models.

background

In terms of content, Alma und das Genie is based on the life of Alma Mahler-Werfel , a personality in the art, music and literature scene who has been described as a femme fatale and has been portrayed in many ways and perpetuated musically. Mahler-Werfel was in a relationship with the who's who of the fin de siècle during her lifetime . From 1902 she was married to the composer Gustav Mahler and from 1915 to the architect Walter Gropius . In 1929 she finally married the poet Franz Werfel . In addition, Alma Mahler-Werfel had relationships with other prominent alpha men such as the painter Gustav Klimt , the writer Gerhart Hauptmann , with Alexander Zemlinsky and with Oskar Kokoschka . Mahler-Werfel also experienced the Roaring Twenties through her numerous acquaintances in Germany , but emigrated to France together with her husband of Jewish origin, the Austrian Franz Werfel, in 1938 and later, when the Wehrmacht occupied large parts of France, to the United States . As a salonnière , Mahler-Werfel hosted artists and celebrities in Vienna and New York , discovered and promoted young talent and would have liked to have become a brilliant artist herself. During her artistically active time she composed and designed a little over a hundred songs, but only a few art songs of her own artistic work have survived.

Alma Mahler-Werfel and her husbands, lovers and platonic relationships

  • Alma Mahler-Werfel b. Schindler

  • Gustav Mahler (1892)

  • Walter Gropius (1919)

  • Franz Werfel (1940)

  • Gustav Klimt (1905)

  • Gerhart Hauptmann (1905)

  • Oskar Kokoschka (1963)

  • Alexander Zemlinsky

music

Musical accompaniment

The German pianist Tom van Hasselt, who appeared for the first time in 1997 with a full-length chanson program from his own pen and is also the author of the piece, accompanies a singer on the piano and becomes an actor himself. Tom van Hasselt created an old-fashioned music for this, which consists of chansons and black-humored songs and is in the style of Georg Kreisler and also has the function of breaking through the time levels in the piece. The pieces range from children's songs to waltzes, samba and gospel to large, melodic ballads.

List of songs (excerpt)

  • Hysterical
  • Alma Mahler sounds good
  • Christmas for Alma

Performances

premiere

Tom van Hasselt

The world premiere of Alma and the Genius took place on February 2, 2015 in the Hall of Mirrors of the Theater des Westens . The piece was brought to the stage by the stem cell formation, a project that Tom van Hasselt founded together with Nini Stadlmann and Hendrik Weber. Nini Stadlmann, who gives her voice in the musical Alma, was born in Vienna and has worked as a singer and choreographer in the music theater industry for 15 years and works as a freelance singer and choreographer in Berlin.

Stage design for the premiere

There are four wooden letters on the piano: two "A" and an "L" and an "M" each - the letters that make up the name Alma. In the course of the evening, the letters are grouped into new words that are also important in the piece, such as MALA .

Cast and ensemble for the premiere

  • Director: Tom van Hasselt, Nini Stadlmann
  • Alma: Nini Stadlmann
  • Alma's Genius: Tom van Hasselt

Further performances

In 2015, Alma und das Genie was also performed in the Zebrano Theater , Berlin, in the Kookaburra Comedy Club, Berlin, in the Maschinenhaus der Berliner Kulturbrauerei , in the Bürgersaal, Freiburg-Littenweiler, in the Historisches Kaufhaus, Freiburg im Breisgau, and in the TheaterKlause Brandenburg. In May 2016 the piece was shown in the bar of every reason .

reception

Basics

Tom van Hasselt and Nini Stadlmann recount the life of Alma Mahler-Werfel in a biographical musical by touching on individual stages of her life in the songs and letting Alma chat about the same in between. The protagonist, however, is in the modern world, owns a cell phone and even has a lover who is none other than God, and all of this, although she has actually been dead for 50 years. Alma must be in heaven, and yet she gives the viewer a glimpse of her fascinating life.

criticism

Thomas Hermanns , member of the German Musical Academy, describes the piece as “smart, beautiful, quick, fits.” Theater critic Reinhard Wengierek praises: “This evening is in the top division; it fits in every state theater. Attention directors and impresarios: There is still something new, original, of course glamorous and witty to discover about the good old Alma. ”Kai Wulfes praises the famous, surprising play with words and Tom van Hasselt's varied, catchy score, but he takes it Piece more than a music cabaret evening than as a mature musical performance, because in the premiere version it gets by without scenic implementation and dance.

Awards

Tom van Hasselt and Nina Stadlmann were nominated for the German Musical Theater Prize in August 2015 for their work in Alma and the Genie , and Stadlmann was nominated for Best Actress . On October 26th, 2015 Tom van Hasselt received the award in the category Best Lyrics .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alma and the Genius In: www.felix-bloch-orben.de. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  2. ↑ Kai Wulfes: Alma and the genius. First sex, then art? In: musicalzentrale.de. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ Oliver Kranz: 'Alma and the Genius'. Muse, groupie and artist's wife In: Deutschlandfunk Online, February 2, 2015.
  4. ↑ Alma and the Genius In: www.felix-bloch-orben.de. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  5. ↑ Oliver Kranz: 'Alma and the Genius'. Muse, groupie and artist's wife In: Deutschlandfunk Online, February 2, 2015.
  6. ↑ Kai Wulfes: Alma and the genius. First sex, then art? In: musicalzentrale.de. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  7. ↑ Kai Wulfes: Alma and the genius. First sex, then art? In: musicalzentrale.de. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  8. ↑ Guest performance of the stem cell formation Berlin at the invitation of the ORSO. Alma and the Genius In: orso.co. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  9. ↑ bar-jeder-vernunft.de: stem cell formation ALMA and the genius ( Memento from December 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 99 kB)
  10. ↑ Kai Wulfes: Alma and the genius. First sex, then art? In: musicalzentrale.de. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  11. ↑ Thomas Hermanns: Alma and the genius In: youtube.com. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  12. ↑ Reinhard Wengierek: Blog. Theater des Westens ( Memento from November 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Kai Wulfes: Alma and the genius. First sex, then art? In: musicalzentrale.de. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  14. ^ The German Musical Theater Prize 2015: The Great Ceremony In: musical1.de, October 27, 2015.