Vienna Opera abuses Mahler

The Vienna State Opera has ‘dedicated’ the coming season to the memory of Gustav Mahler, exploiting the 125th anniversary of his appointment as director of the Opera in October 1897.

To mark this minor anniversary, the company has commissioned an operatic realisation of two Mahler song-cycles: Das klagende Lied and Kindertotenlieder. The director is the Catalan controversialist Calixto Bieito.

What could possible be wrong with that?

Well, Mahler was adamant that he would never write an opera. He said so repeatedly.

When pressed, he explained that running an opera house was his day job, a world apart from his vocation as a symphonic composer.

Mahler would puke at seeing his song cycles presented as an opera for the benefit of Vienna’s returning tourists.

On the other hand, he would probably say: Wien bleibt Wien.

It’s a city without conscience.