anod Fhn
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Mihler
WANLER
Dsongjot
Eank
2) mahter
Saurp Metuuon
dyffuint
THE SONG OF THE EARTH


THE SCNG OF THE EARTH
A Play In Two Parts
Maurice Rowdon


CHARACTERS
GUSTAV MAHLER
ALMA MAHLER


. ENE
The seene is divided into areas which can be lighted
into existence.
"Left, and 'right' in the directions are from the
audiencets point of view.
Downstage left there is the personal area, with a
table covered with soores, easy chairs and a chaiselongue.
Upstage right a wide staircase leads up to a great
Roman arch---this will represent the entrance to public
life, the Vienna State Opera house, concerts ete.
Lights beyond the arch (where other steps descend out
of sight) give it at aifferent times a mellow or a for-
bidding or a glaringly hostile appearance, according to
the requirements of the seript.
The space upstage of the personal area is raked and
will be used to suggest outdoors.
The action does not always follow a straight chron-
ological development. ALMA particularly is called on to
from different periods of her life--to be the woman
Egate remembers (in her forties) as well as the women remem-
bered (in her twenties); and' she is seen at her death at
the age of 85. GUSTAV iskeen between his 44th and 51st
year (the year af his death). And at times they are speak-
ing to each other long after their deaths.
GUSTAV MAHLER was born in 1860 and died in 1911.
ALMA MAHLER was born in 1879 and died in 1964.


GUSTAV MAHLER is simultaneously getting
into tails and 0 omposing. One operation
is at the expense of the other: he is
tangled in his
one arm in the
sleeve and xxk taeeti, one
tranquilly
writing, bent over the table from a
standing position. He is totally
eoncentrated.
GUSTAV MAHLER, in his midale age, is
small, pale and thin, with a rather long
face and an unusually steep forehead.
His hair is intensely black, his eyes
strikingly awere and penetrating behind
their
whieh give them an
extra Bose1ok. severe
He has an irregular
way of walking---he tends to stamp his
suddenly and then rush
FoMtat ARm again; some thing is
always pulling or halting or propelling
him, it seems.
ALMA MAHLER appears from the right and
stands watehing him w 1th awe. She is
twenty, taller than he and fair. She
already has something of the wond Vefully
self-asured magnificence of the later
years.
ALMA; He's the director of the Vienna state Opera and I'm
his wifet I touch himt I kiss himt feel his breath
on hairt cabbies recognise him in the st treet.
And ota old enough to be my father, which I don't car e
about because no man EV
could be that successful.
It takes a lifetime MLIR an empire. Look at the
funny blind way he does everything (as MAHLER begins
strollins round, searching for another phrase in his
mind, his tails still hanging on him).
GUSTAV (subsiding into a chair) Yesi
ALMA: I don't mean money. Though I don't despise money.
Anyway, he hasn t got much. What I mean by suc cess
isemmes


I tried to say all of his music, as my reason for
marrying him. But of course it didn't mean a
thing to her.
MAHLER is nearly at the
of the
stairs. He
in an torfs -
absent
way and looks Eamaty down towards
ALMA.
MAHLER: You da't want a ring do you?
ALMA (vehemently)
my darling, not Just conduet for
met Think HOt me with every beat! (He moves on)
And look at his trousers...
MAHLER (stopping again) After all it's only a stone.
He goes on and descends the styes on
the other
and out of sight.
A great burst die
applause
drowns the CEE
ALMA: Listen to them! Listent
The applause becomes deafening as if
ALMA'S way of hearing it.
Then SETTTE fades sharrly and there is a
rap of the
condsotor's desk, fon
off.
batcn/tio
ALMA: After all, he w8s only fifty when she said that. He
looked so bautiful when he died. Pale, so palet Like
a godi Burning black eyed--mso huget I married twice
after that, yapart from a near-marriage with a painter.
That would have made four. I admit it was rather a lot
of husbands. A composer, an architect, a novelist, and
as I say a painter. And every one of them world fémous 4
Somebody onee said that every artist needs a woman behind
him. Well, four of them needed met
All sound has ceased from beyond the
areh.
MAHLER
suddenly from upstage of
the ntaryenrs in a dressing gown,
barefooted.
MAHLER: You surely ean't mean that?
ALMA: (startled) You're supposed to be conducting Fideliot
gevenly
MAHLER: That was fiftr years ago.
ALMA: What? Gustavi (They stere at each other) It really


ist
MAHLER: Diafou mean what you said to me once---we were:
walking in the woods near Crinzing---you said--s
They join each other and stroll along
arm in arm in the open area, laughing.
ALMA (a girl again) All I love in a man is what he achieves!
Yest The greater his achievement the more I can love
himt
MAHLER (professorial next to her 22 years) But that's a terrible
thing to sayt Suppose somebody came along who'd ach-
ieved more than I?
ALMA: I'd love him more. I'd have tot
MAHLER: Well; I've got nothing to worry about for the time
being. Itm only 44. And I don't know anybody else
in the world who e culd do more than I cant
ALMA: I'll go and get your bath ready.
She leaves, left.
MAHLER (watching her go) What a
mind she has in meny
ways. That's what I love. cheep.vdn like an animal.
I feel safer than with all these noble people. I've
always loved animals. Thank God Mozart isn't alive.
Shera marry him like a shot. But
she wouldn't.
He wasn 't successful enough. That
of a wife he
she
00an
had/married somebody else a few weeks after his death.
Thébitcht
ALMA (off) Gustavi Your bath's readyt
MAHLER (going off left) I'm comingt
The Viennese song ACH DU LIEBERAUGUSTINI
surges over the speakers. ALMA hurries
on, a young girl în a sumptuous evening
gown. She is carrying a handmaid table
cloth and a candelabra. She flings the
cloth over the table and Sets the candel-
abra in the middle.
ALMA: Vienna in 1901 (nineteenhundred and one) was soft and
easy-going and malicic ous. of course I wasn't malicious---
I was just nice and wwenty-yoars-old:
MAHLER
GAHTYEY (off) Sssht
ALMA (clapping a hand to her mouth) Woopst He's composing!


He mustn't see or hear a human begng while hets
eamposing. (The table set) Therei Well, one day
on the Ring, who should bump into me and my mother
but the Zuckerkendls! They asked me to come and meet
the great Mahlert And I didntt want tol (Laughing)
I hated the way he conducted his First Sympthony.
And I hated his First Symphonyt But Mehler cancelled
the date
And when they asked me a second
time, for caxorar
I saia yest I acceptedt
I accepted? Oh Gustav Camdyt acceptedt
She dances round to the music.
She stops suddenly, afraid for ler
appearanee.
ALMA (touching her hair) My hairt My EREXS facet My dresst
My shoulders are knobblyt My hands are twitching!
The musie has ceased. She stops
spellbound as MAHLER, imposing and
remote in evening clothes, with cloak
and top hat and cane, entérs from
the lert. He takes his hat and
cloak off slowly and throws them on
the chaiselongue, He bows to the
table perfunetorily and sits down.
ALMA steals to her place at the other
end of the table. No chair has been
placed there for her and she drags one
across with a sohoolgirl glance at
MAHLER.
He fixes her with his eyes and stays
that way, intrigued and captive.
ALMA:
I wish he'a take his eyes off mel No I don'ti
She talks silently to invisible guests,
MAHLER s eyes stiil on her. She laughs
at Bomething said, and she laughst
MAHLER (laughing involuntarily) can't we share the joke dovn at
the end there?
She laughs on.
ALMA: His poor neighbour---he didn't get a word out of Mahler
all eveining. (Nodding and
I had Klimt the
woll-imnompainter, and Max FLl the great theatrical
director (laughing on).
MAHLER (eraning forward to hear a guest) Kubelik? I think


"THE SONG OF THE EARTH"
A Play In Two Parts
Maurice Rowdon


CHARAC TERS
GUSTAV MAHLER
ALMA MAHLER


SCI ENE
The scene is divided into areas whicn can be lighted
into existence.
'Left and 'right' in the directions are from the
audiencets point of view.
Downstage left there is the personal area, with a
table covered with scores, easy chairs and a chaiselongue.
Upstage right a wide staircase leads up to a great
Roman aroh---this will represent the entrance to public
life, the Vienna State Opera house, concerts etc.
Lights beyond the arch (where other steps descend out
of sight) give it at different times a mellow or a for-
bidding or a glaringly hostile appearance, according to
the requirements of the script.
The space upstage of the personal area is raked and
will be used to suggest outdoors.
The action does not always follow a straight chron-
ological development. ALMA particularly is called on to
speak from different periods of her life---to be the W aman
who remembers (in her forties) as well as the women remem-
bered (in her twenties); and she is seen at her death at
the age of 85. GUSTAV is seen between his 44th and 51st
year (the year af his death). And at times they are speak-
ing to each other long after their deaths.
GUSTAV MAHLER was born in 1860 and died in 1911.
ALMA MAHLER was born in 1879 and died in 1964.


GUSTAV MAIILER is simultaneously getting
into tails and composing. One operation
is at the expense of the other: he is
tangle d in his jacket, one arm in the
sleeve and HEt one not, tranquilly
writing, bent over the table from a
standing position. He is totally
ooncentrated.
GUSTAV MAHLER, in his middle age, is
small, pale and thin, with a rather long
face and an unusually steep forehead.
His hair is intensely black, his eyes
strikingly aware and penetrating behind
their spectacles, which give them an
extra severe look. He has an irregular
way of walking---he tends to stamp his
feet, to stop suddenly and then rush
forward headlong again: S ome thing is
always pulling or halting or propelling
him, it seems.
ALMA MAHLER appears from the right and
stands watching him W ith awe. She is
twenty, taller than he and fair. She
already has something of the wonirafully
self-asured magnificence of the later
years.
ALMA: He's the director of the Vienna State Opera and I'm
his wifet I touch himi I kiss himt feel his breath
on my hairi Cabbies recognise him in the street.
And he's old enough to be my father, W hich I don't cere
about because no man my age could be that successful.
It takes a lifetime to build an empire. Look at the
funny blind way he does everything (as MAHLER begins
strollin: round, searching for another phrase in his
mind, his tails still hanging on him).
GUSTAV (subsiding into a chair) Yest
ALMA: I don't mean money. Though I don't despise money.
Anyway, he hasn' 't got much. What I mean by success


He begins writing and 'ALMA'S theme'
steals over the speakers---the second
subject in the first movement of the
Sixth Symphony.
ALMA: Oh Gustavi
That's what I meant
MAHLER (suddenly looking up as the music fades) Tou don 't mind
if I don't give you a wedding ring do you?
ALMA (with great disappointment) Not
MAHLER: I think it's bad taste. I mean we' 're already
married---always have been---
ALMA:
Spiritually, you mean.
MAHLER: With the whole of us---not just spiritually---with
the whole of our destiniest
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: And you can't seal that with a ring. I hate the
idea.
(Suddenly looking at her again) You don't care
for rings do you?
ALMA: Oh not
He concentrates on his music again.
ALMA (to her self) I love ringst
He begins dressing for a concert.
Ideas C onstantly interfere with this
and he gets tangled up in his sleeve.
ALMA watches him with some impa tience.
Then he is ready to mount the STE
stairs to the arch, where a bright
light sweeps up accompanied by the
exciting sound of an audience and a
tuning orchestrao It is larger than
life for a moment---as perhaps ALMA
hears ito He walks up the stairs in
an haphazard way, still thinking over
his C ampesition.
ALMA (relaxing into an older woman)
An American woman---the
Gibson girl she was called---she stank of money---no
brains at all but very beautiful, if that's possible---
she asked me in her car one day on Fifth Avenue, What
made you mayry that hideous old man? I admit he wasn't
looking very good at that time. It was a year begore
he died. I sat in the car and talked and talke d---


I tried to say all of his music, as my reason for
marrying him. But of course it didn't mean a
thing to her.
MAHLER is nearly at the topt of the
stairs. He stops in an stEnt absent
way and looks blindly down towards
ALMA.
MAHLER: You dan't want a ring do you?
ALMA (vehemently) No, my darling, nos Just conduct for
me I Think of me with every beati
(He moves on)
And look at his trousers...
MAHLER (stopping again) After all it's only a stone.
He goes on and descends the stdes on
the other side, and out of sight.
A great burst of Apperttts applause
drowns the orchastra.
ALMA: Listen to themi Listen!
The applause becomes deafening as if
to represent ALHA'S way of hearing it.
Then it fades sharply and there is a
rap of the baton/the condictor's desk,
off.
ALMA: After all, he was only fifty when she said that. He
looked so bautiful when he died. Pale, so pales Like
a godi Burning black eyed---so huges I married twice
after that, papart from a near-marriage with a painter.
That would have made four. I admit it was rather a lot
of husbands. A composer, an architect, a novelist, and
as I say a painter. And every one of them W orld famous.
Somebody onc e said that every artist needs a woman behind
him. Well, four of them needed met
All sound has ceased from beyond the
arch.
MAHLER appears suddenly from upstage of
the staircase in a dressing gown,
barefooted.
MAHLER: You surely can't mean that?
ALNA: (startled) You're supposed to be conducting Fidelio!
seventy
MAHLER: That was +
years ago.
ALMA:
What? Gustavi
(They stare at each other) It really


ist
MAHLER: Didron mean what you said to me once---we were
walking in the woods near Grinzing---you said---
They join each other and stroll along
arm in arm in the open area, laughing.
ALMA (a girl again) All I love in a man is what he achievest
Yest The greater his achievement the more I can love
himt
MAHLER (professorial next to her 22 years) But that's a terrible
thing to says Suppose somebody came along who'd ach-
ieved more than I?
ALMA: I'd love him more. I'd have tol
MAHLER: Well, I've got nothing to worry about for the time
being. I'm only 44. And I don't know anybody else
in the world who C ould do more than I cans
ALMA: I'll go and get your bath ready.
She leaves, left.
MAHLER (watching her go) What a cheap mind she has in meny
ways. That's what I love. It's like an animal.
I feel safer than with all these noble people. I've
always loved animals. Thank God Iozart isn't alive.
She'd marry him like a shot. But perhaps she wouldn't.
He wasn 't successful enough. That bitch of a wife he
she
had/married somebody else a few weeks after his death.
The"bitoht
ALMA (off) Gustavi Your bath's readyt
MAHLER (going off left) I'm comingi
The Viennese SC ong ACH DU LIEBERAUGUSTINI
surges over the speakers. ALMA hurries
on, a young girl in a sumptuous evening
gown. She is carrying a handmaid table
cloth and a candelabra. She flings the
cloth over the table and eets the candel-
abra in the middle.
ALMA:
Vienna in 1901 (nineteenhundred and one) was soft and
easy-going and malicious. of C ourse I wasn't malicious---
I was just nice and twenty-years-oldi
MAHLER
PNBIIV4 (off) Sssht
ALMA (clapping a hand to her mouth) Woopsi He's composing!


He mustn't see or hear a human betng while he's
C omposing. (The table set)
Theret Well, one day
on the Ring, Who should bump into me and my mother
but the Zuckerkandlss They asked me to come and meet
the great Mahlert And I didn't want tol
(Laughing)
I hated the way he conducted his First Sympthony.
And I hated his First Symphonys But Mehler cancelled
the date anyway. And when they asked me a second
time, for another Sunday, I said yest I accepteds
I accepted! Oh Gustav I accepteds
She dances round to the music.
She stops suddenly, afraid for he: r
appearance.
ALMA (touching her hair) My hairi Ily HTEES facet My dresst
My shoulders are knobbly! Hy hands are twitchingt
The music has ceased. She stops
spellbound as MAHLER, imposing and
remote in evening clothes, with cloak
and top hat and cane, enters from
the left. He takes his hat and
cloak off slowly and throws them on
the chaiselongue. He bows to the
table perfunctorily and sits down.
ALMA steals to her place at the other
end of the table. No chair has been
placed there for her and she drags one
across with a schoolgirl glance at
MAHLER.
He fixes her with his eyes and stays
that way, intrigued and captive.
ALMA: I wish he'd take his eyes off met No I don'ti
She talks silently to invisible guests,
MAHLER'S eyes still on her. She laughs
at something said, and she laughst
MAHLER (laughing involuntarily) Can't we share the joke down at
the end there?
She laughs on.
ALMA: His poor neighbour---he didn't get a word out of lahler
all eveining. (Nodding and laughing)
I had Klimt the
well-knommpainter, and Max Burkhart, the great theatrical
director (laughing on).
MAHLER (craning forward to hear a guest)
Kubelik? I think


he plays like an angel, yes.
ALMA (abruptly ceasing her laughter, and addressing MAHLER'S
endof the table with the utmost seriousness) I don't
1ike soloist's recitalsi
MAHLER: Nor do II Nor do II
Silence. They are gripped by each
other. They gaze into each other's
eyes.
MAHLER (unwillingly dragged into conversation by an invisible
guestw but still gazing at ALMA) Beauty? I think
Socrates was probably beautiful. (Rising and wandering
off into the opena area downstage right) And I sappose
you'd call him an ugly old blighter. Well, he was---
also.
ALMA (ALSO rising) I think Zemlinsky's beautiful for instance.
MAHLER (swivelling round) Noo That's going too far. He's
the most atrociously ugly man I've ever set eyes on,
even for a musician.
ALMA (approaching him) While we're on the subject of
Zemlinsky, Mr Lahler---why haven't you ever done his
Hofmannsthal ballet, The Golden Heart? I happen to
know that you promised him you WouldT
MAHLER
QHATAY (startled)
Because I can't understand itt
ALMA: Would you like me to explain the whole thing to you?
He gazes at her. She becomes
increasingly confused.
MAHLER (smiling)
Very well.
ALMA:
What lovely white teeth he has...
MAHLER: I believe you study music?
ALMA: Yes, under the atrocious Zemlinkky.
MAHLER: Ah, that's why you love himt Would you like to
bring some of your Work along to the Opera one day
and show me?
ALMA: When I have some thing. g----
MAHLER: Come to my dress rehearsal tomorrow morning---
The Tales of Hoffmann.


ALMA:
If I can get my work done first.
MAHLER (ironically) Under Zemlinsky?
She leaves with a flourish, right.
He stands gazing after her.
MAHLER (seeming to address her) I'm so lonely, you see.
By the way, this opera doesn't really give the spirit
of Hoffmann. Just the corpse. I could hardly get
to the end of the second act today. But with you
there---tomorrows I'll do it for yous Read that
little story of Hoffmann's---Rath Krespel: you'l1
see what I mean. And then all these singers I have
to manege---they're not a very clever lot. They
usually have Antonia dying of consumption but she
doesn't die of consumption, she just gives up her
personality, her body, which we are all trying to do---
it may take a lifetime, and it may take millions
of lifetimes. Antonia's an artist you seet She
melts awayi
ALMA (off) She drifts into the night from which there is
no return.
MAHLER: What? Oh how bogus she isi
(With a shrug) But
then she's a woman. You see, if you really listen
to the Hoffmann tomorrow you could find out about
ALMÀ Oht Generous of you!
MAHLER: There's no reality you see---all this you see around
you, it's just a formula---it disappears when it has
served its time---the only real thing is the soul---
I apologise for the word but how can you have a Word
for what can't be adecribed, bE only demonstrated.
And music demonstrates it, voilat
ALMA(off) That day you conducted the Meistersinger---I didn't
know you them---you looked like Lucifer---Gyes burning
like coals---your face so whitei
(Excited) Lucifert
Demon!
MAHLER (smiling) Yes, they always call me that. How else
could I have controlled vast operatic productions---
hordes of singers, cattle-sheds of musicians?
It's the bad ones always hate me---you see, they know
that all I have to do is look inside me for the ans wers
and I'm always right! And all their study doesn't
get them enywhere near iti All their intrigues,
their worms of ambition gnawing their entrails outt
Are you there? (Silence)
She's dead. She's been


dead a good---oh I don't know. She died over fifty
years after me. Imagine thatt I formed her, really.
Almat You needed me, didn't you? For your other
meni Do you remember a few days before I died, we
joked about who you'd marry---and I went through a
whole list? and at the end of -the list I said no,
I'd better stay alive---you don't want any of that
lot! But you did get one of them. Old Gropius.
Wasn't he something ghastly like an architect?
Remember when he sent you a telegram from every
station along the Toblach-Vienna line---and I was
at the receiving end---and my darkn ess was back age gain---
the early horrorsi---you brogght them backi---you
broke met That's why I diedi
ALMA (off, with horror) Nos
MAHLER (quietly) But it doesn't matter. You were only an
instrument. It was time for me to go. we have nothing
creative about us. That dam silly word. We find,
and we tell what we find. And then when we've told our
bit we go. And become somebody else. Like me, now.
A poor devil of an actor, from Warsaw. And you,
getting into another costume. Are you ready yet?
ALMA (off) Not quite.
MAHLER: Your changing was always a long business, I remember.
ALMA (off) Tell them about your life, Gustav. The: re was
always S omething so modern about you. The people
round you seemed $o stagey and heavy and self-important
C ompared with you!
MAHLER (sitting down) Well---I started life as a Jew. That
means s omething rather dark for me, to S] peak quite
honestly. I always had them on my shoulder S---
brothers, my mother, my sistert Especially my
sister---oh my Godi Marrying you was like divorcing
her. You see, I never really W oke up to the kind
of life I was iiving---I just Worked from one prod-
uction to the next---I can't tell my life, Almag
I can'tt It's these dreams--it's---
A pistol shot, off.
MAHLER leaps to his feet, staring
upstagen aghast.
MAHLER: Ottof Ottot
ALMA rushes on from the left,
dressed rather gorgeously in a
dirndl.


ALMA: Gustavi
MAHLER (subsiding) I'm tired. I thought it was my
brother. The one that shot himself.
ALMA: It was a child outside---a balloon---
MAHLER: He was a marvellous composer, you know. I - found
a couple of symphontes in his drawer. I felt a
terrible remorse as if my music stole his life---
and there couldn't be two of ust Then why was he
born at all? And Ernst---I loved him so much---
he died of heart trouble---and three of the others
died---all children---and now, the rest of the f amily--
so many debts---
ALMA: I'll settle them all. I'm going to put everything
in order.
MAHLER: How much do I owe by the way?
ALMA: Fifty thousand crowns.
MAHLER: It's a big debt to marry.
ALMA: You're the biggest capital I could think of.
MAHLER (looking at her dress with a smile) That's what took
all the time.
The Funeral March in the Manner of
Callot (the third movement of the
First Symphony) steals over.
MAHLER: Do you hear that?
ALMA ( disappointed at his scanty attention to her dress)
What?
MHALER: The Funeral March---I wrote it when I was 33---
ALMA: Soma times you frighten met And I'm so youngi
AHLER: Poor Ottol Do you heart (Catohing her) Listent
ALMA: But I can't heari
MAHLER: The critics called me sterile and trivial and
extravagant, and in general an unholy bloody noise
(as the music fades). You know, I thought I'd never
be able to love properly---give everything---I oftan
tried to and some thing always went wrong---but you---
radianti---you light up my wl hole lifet
ALMA: Why funeral marches then?


MAHLER: Why frightened? Don't you realise all these
little terrors are going to save you from the worst
part of yourself---the rich man's daughter?
going
ALMA: It's true what Max Burkhart seid---vou're/to put out
my flamed with yourst You wrote me that' terrible
letter, forbidding me ever to C ompose a song againt
MAHLER (sharply) Nobody can forbid you to composes Composing
pours out of the skin, it can't be stoppedt po you
think my composing could be stopped? It goegon all
the times All these shrivelled little thoughts---
do away with thems
(Going to her) I was harsh like
taht with my mother. I used to play the piano and if
I saw her stealing into the room to listen I used to
stop and sit stock-still untid she'd gone again.
And your little face reminds me of her. Only it's
healthier.
ALMA: Is that wrong?
MAHLER: I suppose I like to see the mark of SOTTON---
ALMA: It's there---on your face. I've seen it so often---
at the opera house, when you're conducting 1
MAHLER; I did exactly the same as my father did---I loved her
but I didn't show her amy feeling! He used to scream
at us bothi can you imagine the horrors of that
family---the daily horrors? Thank God I became a Christ-
iant Thank God for the lights All that hell of
belonging---testicles and breath and shit and every-
thing, all belonging to somebody else, not Igot my
freedomt I found the silence of silences inside.
(Touching her face) If I love you, my darling sparkling
child, it's because of the Christien light in E
which
Yon,
you know nothing about. My sister said to
me once, 'You're flesh of my fleshit I said, Dirt
of your dirt, you meant' Do you remember that morning
you came to the Tales of Hoffmann rehearsal?---the
second time we saw each other---and you wouldn't look
at me?
ALMA: I was feeling malicious.
MAHLER: You little cati And I called out to you from the
desk, 'Miss Schindler, how did you sleep last night?*
ALMA: And I said, 'Perfectly---why shouldn't IT'
MAHLER: And I said, 'I didn't sleep a wink all night'.
They gaze at each other, in perfect
stillness.


MAHLER (with a glance behind him) I need you---I ache for
you all day---when I'm out of Vienna I feel sickt
I hear your name all the timat Do you feel the
same?
ALMA: Yest Yest
MAHLER: We've got to marry---the fever's got to end---
did you tell your mother?
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: I feel everything's for you---all the music---the
opera---every time I tap the desk with my stick---
the sound of your dress---itts all bound up togethert
ALMA:
It's so overshelming! You've got so much behind you---
and I'm so poors
MAHLER: Do you know how I'm going to celebrate our engagement?
I'm going to give you a dress rehearsal of The Magic
Flutet Just you---the only audience! in secrets
ALMA: But Mr Directors
He buttons himself up and walks towards
the staircase.
MAHLER (turning) Will you be there?
ALMA: Oh yes, yest
Dim house lights go up beyond the arch
and a tuning orchestra so unds again.
MAHLER (on his way up the stairs) Mb Director, she calls me o
Chills me to the bones. How could she do it? (Stopp-
ing and gazing down at her) A girl of twentyl---and
she could take me down into the jaws of hell, with the
tip of her fingers! Thank God she doesn 't know i t-
Or perhaps she does. That old bastard Karl Moll told
her not to marry me. He said I was ugly and poor in
health and unpopular at the Opera and badly in debt
and anyway my music stank. (Triumph) And still she
wants to marry met ca you beat that? Am I too
old then? I don't know what to do with someone so
young---look at herg---the way she darts around---
if only she'd had an affair or lost a husband or
somethingt (Shouting up towards the arch) All right,
all right, you'll be playing soon enough, don't worryi
Set of damned buffaloest (Looking down at ALMA again)
How precious she is. Every day sthseems fuller, since
that first dinner party, where I was baptised into life.


(Addressing the arch agai in) Don't worry, you won't
get rid of me for a long time yet---at least five
yearst I've put Mozart on the map---nobody could sing
him until I came at ong! Is she S till there? Miss
Schindleri
ALMA (startled) Yes?
MAHLER: Why the devil do you want to marry me?
ALMA:
MAHLER: Do you remember where Faust sings, 'Past understa nding
are God's works, and fair as at the birth of light'?
That's why you're marrying mel Because my music is
bright like country air---clean like the day---that's
what you want to marry---not mes
ALMA: But I still don't like your Fourth. I like it as
little as your First.
MAHLER: Oh, liking has nothing to do with 1tt
He disappears quickly through the
arch. The tuning quiokly fades.
We hear him tap the oonductorts desk
sharply with his baton.
ALNA: Marrying him because of something in Faustt What
do these men think? And he's got the most horrible
friendst There's that Polish gorilla, Siegfried
Lipiner, with his beastly bald skull. His eyes are
so close together (burlesquing his appearance) that
they're like cufflinks threaded through his eyes side-
ways. Nietsche thought him grea t shakes, so did
Wagner, so does Gustav Mahler. And Brahms said
about him, *That lying hound of a Pole interests me.*
Well, he doesn't interest met I can see right thr ough
him to the seat of his dirty pantst And it isn't as
if there's just one of him. There's his first wife,
his second wife, his lover who Gustav Mahler is
supposed to sharet Yes, they mount the same whore and
think I don't knows The cati The cowg The look
she gave me that first day in his office---and Mehler
nibbling at her hand every time she said something
stupid, the poor trussed-up overdressed sallow-faced
bitcht Then therets the Pole's first wife's husband,
who looks as much of a gorilla as he does. And he
thinks I want to marry that loti And this faded
Whore comes up swinging her arse and says, 'Do you
laike Gus tav's mus: ic?' Do I like itt The cheeks
And he stands there laughing!
well, I know one thing,
there wan't be any of that crew near him in a month
from nows I know how to deal with great artists---


young as I am---I've got the hang of it already--
all you do is see they have a room ready for them,
and peace and quiet, and meals on time, and the rést
you organise yourseifs His life's going to have a huge
DaN'T DISTURB notice written right across it from now
ont We'll see Who's the better bitoh of the two,
that tired instrument on which so many Viennese
musicians have played or me, a virgin. I've never
been played on, and she's already out of tunes
My little jewei is intacta, and so it remains until
the greatest man in Vienna seizes hold of itt Yest
(dashing up the staircase) I'm latet (Stopping in
the archway and looking down the other side) Oh
lookt He's like a kingi So small and still, and
everybody silent round him. They're supposed to
hate him but look how they hide their hornst Those
second violins are a bunch of malicious old cats,
but look at them now, they're purring! And he dares
to ask me why I'm marrying himi I'm marrying you for
love, you absent-minded foolt I love you, oh how I
love you, my little prince of music!
She slowly descends the steps on the
other S ide, out of sight, nextie
mextuxexmextx*ex*XMSRREXRENTeixhaginax
Instead of music the deafening
clatter of a railway station C omes
over the speakers.
MAHLER bustles in from the left
in a travelling coat, snow on his
hat and shoulders. He stamps the
snow from his overboots. The
personal area has become a railway
compartment. He sits down puffing,
tired. He opens his overcoat,
takes off his hat, cleans his spect-
acles. He takes out a book, looks
et it, sniffs, glanc es round.
ALMA, also in travelling clothes and
equaily covered in snow, come S stagger-
ing in with her arms fuil of hand-
luggage.
MAHLER (briefby looking up) Ah, there you are.
Hefreturrs to his book. She settles
the hand luggage. He puts his book
down, sighs with pleasure. She takes
off her travelling coat. Suddenly
they seem to see each other for the


first time. They hug each other
and kiss. They look into each other's
eyes and laugh. They can't stop
laughing. It is a long delighted
laugh, a release of their joy which
seems to have beem pent up until now.
Then with a great sigh ALMA unclips
her skirt, and the corset under-
neath.
ALMA:
Theres I needn't play the virgin any mores
MAHLER: You played it well.
ALMA; Do you think mummy suspected anything?
MAHLER: of course. Mummies always do.
ALMA (touching her tummy) He feels happy to be g oing to
St Petersburg.
MAHLER (also touching her tummy) And his mama---What about
her?
ALMA:
Oht You tell me & Look in my eyes I
MAHLI ER: I read a certain---Well, I suppose it could be
happiness.
They hug and kiss again, they
laugh.
ALMA: People outside are looking at us e
MAHLER: And you love it. You're cheeky, you're imposs-
iblet I saw you laughing when I fell off the pew
this morningo
ALMA: It was funnyt Even the priest laughed.
MAHLER (gazing out of the window) Do you think all those
people are going to St Pe tersburg?
ALMA (busy with the hand luggage again) I don't know. All
I know is that we three aret
MAHLER: Perhaps they're all going to my concert.
ALMA takes out bread and sausage,
a thermos flask full of coffee,
lace napkins etc.
MAHLER: I didn't know you brought all that stuff.


ALMA: You talked to me while I was packing it. You paured
the coffee yourself.
MAHLER: Good God.
ALMA offers him some food.
MAHLER: I'll just have coffee. You haven't got an apple have
you?
ALMA (pouring his coffee) Noo
MAHLER (again looking out of the window)
We're off.
ALMA (handing him his coffee) Here. Your coffee.
MAHLER: Aht
ALMA:
*Ahi Well I'm going to eat.
MAHLER: It's so hot in here.
ALMA eats ravenously.
ALMA: Mnt
MAHLER: They overheat these compartments (loosening his
jacket).
ALMA: Oh Gustavi I do hope you don't start a sore thpoati
The whistle goes and the train pulls
out with a steady nineteenth century
boom and clatter.
ALMA: Wouldn't it have been nice if somebody had waved us
good bye? Mummy for instance? Or Karl Moll?
MAHLER: To hell with Karl Moll. I see him eve ry day.
ALMA: But not hell with mummyt
MAHLER: I'm sick to death of all people except oneo
I have them all and every day, remember---orchestras
of them, chorases of them. And I'll have them again
asssoon as I step off that platform at St Petersburg.
ALMA (her mouth full) Yes I suppose sof
A phrase from the Seventh Symphony
con mes over. His mouth is open,
he is gazing before him, C onducting
slightly with his right hand.


ALMA gazes at him, a piece of bread
poised.
ALMA: Are you composing?
He C omes to suddenly and the music
fades away.
MAHLER: It'll be years before I write anything like that.
ALMA:
Anything like what? I didn't hear it.
MAHLER: Ah no, of course not. Funny isn't it---I can
imgine it---hear it---but it goes whem I've got the
paper in front of me. It's in the tragic mood---
it's f ar later---later in life---
ALMA: Tragic? Is the future going to be tragic?
He simply gazes before him. She
finishes eating and settles deeper
into her seat. She leans her head
on his shoulders, then closes her
eyes.
Again the phrase from the Seventh
stealsover, sofpter now. His right
hand comes up almost imperceptibly
again, twitching. He shakes his head
to the music, beguiled, drugged with
It fades again, leaving the clatter
of the train.
MAHLER: You like a bit of glitter don't you?
ALMA(blinking awake) That?
MAHLER: Do you know why there are rich people? They have
to gild their poverty---inside. God couldn't bear
such poverty otherwise. It would sort of crack the
world. I mean, you like dinner parties a bit, don't
you---and poor devils like the President of the Society
of the Friends of Music?
Silence between thei. Battle is
brewing. She sl owly levers herself
away from himo
ALMA:
That's Siegfried Lipiner's story isn't it?
MAHLER: Why do you hate Lipiner?
ALMA: Hate him? I adore him as a matter of facti


MAHLER: He doesn't think so.
ALMA: He never thinks. Nietzsche and all sorts of othe r
writers think for him---he gets all his talk out of
their books.
MAHLER: It's marvellous talk, though.
ALMA: I agree. That's why I adore him. So why does he
spread a lot of horrible S tories about me?
MAHLER: He doesn'ti
ALMA: He said I flirted with the President of the Society
of the Friends of Music after your Fourth Symphony
the other day.
MAHLER: But that has nothing to do with whai t I said---I said
you liked the big world---I didn't say you shouldn't---
I meant that the President represents that world
perfectly---
ALMA: In other words the President's an idiot---and I'm an
idiot---and all your friends are geniusest (Bursting
into tears) He's been a friend of my family for
yearsi Yearst
MAHLER: Ch for God's sake don't cry! I can't stand the
sound of a woman cryingi
ALMA: Oh yes! It's always what you can't bear isn't it?
I mustn't cry because you cantt bear iti It's always
you!
MAHLER: Alma, I meant I couldn't bear the suffering behind
ALMA: Oh, suffering! It's natural! You've got to face
up to it---you talk just like Dostoevskyl---and
you're both egoistst Egoists can never bear the
thought of suffering!
She sobs herself to dry eyes.
MAHLER: Well, instruct me then. We murder millions of
animals for our food, mothers go thr ough agonies
in childbirth, the animals kill each other with
frightful cruelty, there are hordes of poor people
who can't even clothe their children, and there
are the rich who are much less happy than anybody.
What do you make of it all? Nothing's settled for
a moment. There are quarrels all the time,
assassinations, bankruptcies, suicides. Wetre
making love one minute and quarrelling the next.


ALMA: We wouldn't have quarrelled if you hadn't started it.
MAHLER (with a laugh) So you won't tell me what the answer
ist (Settling back again and gazing before him,
then, wi th extreme sadness:) Perhaps He will one
day.
ALMA: Who?
MAHLER gazes out of the window.
ALMA closes her eyes again. She
nestles into him. The train clatters
A frightening passage from the Seventh
comes crashing through. He does not
conduct this time. He stares before
him tensely, as it were aghast at these
tremendous sounds. ALMA appears to
hear nothing.
The music melts into the slowing of
the train, with its screech. There
are the sudden bright lights of the
station, much larger than life.
They seem to be the climax of the
music. He is terrified. He starts,
stares out of the wind OW.
The
music ceases. He subsides: it is
just a railway station.
ALMA sleeps. He unleans her from him
gently. He mops his brow. She goes
on sleeping. He rises and leaves the
compartment.
There are the sounds of a busy railway
station.
ALMA is woken by themo She starts
when she sees that MAHLER is not at
her side. She sees his greatcoat.
She jumps up, dashes to the wird ow.
ALMA (oalling to him) Gustavi Gustavi Come ini You're
madt Come in at once! Gustavi
There is laughter outside.
GUSTAV stumbles back into the com-
partment, hatless, his collar open,
covered with snow, panting. He
s: imply throws himself into the seat,


unableto speak.
ALMA: Gustav, how could you? It's 30 below outsidet
Gustavi Do you want to die?
He is shivering. She covers him
with his OWi greatcoat.
She looks up at the window, where
people are stering in ard laugh-
ing, and she makes a face at them.
ALMA: Oh go away and stop giggling, you silly peoples
If all the Russians are like you, the country's a
zool
(Attending to MAHLER) My darlingi
He gradually recovers himself.
The whistle blows outside and the
train booms out of the station.
He gaees out of the window with
weak eyes.
MAHLER: I had such a painful throat. These trains are
overheated, terribly overheated.
ALMA: You've got a fever. And you go out in the freezing
coldi Gustav, look at me. You're always talking
about nature, then why aren't you closer to your own
body? You don't seem to know what to do with itt
MAHLER (gazing at her for some time, and then smiling)
I do
what I feel 1 ought to do. I needed the air. And
I do feel better. No, Idon't undfessand my body.
She dabs the sweat off his upper
lip and brow.
They nestle up to each other again
and sleepo Sometime passes. Again
with a great flash of lights and the
screeching of brakes the train pulls
in at a station. MAHLER starts
awake, stares out of the window.
He mops his brow, gasps. And again
he quietly unleans ALIA from his
shoulder and leaves the compartment
hatless and coatless.
ALMA starts awake.
ALMA: He's gone againt Oh well let himi I'm going to
eat and sleep---for the little one.


The sound of a tuning orchestra
comes up beyond the arch.
The
conductorts desk is rapped, and
there is si lence.
ALNA: It's started! Oh deart
She gathers all the hand luggage
frantically, puts his hat on top of
hers, throws both her and his over-
coat ono She staggers across the
stage under the load, towards the arch.
ALMA (stopping to look upstage)
Look, the Neva's frozen overt
There are tramlines across iti Gustavt
The Liebestod steals over. She stands,
grotesque in centre stage, enchanted.
MAHLER appears under the arch in
rehearsal clothes.
MAHLER
EB hoarse) Listent (We lose his other words)
ALMA: : What?
MAHLER (waving the orchestra impatiently to silence) I say old
Wagner fits everythere doesn't he---even raw Russia---
these spaces! Ah Richard! The one and only, the greatests
ALMA: Oh Gustavi How ever are you going to get through three
concerts with a throat like that?
She begins S tumbling up the steps, all
but enseloped in greatcoats, hats, hand
luggage. L Her s truggling becaomes a.
burlesqueas he talks.
MAHLER (still hoarse) Do you realise these Russians look down
their noses when you ment tion Dostoevsky? You see, real
work never gets its due, not till long after you*re dead.
Whem most people talk about art they mean objets d'art---
something with plenty of body in its so mething that
shinest Not this kind of thing, not Dostoevsky---
nothing from the other side.
ALMA (slumping down on the top step) What a lot of stairsi
MAHLER: Oh you're youngi


ALMA: I'm expecting!
They sit surrounded by hand luggage.
MAHLER: Such a funny old cow that archduchess from Hoscow,
wasn't she? But they're nicer than our aristocracy,
on the whole. Because they aspire harder, I suppose.
She asked me to tell her what death was like.
ALMA: Did she find such a lot of it in your music?
MAHLER: I imagine she did. I felt ra ther complimented.
The light changes to som thing
mellower as they gaze before them,
thinking. In the background Ach
du LieberAugustint drifts over.
MAHLER (his voice normal again) Alma, why did they stare
at us when we were driving through the streets of
St Petersburg in an open troika?
ALMA:
Because it was 30 degrees below zero and open troikas
aren't for that sort of weather. And sec ondly because
we look funny. People always stare at us.
MAHLER: Do you remember Crefeld? where I did my Third symphony?
You had one of those reform dresses on---for pregnant
women---and children called after us in the street---
and we had to pour water on their heads from the hotel
balo any---
ALMA: What about when you poured water on to a lot of fashion-
able ladies sitting round a table---
MAHLER: Impossiblet
ALMA:
That was from a balcony too---in a café---your sis ter
told me---you wanted to wash your hands so you leaned
over the balcony and tipped the wet er jug over your
fingers! There were shrieks from below, and do you
know what they said when they saw you?---They daid,
*Oh, it's only Mahler'. And they moved to another
tabie, to get out of your wayo Then you wamted to
wash your hands again, but you thought you'd go further
along the balcony to do it---you didn' 't want to inc con-
venience them again. You tipped the jug over your
hands again---right on to the table they'd moved tol
She enjoys this greatly.
Silence.
ALMA:
What a lot of travelling we seem to do. Crefeld,


St Petersburg, Viennat Your second name must be Baedeker.
MAHLER: At least, / tabuttening 21 greateoat) this is home o
ALMA (pointing through the arch)
Is that your apartment
down there, with the brokendown door?
MAHLER: Yes, we're nearly there. Are y ou tired, my little
treasure?
ALMA: No---just terribly oldi I feel twice as old as yout
I seem to have been through so many experiencest
And those walks you go in for. All over St Petersburg,
I swear that's why the streets were so icy hard, we
walked on them so mucht
MAHLER: It does you good, my darling. (Rising) I'll gb
ahead and see that everything's all right.
He goes through the arch.
ALMA: Gustavi
MAHLER (returning)
Yes?
ALMA: Please take these bags.
MAHLER (taking them) Ah yes.
ALMA:
He goes through the arch with the
hand luggage, and disappears.
ALMA (calling him) Gustavi
MAHLER (off) Yes?
ALMA: Why do you look shabby in the most expensive cl othes?
MAHLER (off, with a laugh)
I'm always in love my darling---
with you---with Mozart---or the Rhine maidenst
Yes, that's how I amt
She CO ntinues gazing through the arch.
ALMA: How clever your absent-mindedness is. You absent-
mindedly get me pregnant a month before werèven ger
engaged, so as to demoralise me, get me nicely under
your thumb, stop other men looking at me---and then
of ccurse I have to marry yout Don 't tell me you
haven't eyes in your backside, Mr Director, because
I know you havet All artsist havel iiell (rising),


we'll see if you can get away with itt We'll see
who gets the upper handt
(Shouting) You're jealous
of my youtht---my beautys
(stopping) Why do I have
these thoughts? He's such an angel. Why can't I be
one?
MAHLER enters the downstage area
below the staircase, minus his great-
coat and the hand luggage.
AIMA disappears through the arch.
Simultane ously with MAHLER*S entrance
a gramophone screeches out a Viennese
waltz. The record is scratched and
worn.
MAHL (aghast at the noise) Oh nol I says (Making towards
the personal area on the left) I sayt Take that
rec ord offf Take it offi
ALMA dashes in from the right, now
drassed in a 'reform* dress for
pregnancy.
ALMA: What the devil's that?
MAHLER (shouting) It's that blasted captain---the one who
shares the flatt He hates my gutst
ALMA (shrieking)
Captain?
MAHLER: He's got a room at the end of the corridors
ALMA: A what?
MAHLER: A roomt
ALMA: A woman?
MAHLER: No, a room, a roomi
ALMA: A room? And what's that got to do with this?
MAHLER: Wha t?
MAT LER: Because he hates my gutst He knows I'm a composer,
and I can't stand noiset So he puts it on when I come
int
ALNA: Oh he does does he?
She st torms across the stage and


exits left. MAHLER gazes after her.
The noise continues.
Then it abruptly ceases.
MAHLER: Good Lord. She's killed him.
ALMA staplls back.
ALMA: He's out.
MAHLER: Out? Who?
ALMA:
The Captain. It's his batman puts the record on.
He has orders to start it up when gou come in.
MAHLER: I know. I told you that myself.
ALMA: No, you didn't. You said the captain put it on.
Anyway I guaranteed him a little income for not doing
it. He'll just put the record on When the captain
happens to come home.
MAHLER: Well, you seem to have established yourself already.
She begins pushing the furniture
back to the old positions from the
'railway compartment' positions.
MAHLER watches her.
MAHLER: You said you were tired just now. You don't look tired
now.
She subsides into one of the chairs.
ALMA: I think it's lovely.
MAHLER: You do?
ALMA: Yes I do. I don't know why you needed me.
MAHLER (going close to her) You've got little tears in your
eyes. Why? (Taking her) Tell me whyi
ALMA:
I though t it wouldn't be nice. You're famous for your
absent-mindedness and I thought it would be a dirty
bachelor's den, sort of thing. Then I could have done
lots of things to it. You have to be on top all the
timet
MAHLER: Don't you see that you're the only thing the apartment
lacked? and therefore it had no light until you came
in? so of CO urse you call it lovely, bec ause you've
brought your own light in, your gaiety and your truths


Before, there were just a couple of men angry with
each other. You've brought the spring in. It was
always winter before. And the captain's going to
eat out of your hand, like his batman did.
ALMA: And then you'll accuse me of flirting.
MAHLER: Only if you do flirti
ALMA: When our house on the lake's ready we'll go there,
won't we, all the summer, and be alone, and yourli
compose, and I'll orchestrate your scores, and we'll
Work and work, and forget everything else except our
babyt
MAHLER: Do you know, my music is only that---what you've just
said---be ing alon. ---and getting nearer to God---and---:
The awful waltz blasts out again.
MAHLER (shouting) I thought you'd---I
ALMA: What?
MAHLER: I thought you'd st opped hims
ALMA (at the topt of her voice, as she strides out left)
The captain's come backt
MAHLER: What?
ALMA (stopping to stamp her foot with rage) The captaint
The captains come backt
She goes off.
MAHLER makes rather frantic movements
as if these will exorcise the dreadful
noise.
Then suddenly the rec ord ceases again.
MAHLER: Aht
He strolls quietly to his chair left,
and takes up a score page.
MAHLER (beginning to write) And now she '11 find out how charm-
ing the captain is.
He sighso
The music he is compos ing steals over--


a snatch from the Fifth. It ceases
as he ceases to write.
He writes again and a further phrase
from the Fifth comes over: it is the
Adagio.
He ceases agains and now we hear birds
outside. And there are the playing
cries of children in the distance.
There is the country sound of hammering,
echoing voices, a splash as someone
dives into the lake. We are at
Maiernigg on the Uerthersee.
NAHLER gazes before him, pleasantly
exhausted. He has written hims elf
out. He is hot. He flings off his
jacket, rises and stl retches.
The third movement of the Sixth aome S
over and seems to merge and take up
the distant cries of children, being
in fact a musical represantation of
two children playing in the scnd and
stumbling ab out. MAHLER seems to
be criticising it in his mind, though
without movements of the facea
hands. He is simply concentrated,
as he strolls up centru with his hands
in his pockets.
The music fades. He stands qiite
still, seeming to listen. Then the
last movement of the Sixth Symphony
comes up swiftly and relentlessly.
MAHLER (shouting) Yest Yest The three blows of fate---one,
two, threes (A sweep of his hand) And the hero faiss,
there, at the third blowt Zukt
The mus ic ends. A clock on the lake
strikes midday and he walks upstage
behind the staircase.
The Sixth comes up again, drowning
everything with its three blows of
fate.
MAHLER emegges aga: in in a bathing
costume of the 1904 period. He
strolls haphazerdly towards the
lake, upstage, still ltring in the
music. He disappears. A great


splash as he plunges into the lake.
And then his cry of pleasure. He
laughs. The music ceases.
ALMA, in a bright summer dress on the
fantastic side, appears upst tage of the
staircase with a bath towel under her
arm. She is no longer pregnant.
She gazes upstage across the lake.
We hear MAHLER Whistle her from the
distance. She smiles and waves.
ALMA: Gustavi
Gustavi Not so far outi
We hear the children aga: in, the birds.
MAHLER makes another cry of pleasure
from the dist tance.
MAHLER (off, in the distance) Almschilis
AIMA;
That's enought
She goes to his table, looks at his
score. The Adagio from the Fifhh
sweeps over triumphantly. She is
delightad. It dies away quickly as
she turns to hurry back to the edge
of the lake with his towel.
MAHLER (closer, off) It's so goodi
She watches him appreach land.
We hear him gasp as he scrambles on
to the landing stage.
He comes in,dripping.
MAHLER: Aht
She covers him round with the towel.
MAHLER trying to evade it) I'll dry in the sun.
ALMA: No, it can't be good for you, it's at the top of the
skys
MAHLER: How's Putzi?
ALMA: Asking for yous
He sits on the lowest step of the
atairs, drawing the towel round him,


drying his hair.
ALMA: Why do you sacrifice yourself like that? swim out
so far? You had a haemorrhage last year.
MAHLER: Swimming a sacrifice---who ever heard of that?
ALMA; You give your attention to everything except me o
You hardly look at me.
MAHLER: But it's different now! We're together---We're
side by side---notlooking at each other---we're
working side by side---
ALMA: It's different because I'm warking in the house all
day! and there are two children to look aftert and
everything has to be on time 1 If your breakfast
isn't there in the hut at seven sharp---
MAHLER: Oh for God's sake don't cry over trivialitiesi
ALMA: They're NOT trivialities for me, because I DO themi
Don't you understand that? I change their nappies---
I order the food---and st tand over the maid---and
arrange the h ouse---and keep people away from you!
MAHLER (quietly) Don't you remember how I am in the winter,
at that blasted Ministry of Music night and day,
and aren't I supposed to beffor a rest? and you
hes e
know I never take a rest, aren't I working at my
music here---? Almat Isn't my music at tention to
you? I thought we were closer than thati
ALMA: Yes, yesi I knowt
MAHLER: If I didn't plunge ahead wi th the Work---would
there be money?
ALMA: I know!
They sit in silence. He gazes
before him.
MAHLER: Explain to me more---what you mean.
ALMA: You give your singers more attentibn than you do met
MAHLER (laughing) Well---what sort of operas would we get
1f I didn't?
ALMA: I'm, afraid of losing you every time you go to
regearsal.


MAHLER: And when I'm warising here---in the hut---
what are you afraid of then?
ALMA: Gustl, I looked at the Adagio.
MAHLER: Did you like it?
AIMA: Oh Gustlt
MAHLER: Would y ou like to C opy it f ar me?
ALMA:
Yess
MAHLER: It's only a sketch---you can fill in the gaps---
only you can do that---
They are silent again. There are
the cries of the ch ildren. He
gets upo
ALMA: Go to your Putzi.
MAHLER: Do you mean that nicely?
ALMA:
Oh yes :
He leaves---upstage of the stair-
case, right.
MAHLER (off, calling back to her)
Will you C ame soon?
Is iunch on the table?
ALMA: Yes! Yest Lunch is on the table. Everything's
ready. It always is. At the stroke. When you've
been on tour there's a hot bath waiting for you when
you get back, steaming as you come in the door.
MAHLER (off)
Isn't tha t what we'ge got servants for?
ALMA: Yes, Gustav. (After he is out of earshot) Oh,
Gustav, you've eaten me up---I don't exist---if only
you knewi
MAHLER (off) Do you think I exist?
ALMA (starting at his voice) No! Your music but not youi
And so I'm a slave to that too, nowo I have to shush
the ch ildren quiet all the time. You love little
Putzi but not met There's something between the two
of you---something lovely, a silent message that
closes me out! And then you come out of youthut
looking like a god when you've finished your work,
shedding light all round---it falls out of your
hairs Oh Gustav!


The cries of the chi ildren, joined
by HAHLER'S laughter, off.
ALMA raises herself disconsolately
and goes towards his work table.
She sl umps down in his chair and takes
one of his scioes. She reads the
Adagio of the Fifth eg ain, and it
st teals over. She gives way to it---
in the sense that it expresses what
she feels, all the more poignantly
because it was written by the pers an
she has just been complaining to.
She puts the score down again,
and abstractedly takes up another.
The music fades. The first version
of the Fifth comes over: this was
over-written for percussion. It
crashes over the speakers.
She frowns. This neither moves nor
pleases hero
She jumps up. The music cuts off
as she throws the score down.
ALMA (calling) Gustli Gustli
(no replt) Gustls
He appears like an alarmed child,
now in his dressing g own.
ALMA: It's a terrible noiset How could you do it?
MAHLER: How could I do wha t?
AIMA: You've gone mad with the drums 8 Madi You've ruined
everythingt
MAHLER: Frums? What drums?
ALMA: Heret Heret (tapping the score vi olently)
MAHLER (suddenly wild with delight) Not yett Not yet I
haven't ruined its You see, I can cuts Here----
(dashing across the room to the table) look---
(grabbing his pencil and drawing lines across the
sc ore)---out with the side-drums, that's far a start---
then half the percussion instruments, outs Now!
How's that? (Grabbing her and swinging her round)
And now come to lunchi We need light at the lunch
tablet We need the suni Oh what a lioness you aret
ALMA: And sometimes a bitch?


MAHLER: I didn't say soo
ALMA: You don't call me nice things in the old wey e
I remember how you called me the spring onc e--
When we started living in your Viennese apartment---
you said I brought the spring ino
MAHLER: But the spring doesn't last for ever, Almscherl.
I wish you could learn to take things in their
rhythm. Don't cling to ideas. You can't be an
artist out of the head. You've got to be natural.
You've got to start with life. If I had the chi ildren
all day I'd make music out of them---I'd make it out
of dirty nappiest And isn't it all there in my music
anyway? Isn' 't there the dirt and the struggle and
then a blaze of redeeming light?
ALMA: And then you make such a fool of me at dinn er parties.
The last one, with all those rich people yawning their
gold teech off---you have to CO me in half way through
and take an apple off the bowl in the middle of the
table and keep smelling it, while everybody stares at
you. And then you jump up before the last course and
goto the other room. And you know everybody's going
to follow you! And then they stop and stare at us
in the street, everywhere we go---"Look, therets
Mahler and his wifet But he's not with anybody!
His wifets just trailing along! I dontt know where
to put my face some timest
MAHLER: What have I got to do---study the way they look at
me, the bloated idiotst No, you're happy, Almscherl---
happy to have somebody who doesn't give a damn.
Because you don't give a damm eithert Do you reme mber
that sketoh from the Sixth---the second subject in
the first movement? That's you! That's my Almschili
musici
The 'ALMA theme' steals over. He
beats time and sings very vigorously
da, da,dum, di, da, dil It fades.
ALMA: I'm not good enough for it. After I've been Working
in the house all day I feel just a body---I don't want
to Gustlt---
MAHLER: Does it help you to work on my scroes---as if we were
one spirit---not one body---one spirit---doing the same
thing?
ALMA (after a sad pause) Yes.
pegmel E C
E hog a =


ALMA notices another score on the
table. She picks it up.
ALMA: And what's this? Songs on the death of children?
What children? Wha t death? Oh Gustif
MAHLER: It's a setting on Rackert!
ALMA: He lost his child---it was the most horrible loss of
his lifet Gustli (As the harrowing Kindertotenlieder
C ome bursting over) How could you do it? How CO uld
you tempt fate like that?
MAHLER: But listen to iti Listemi
(Grabbing her) Now!
Listem to thatt
ALMA: Oh Gustli
She shrugs, throwing the score. down.
The music fades.
He takes her armo They begin walking
upstage together.
MAHLER: You know, they just don't unders tand my music===the
Viennese, the Germans, nobody---not unless I'm there
on the spot drilling it into them. Their cheering
doesn 't kid me. And when you come to think of it
(maka) what C ould they/of all these new worlds in my work,
one new world after another erupting and then crashing
down again---what can they say to these primeval
sounds---the dea, foaming and raging---the stars
dancing in the sky---the breakers in the distance---
can you see them---how they flash and sparkle bef ore
they cascade down again?
ALMA: I feel bettert Go on talking to me---just to me 8
MAHLER walks on in thought. Then
he turns to her gravely.
MAHLER: Darling, I thought to mention this to yon before.
There's the most tremendous stink of rotten glue in
my bedroom---what can we do about it?
She stands staring at him for some
time and then bursts into the most
helpless laughter. It infects him.
They laugh together---the same force
of foy as in the train. They go off
upstage of the staircase, arm in
arm.
We hear their laughter, off.


It dies away.
There is silence. iie hear the
ch ildren again in the distance.
Very faintly the Kindertotenlieder
steal over again, hardly more than
elsuggestion.


The scene comes up under a strange
brilliance of light, ominous and
unreal.
Simultaneously Lehar's waltz from
THE MERRY WIDOW bursts over the
speakers.
Dressed in evening clothes MAHLER
and ALMA whirl into view at the top
of the steps, un der the aroh,
danc ing a waitz that is almost a
ballet. They descend the s teps with
deft leaps, light as neither of them
has been until now, and correspondingly
unreal. It is almost inconceivable
how they reach the lower steps in
their leaps, simultaneously.
Once at centre st tage they whirl round
and round and then draw upstage and
out of sight beyond the staircase
while the music plunges on.
They reappear from the right, downstage
of the staircase. Now the profession-
al deftness has disappeared. Their
steps are not so light. They are
beaming at each other but S imply
dancing the correct steps together.
He whirls her---but not fantastically
now---towards one of the chairs on
the left, and she subsides into it,
out of breath. He stands gazing at
her, panting.
ALMA:
If only we d danced like that when we were alive.


MAHLER: Werd have been different people---that sort of thing
has to be choreographed down to the last step. I
never tried to express myself in the body. I wen ted
that reternal blesednesst---you remember Goethe in
Faust?
ALMA: Did you find it? (As he shrugs) I just went from
day to day. I had no tim to live.
MAHLER: Your body needed many more journeys, didn't it?---
many more men?
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: Did you get a hint of the bliss in the end?
ALMA: Not like you. The way you used to come oat of your
room with joy all over your face.
MAHLER: I think we got that bit wr ong.
ALMA: Which bit?
MAHLER: That da-da-di-da-tum-ti-da-da---there was something
wr ong.
ALMA:
Look it up.
MAHLER: What? You don't imagine I've got any Franz Lehar
in the house, do you?
ALMA: But you did enjoy it, Gustl?
MAHLER: Every minute. I don't care how it was done. I loved
every si inger---every cardboard tree---
ALMA: So did I. Our one night out, in five yearst It
ought to be chronicled S omewhere, for the historians.
And The Merry Widow, not Lohengrin or the Parsifal.
MAHLER: I tell you what, we can go to Schott's tomorrow and
I'll ask about the sales of my mus ic, and while I'm
doing that you can thumb through The Merry Widow and
see where we went wrong, then we can dance it again
tomorrow night.
ALMA: I had the impression we floated---you held me---I
A child's cry---disturbe d sleep---
in the distance.
IAHLER turns and stares at her.
Silence.


MAHLER: Almschili---what's that?
ALMA: Gustavi Don't look like thati Gustavs
MAEELER: Who is it, for God's sake, who is it?
ALMA; It's Anna. The English nurse scalded her fingers this
morning.
MAHLER: It's more than fingers! Go and seet
She gets up, under the influence of his
wild eyes.
A savage phrase from the Kindertoten-
lieder comes bursting over. He
seems to stare into the music itself.
ALMA rushes off, right.
The mus ic dies. He continues to stand
there.
ALNA reappears from where she went,
quiet.
MAHLER (stating it, without looking at her) It's a fever.
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: The doctor's coming?
ALMA: Yes. Mummy's looking after her.
MAHLER: And Putzer1?
ALMA: She's asleep.
MAHLER: Calm?
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: Not flushed?
ALMA: No.
MAHLER: Come and sit down.
She returns to her chair, while
he reemins there, immobile.
MAHLER: The Lord Chamberlain called me into his office today.
ALMA: Yes?
MAHLER: Somebody stole my ap ppointments book and took it to him.


It said, 'After Easter, three concerts in Rome'.
He said I wasn't allowed to do concerts in the Opera
House's time. He told me box office receipts always
fell off when I'm away. I told him this wasn't true.
They want me out. It has nothing to do with Rome.
They've finished with met
The Germans are finished
with me toot They've had enough of my standards!
When you're as demanding as I am you tread on too
many toes and in the end they surround you---they need
a lower level, you see, a sort of Weingartner lewl,
it makes them feel more at home. I've been there
ten years near enough. It's tim to goo
ALMA:
It's because you stood by Roller. You stand by him
whatever he does.
MAHLER: Because he's the finest designer in Europe.
ALMA: Yes, but making the Rhine Maidens singfrom hanging
baskets---I
MAHLER (with a shrug) It's only because they're so fat---
they're afraid the ropes'll break---
They are about to laugh when the
child's cry interrupts again.
MAHLER: Theret The second blows I said there were threes
The first my dismissal---no money---nowhere to go---
And then (star ing off, to the right)---the second---
ALMA: Don't make it happent You sh ould never have written
those songs on childrent
MAHLER: The three blows of fate that lay the hero lows
The last movement of the Sixth
Symphony is heard briefly in the
distance. 'The three blows* are
suggested.
Silence.
A bell rings from inside the house,
right.
MAHLER: What's that for God's sake?
ALMA: Gustavt
(Getting up) It's only the doctor. I told
mummy to ring the beli when he came.
She hurries out right.


He goes and slumps into a chair.
MAHLER (oalling after her suddenly) I've never heard that
bell beforet
Silence.
ALMA (off) Gustavi You're making it happent Gustavs
Silence.
MAE LER: I've never been ac le to talk to You. Is this Your
only way?
ALMA has reappeared.
ALMA: He says Putzerl has a fever tooo
MAHLER: It's diptheria.
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: And there must be a tracheotomy. o Noit Nol! Why do
You talk to me like that? Wiy show it to me before?
I could have stood dismissal from the Opera House--
that W as right---You must take me away from the centres
of power, yest I agree with thatt---but my childi---
the centré of my delightt You aren't justi If only I
understood.I thought I had it once---and then I got
swept up in life again, in the Opera House---yes, it was
right to take me away from there---
The bell sounds agai in.
MAHLER: Don't got
ALMA:
It's my child---
She hurries out right again.
MAHLER (talking to her in her absence)
I willed it, yes.
I suppose I must have done. I must heed it. Little
Putzerl must heed it. She never belonged here.
She and I belonged to each other. But the earth
wasn't for her, you see. And she decides to go before
me. She doesn't need to stay, to go through all
this. Her will works that W ayo quick---where's
my Schopenhauer?
(Fixing his spectacles properly,
hunting blindly about)
ALNA screams, off.


MAHLER dashes off, left, stumbling,
his spectacles failing.
Silence.
There is the sound of a gay Italian
barrel organ in the distance.
ALMA enters from the right, upstage
of the staircase. She is dressed
smartly in black, a touch of the
American in her styles She looks
round quickly, then hurries over to
the personal area.
ALMA (in a hushed voice) Mummyi For God's sake call the
hall porter and ask him to stop that hurdy-gurdy!
He's composing.
She glances anxiously upstage, right.
The barrel organ continues. She
sits on one of the lower steps of
the staircase, enjoying the so und.
It suddenly euts to a stop.
ALMA (disappointed) Oht
Silence.
She buries her head in her hands.
ALMA:
Thank you mummy.
There are the sounds of traffic in
the distance---automobiles. She
strains to listen. There is a
snatch of 'classical' jazz---Buddy
Bolden or Jelly-Roll Morton or Bunk
Johns on---being played on someone's
radio or phonograph. She strains
after it, but that too goes.
MAHLER comes in very slowly from the
right, upstage of the staircase.
He is looking for her. He is in a
dressing gown and his steps are
deliberately slow.
MAHLI ER: What a lovely sound.


ALMA; What?
MAHLER: That barrel organ. It reminded me of my childhood.
And then he suddenly stops. (Going towards the chaise-
longue, left) The moment I lean back to remember---
which means to forget---he stops.
He lies down on the chaiselongue
carefully, sighing.
MAHLER (gazing across at her) Why do you sit outside the
door all day?
ALMA: To hear New York, down below.
take
MAHLER: You could/a lift downs tairs, sit in the foyer.
ALMA: My duty's with you.
Silence.
MAHLER: These Met designers are bloody awful. We need a
Roller here.
ALMA: He's having trouble, you said---he wrote from
Vienna---the savages are collecting round him---?
MAHLER: Yes
They'11 send him packing soon. But the
wholeheap won't last long---the royal opera house,
royalty itself---none of it.
The traffic soun ds---1907 klazons---
drift up again.
MAHLER: You like those noises?
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: You like this city, don't you?
ALMA; It's divine.
MAHLER (chuckling) They built it against the divine. That
was the whole idea. They ran away from divine right---
of kings, aristocracies. So how is New York divine?
ALMA: The bigness. The free way they have of talking. Nothing
scratching and nibbling at me like in Vienna. I feel
unknown---everything feels positive---
MAHLER: With everybody knowing that the Mahlers live on the
eleventh floor of the Lajestic---you feel unknown?


ALMA: We're respected.
MAHLER: More than in Vienna?
ALMA: We were Worshipped there. And it doesn't make you
feel good. The slave can turn. The Viennese didn't
come to your last concert.
MAHIE R: You look a woman. e
ALMA: What?
MAHLER: A woman. Dazzling, attractive in the way awful
men---(he stops with a smile)
ALMA: Life's simpler. Only one child now. No Ministry
of Music at the back of everything.
MAHLER: You're even happy.
ALMA: You must change for the Met.
MAHLER (sitting up carefully)
What made me ask that damned
doctor in Maiernigg to examine me? Do you remember
I laughed when I asked him? And he gives me a sentence
of death.
The steps of a slow procession from
the s treet below.
ALMA: Listen.
MAHLER: A procession. Nothing supernatural happens here.
It's a rally or so met thing.
She goes to the window, upstage, and
looks down.
ALMA: It's a funeral.
There's a huge crowd.
The tap of a drum hushes the crowd.
ile hear a man addressing then. We
cannot make his words out.
MAHLER: What does he say?
ALMA: I think it's that fireman who died heroically. It
was in the papers.
MAHLER joins her at the window.
Another tap of the drum.


MAHLER (on his way out, right) I must use that drum-tap on e
day. (Stopping) A great change came over you in
Paris. When Ossip Gabrilovitch fell in love with
you.
The dear man. It brought you back to life.
She does not move.
He leaves.
ALMA: Gustav. I can see Putzi.
She wanders towards the left,
upstage, peering closely.
ALMA: I could sweart
She goes towards the staircase
but stops at the first step to turn
round again.
ALMA: It ist Come on then, quickly---you're daddy's
rehearsingt Putzi, Futzit
The sound of a tuning orchestra
sweeps up with great violeno e.
She gasps, turns towards the archwey
ALMA: Gustlt It was---couldn't you come just a----?
The conductor's desk is rapped with
a jarring sh arpness.
MAHLER (off) Isolde, from your entrance please---and could
we keep the backstage noises down---I
She runs up to the arch and disappears
through it.
The tuning has ceased. No music.
Instead of mus ic there is the souni
of a tremendous blizzard.
It rises to a threatening climax.
MAHLER (off, left) Almat Almat
The blizzard continues. She does
not appear.
LAHLER staggers in from the left.
He is dressed with unusual elegance---
top hat, cloak and white gloves.
He is vovered wi th snow. He gasps,


stumbles forward.
The blizzard cuts off.
He walks carefully to the table.
He peels off his white gloves sl owly,
and then pulls out his watch. He
takes his pulse. He grunts---he is
only moderately satisfied with the
restlt.
He then rememb ers he has his hat and
cloak on. He begins taking them off.
ALMA appears from the right in a
nightdress. He throws his hat and
cloak on to a chair.
ALMA: Gustlt It's past two o'clockt
MAHLER (lowering himself on to the chaiselongue) 1m.
ALMA: Were you that man st umbling about?---clutohing the
railings---falling in a heap---I was watching from
the bedroom window.
MAHLER (putting his head back with a s: igh) Yes. I was
that man.
ALMA: You see, dangers everywhere. On us all the timet
MAHLER: I was warned about these New York blizzards. Go
to bed, darling.
The doctor said you mustn't leave
your bed.
She approaches him instead.
ALMA: I saw her again. In the corridor. I peeped out -
sidet
MAHLER: I hear her voice.
ALMA (touching him) Your poor handst
MAHLER: I left Karl Bitter's just after midnight. They
all got drunk. I was disgusted. Why do people
have to do that? I got a cab. Alma---it blew
overi Can you inagine it? And I crawled from
underneath.
ind tne cabby was drunk too---
ALLA (beginning to laugh) No!
MAHLER: I lost my glasses. ie were fishing around in the
snow for them. The snow stings you like wasps here.


I had to cling to the railings.
They laugh togethe er o
Silence.
ALMA: Conried died then.
MAHLER: Yes. They offered me the Letropolitan. I turned
it down.
They're giving it to Toscanini---he's a good
man. But do you know what---he wants to conduat my
Tristan and Isolde. After a production like that!
It was the finestI've ever seen---ever heard abouti
All those cuts I made. And ghastly sets. But still
it was the best ever---miles ahea a of any Tristan I
did in Vienna.
ALMA: You take things so much easier now. You'd never have
agreed to cuts in Vienna. And I remember how you were
if anybody came in late.
MAHLER: Our little girl taught me such a lot.Nothing's so
important any more---on this side, I mean---
ALMA:
We should sell Maiernigg. Lummy and I found a lovely
old farmhouse at Toblach when we were last over.
MAHLER: I liked what Max Burkhard saiaphe other day---'Death
exists if you believe in it, and I don't.*
ALMA: He's dying.
MAHLER (with a sudden laugh)
That old trout---what was her
name?---the wife of the shipping magnate---she said
is it true that Wagner was ungrateful to Listz? What's
thht?' I said. *Wagner had a bed reputation? And what
does Tristan meam to you?'
ALMA: Yes, we all heard you. A Women/dsked me, 'Does he
always make a scene at dinner??
MAHLER: You see, I made the scene. Not her, with her lies
about how Tristan keeps her awake at night. Not the
lie but the truth makes a scene. That's how their
minds work---from the Balkans to Philadelphia.
ALMA: People are so light here. They take you to thetr
hearts. I see you never miss a dinner party nowadays.
And you dress so beautifully.
MAHLER: Te must give up the flat in Vienna.
ALMA: Yeso


MAHLER: And live in Toblach. A nice farmhouse you say?
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: Does Anna miss her sister?
ALMA: It must be dawn,look.
MAHLER: I feel I'm sinking further and further into this
divan. And you look fresh for the voyage---bursting--
youngi
ALMA: Bodansky came to me with tears in his eyes. He
said 'I shall never love a woman like I love Mahle r'.
MAHLER (laughing suddenly again) That night I arrived for
my First Symphony and fourd that the good ladies had
massed the brass all round my feet and the strtngs in
a circle all round the back, to get a pretty effecti
Still, it didn't matter. The audience didn't get a
thing anyway.
ALMA: You took them to a night club afterwards, and came back
at three in the morning, radiant.
MAHLER: They felt like my children. And their critics are so
nice. Unlike the Viennese ones. And the French.
Remember the time Debussy walked out of my Second
Symphony with all his friends? Said it was all too
Schubertian for them, too Viemnese, too foreign, too
Slavi What nonsense people do talki Trying to make
it seem there's a right way of doing things---this side---
on this sidet
ALMA: still, they enjoyed your conducting of Fidelio.
MAHLER: Oh, conducting---that's nothing.lusic's little en ough.
It's what we are that remains. You see, Tristan and
Faust and Fidelio, they're only the discarded husk of
our Tives---they're like the body---they're what a man
leaves behind. But they fade. What doesn't fade is
what a man is. The music tries to get that. That's
why we go through storms. Almschili, you must always
try to exert that innerforce of yours---spread your-
self---never stint your' beayty---always try and bring
out the light inside---
(He yawns) I'd better get
up. I'll have a dip.
ALMA: You shouldn'ti
MAHLER: A little one.
ALMA: But no underwater swimming.


MAHLER: I promise.
MAHLER raises himself slowly. He
goes upstage of the staircase and
out of si ight.
We hear birds, echoing voic es across
the lake. Hammering. A dog barks.
ALMA goes tot the left and takes up
his hat and cloak.
ALMA (calling left) Annat Anna darling! It's time to wake
ALMA goes out left.
MAHLER reappears in his swimming trunk's.
He is about to walk towards the lake
but then stops. He looks r ourd for
ALMA. Silence.
MAHLER: Almat Almat (With increasing alarm)
Almat
ALMA appears from the left. She is
now dressed in a bright dierndl.
She stands looking at him.
MAHLER: I---thought you had gone.
ALMA: Gone?
He slumps into a sitting position on
the lowest step.
MAHLER (looking across the lake) I need you to be here. In
C8 ase I need the boat.
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER (glancing at her) You were in the house?
ALMA: Yes, wi th Anna.
Silence.
MAHLER: Help me ple ease. (As she comes to him) My
Almschilitzili! I have this terrific longing far
you---I just think of you and feel this terrific joy---
ir's when I'm travelling, when I'm here a few feet
from you---my concerts, ete rybody I see, it all goes
back to yout


She helps raise him to his feet.
ALMA: Gustl---I can't beer this tense life amy moret
MAHLER (putting his arm yound her)
There---it won't last
much longer---the tense part---
ALMA: Why not?
MAHLER (walking out) Oh, I mean the Tenth. It'll be
finished S oon. And then we'll be free, take a
holiday---
He passes out of view. We hear
him plunge into the water. No
cries of pleasure.
ALMA goes nearer to the edge of the
lake, gazing out.
ALMA: Not too fart
MAILER (off) I promise!
She stands looking out. Then she
seems to rene mb er some thing. She
turns slowly, looking off, left.
ALMA: Annat
She goes off, left.
Silenc e.
The sound of KAHLER laboriously
approach: ing the shore. A splash as
he emerges from the water.
ALIA'S laughter, off, as she pla ys
with her child.
ALMA (off) Annalinchien!
Annalinchien:
Silence.
MAHLER appears upstage left, dripping
with wa ter. He peers rouni, fixing
his SI pectacles. He finds no towel
and shakes the water out of his eyes.
His spectacles are blurred.
MAHLER: Almat
Suddenly the bell rings, loud and
startling, from the right. He


starts. He gazes with horror
off, right. He stands quite still.
He then goes slowly towards the right,
as if obeying S omeone's sign. He
goes out of sight, upstage of the
stairçase, like a hypnotised man.
MAFLER (off)
Thank you.
He returns breaking open a letter in
a feverish wayo He reads it with
trembling hands.
MAHLER: Almat Almat
ALNA comes running in from the left
with a ba th towel over her arm.
ALMA: I went to get your towel.
MAHLER: It's this damed architect, look---(holding the letter
out)s
ALMA (throwing the towel over his shoulders)
The architect?
MAHLER: The one who fell in love wi th you at the Tobelbad
sanatorium. When you were ill. I said at the ti me
you were hiding so mthing---look, he's addressed it
to met He wan ts my wifet What can I say? He wants
to come here and talk it ove ri (As she takesthe
letter) Is that the kind of impression he gets of
your closeness to me, your need for me---your loyalty-
kindness---the children we've had---and the poor dead---
ALMA: I was tired and broken down and he sympathisedi He
sympathiseds Yest
MAHLER: Sympathised with the fact that you're married to me---
anstead of to a popinjay Who designs brick wallst
(Drilling it into her at close quarters) I told you
didn 't I, it won't take much longer---it's almost
finished---and then you*ll be freet
ALMA: Why only me?
MAHLER: Both of us, yes---both of us freet
He stalks off.
ALMA: And don't walk so fast---the doctor said not tot
MAHLER (off) To hell with doctors, and architects too, and
all the dead professions:


ALMA: Do you remember how you said spring couldn't last
for ever? So you pushed me into winter! You
didn't even look at met It was the Fifth and the
Sixth and the Seventh and the Eighth---the Song of
the Earth---the Song of Children---dead children---
before it happened---never a song about met Always
music---not met not even your own lifet Do you
wonder I needed a bit of warming sunlight? And he
was theret He looked at me! He showed me who I was,
with his eyest
She looks at the letter, then care-
fully folds it, shaking off the
water that IAHLER has dripped on to
it. She whirls round, holding
in a brief recollection of the waltz
she danced with LAHLER. She goes
off, left. Again we hear her laugh-
ter as she plays with Der child.
ALMA (off) Annalinchien!
A great threatening burst of applause
comes over from beyond the arch.
But the archway is dark, plunged in
gloom.
The applause, with frequent Bist,
begins to die. The gloom increases.
Silence.
MAHLER appears under the arch, in
tails. He is haggard, bent. He
gazes down the staircase. He begins
walking, almost stumbling down. His
feet fall heavily and loudly. He
reaches centre stage. He continues
across to the table. He holds his
throat. He is sweating.
MAHLER: Doctor!
Silence. He looks all round.
MAILER: Almat Almat
He begins weeping. He sinks to the
floor.
ALMA (off, right) Gustavi
He makes no reply, lying quite still.


ALMA (off) Gustavi
ALMA enters upstage of the staircase,
right. She is in travelling clothes.
She stands gazing at him. She walks
to him and bends down.
ALMA:
Gustl---not like this. You're so hoti
MAHLER (stirring for the first time)
It's this damed fever.
And my throat burns.
ALMA: Why do you always let yourself fall?
MAHLER: It's better nearer the earth.
She undoes his waistcoat, loosens
his tie.
MAHLER: You decided to come.
ALMA: Yes.
MAHLER: If you'd left me I should have died. I'm dead if
you don't love me I It took you a long time deciding.
I went everywhere we used to go---along the Rhine---
I remembered every spot---we were so happy---it was
like being with you again---
ALMA: Shall I wake the doctor?
MAHLER: He's on the other side of Lunich. You're the only
one---the only doctor---you see, the sweating's
stopped. Those damned cars outside---they keep
me awake---
ALMA: Idon't hear anything. You alarm yourself so much---
MAHLER: Only because I believein it---I'm not going to control
it, I want the fever to rise---I believe in it---loving
you---I want to give way to it---antil it takes me to
Gods
ALMA: But why? I'm heret
MAHLER: It's the same when I go to my hut and you're fifty
yards av way. I ache toget a visit from youo It's
because you're never really with me any more. Some-
times you don't come for hours. If you're not there
in the front row I ache all over. And I get a fever,
and my throat gets coated. And I adore the paint
I know what Tristan means---how can Tristan die While
he loves Isolde?


ALMA: Why so much darkness always, and dying---?
MAHLER: Not always. Only now, because you no longer respond.
What a terrible pain that is. Will you do something
for me?
ALMA: Yes?
MAHLER: Will you lie there, and sleep? You caught a late train.
ALMA: Yes.
She lies on the chaiselongue after
taking off her travelling coat.
He places the coat over her carefully.
ALMA: It worries me so much.
She cl oses her eyes. She begish to
breathe evenly. He raises himself
with effort and stands looking down
at her.
The drum tap comes---the same as that
heard for the funeral procession in
New York. And then once again.
Silence.
ALMA:( (waking suddenly) Gustlt You're so whitel Don't
stand theret
MAHLER: I don't want to miss you breathing---I just want to drink
you in---i
ALMA (with a sigh) It tires me so mucht
She falls asleep again. MAHLER
continues to watch over her. She
wakes again.
ALMA: I could never leave you---I couldn't imagine living
with anybody else--
MAHLER: Aht You've raised me up again! you've goven me a bit
more lifet
He sits down, still gazing at her.
She sleeps again.
MAHLER: How desparately she loves him. A damned architect.
Silence.


MAHLER: Alma.
ALMA: Yes?
MAHLER: Shall we walk?
ALMA: If you like.
MAHLER: The air's so good.
She gets up and then helps him to
his feet. He puts her cloak round
her shoulders and they walk arm in
arm very slowly upstage.
MAHLER: The doctor said my throat's full of streptococci.
ALMA: What?
MAHLER: Like a marsh full of frogs, he saidi I said is that
how love expresses itself---in streptococci? He gave
me such a funny look.
ALMA: It's that English nurset She had a throat infection
and didn't say anything about itt I knew you'd catch
it some time.
MAHLER (showing her his hand) You see, I still have your ring.
I kiss it every day---in t he middle of the night---
ALMA: You stole it from me o
MAHLER: I looked at your songs too. Betweent rehearsals.
They're marvellous.
ALMA: I've carried them about with me for ten years, my
little coffin of unwanted songsi
MAHLER: We'll have them performed.
ALMA (gazing at him) You seem to mean it.
MAHLER: Take me to the hut---
ALMA: You're weak, weak!
She takes him to the chaiselongue
and he lies down. She CO vers him with
her cloak. Silence.
ALMA: You look so beautiful, like Alexander the Great.
That black hair---your lips are so red---
MAHLER: When I get better you can go on looking af ter me 9


I like it so much.
ALMA: You thought I hadn't suffered enough onc e. Well,
now I have.
MAHLER (nodding) Sorrow's put its mark on your face. That's
what makes beauty.
ALMA:
When you get well we'll be happy. We'll take a rest,
go somewhere like Egypt.
MAHLER: Yes. Royalties are beginning to trickle in from my
music. America was a great help there. So there'll
be money.
ALMA: All the way from Paris to Vienna there were reporters
waiting for the train to stop, asking how you were,
like for a king.
MAHLER: And the flowers from my Fhilnarmonic, that was some-
thing, eh?
ALMA; You look so elegant always. You never used to.
MAHLER: I believe in shining, nowadays. Like I said to you
once, 'spread yourself, never let a single faculty
get squeezed small. When I remember my early days,
when people tried to squeeze me small, the rascals,
they stole my lifet But I must have wished it. All
my life has beem paper, Almschili.
ALMA: Only because you see it like that just a t this moment.
MAHLER: It makes me tremendously happy to have got ill for
ALMA: I'd rather have you welli Gustlt
MAHLER: e --and love you less?
ALMA: Not
MAHLER: who are you going to marry if I die? Hans lfizner,
Cssip, Charpentier--- --they've all been in love with
you at some time or othert But what an intolerable
lot to live with. There's not one of them wouldn 't
drive you mad in a dayt aren't I the safest bet in the
end?
ALLA: Yest
MAHLER: I'd better stay wi th you, then, and not die. Do you
mind if I sleep?
ALMA: Your eyes are so bigi


He sleeps.
She sits looking at him. She settles
the cloak round him better.
Then
she too nods asleep.
MAHLER wakes and sits up.
MAHLER:(quietly) I've got it right.
ALMA (starting awake) What?
MAHLER: I'll show it to you. Look.
He gets
without a trace of diff-
iculty, and pulls her to her feet.
He begins dancing with her, the Herry
Widow waltz.
ALMA (stopping)
Gustav---Gustay---youtve got a fevert
MAHLER: I'm all righti I told you, it comes and goes.
It's nothing physical. Just look at me end sees
ALMA (giving him wild kisses) You're astonishing---an
astonishing astonishing husbandi
They laugh. They dance again---
the same light, deft and unreal steps
as before. Only this time they do
not dance on the stairs. And there
is no music---only MAHLER humming.
MAHLER: Like thist Da-dum! Theret
They laugh together in the old way.
Their dancing becomes extravagant,
nearly grotesque. There is no sign
at all of a sick man in MAHLER.
They whirl to a close.
MAELER: Now I think I'll sleep.
ALNA:
I'll sit with you for a little bit moree
He lies down again. He is panting
with pleasure, smiling at her. She
sits gazing at him.
He closes his eyes. She nods asleep
too.
His hands flicker as if conducting.


The fever mounts again. He seems
to struggle for breath. Then he
subsides again. ALMA continues
sleeping peacefully.
Again his hands twitch, conducting.
MAHLER (in a whisper) Mozarti Mozarti
He smiles. He sleeps again.
A drum tap wakes her with a start.
She looks across at MAHLER slowly.
ALMA: Gustav. (No reply) Gustl. (She jumps up) Gustav,
not Gustav, not yeti Gustavi
She shakes him. He is dead.
ALMA (rush ing out, left) Lumyi Mummys
Stillness.
ALMA (off) He worj't speek to me any more, mymy S
Stillness.
The flicker of candles upstage of
the staircase, right, as AIMA, dressed
in black now, caries in a candelabra.
She sets it down on the table.
She sits down. Silence.
Some time passes.
MAHLER stirs and stretches. ALMA
makes no responding movement to this---
she is slumped half asleep. MAHLER
takes off his spectacles.
MAHLER (with a yawn) Well, that's the end of Kahler. I'll
grab a coffee. Just one little scene. (Gets up)
Pull all the stops out.
ALMA: I'll try.
IIe walks out, left, upstage, no longer
playing LAHLER.
cut
ALMA: I tried all those years---to pull/ell the stops.


Never succeeded. Then he wanted me tot And it
was too latet I remember when we married---oh and
for years afterwards---I was paralysed with shyness
whenever he came in the room. And yet I did open
out at the end---for other men. Two more husbands--
a heavy responsibility. Gustav did perform a song
of mine, in New York. Wrong time, wrong place. I
suppose I gave the other two---three if you C ount
the one I didm't marry---what he taught me. He
talked and talkedt Goethe, Plato, everything!
That's whare he died (noddirg towards the chaise-
longe) I won't go near it. They*re all dead now,
except old Kokoshka, the one I didm't marry. Hetii
last for ever. (Shouting) Annat Stop that ch: ild
of yours playing with a dirty rag dolls (She peers
round the stage) Where is she? And that English
nurse---the brave, unflinching bitch who gave my
husband his throat infection. Didn't tell me she
had it, because she didn't want to bother met
(Fiercely) Throw that dirty filthy doll at way Mar: inat
I know why your mother never let you speak German---
oh don't worry, I've got little eyes in my arsel---
she said 'I don't weat my child hearing all the
awful things Alma says about peoples' Well, I'll
just put my feet up. (Lowering herself on to the
chaiselongue) Tipped my handbag out into her hands---
thousands of dollars. nahler royalties. Yest
Aht That's good. But don't think I'm going to die.
(Closing her eyes and lying quite still)
Suddenly she tries to struggle into
the sitting position but can't.
ALMA: Annat Guckit (Panic-stricken glances round) Not
It s the English nursel Oht She's c ome to get me---
not---I don't went to diet---don 't let me diet Oht
Her scream dies a way, and she lies
there panting. stillness. She
closes her eyes. She is quite still.
ALMA (waking again) Not Not
MAHLER appears at the top of the stair-
case, under the arch, in tails, remote,
fraii.
MAILER (softly) Alma. (No reply) Alma.
ALNA (peering dp the stairs) Who the devil's that? Franzi
Franzi Waltert It's ater---
It's Gustavi
Gustavi
MAHL ER: Come up.


ALMA raises herself from the
chaiselongue and slowly goes up the
steps to him.
The phra se from the Tenth Symphony
where the drum tap is used steals
over.
She stands before MAHLER. He takes
her hand. The music dies away.
MAHLER: It's over now. You see, it didn't hurt did it?
ALMA: No.
MAHLER: I'll take you down to the world again, shall I?
They walk lightly and remotely
down the steps, holding hands.
ALMA (stopping in a soft way) What about the other two?
MAHLER: The husbands? They're looking at us now.
ALMA: where?
MAHLER: (pointing down to the audience) There.
They continue down the S teps to
the bottom. At centre stage they
turn towards the auditorium, still
hand in hand, and advance to take
their curtain.