Maurice Rowdon's
Mahler
studiotheater
Gunnar Holm-Petersen


Mahler on his way to the United States in 1910.


Brendan Donnison Ruth Cameron
Mahler
written and directed
Maurice Rowdon
Set by Egon Strasser Electronic music by Morgan Fisher
European Première April 3 1976
A Studiotheater Munich Production
Programme Karin Leyk


Stage Manager
J.Drew Lucas
Sound Mixer
Mike Thatcher
Miss Cameron's hair styled by
The English Haircutters
Make-up by
Robert Jakob
Miss Cameron's Costumes by
Barbara Jacoby and Mira Prus
Studiotheater Munich wishes to thank Wilfried Hiller and Andreas Elsner for their patient
help in constructing the sound-track.
MAHLER was first performed in London in February 1973 at the Arts Theatre,
Leicester Square.
Mahler with his sister Justine.


Brendan Donnison, was born in Sheffield, England, and played the lead-role in HAIR
in Munich and other German cities. In JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR he was Annas. He
joined the San Quentin Theater Workshop under Ricky Cluchy and played Ham in
Beckett's ENDGAME at the Edinburgh Festival, and THE WALL IS MAMA at the ICA in
London. With the Monsieur Artaud Theater he played with Sally Willis and Michael Almaz
in SAILOR. He played Harry in Charles Dyer's STAIRCASE and Captain Ahab in the
BBC'sp production of MOBY DICK.
Ruth Cameron, is from Vancouver, Canada, and studied Drama at the University of
British Columbia. She has been working in Munich theater for some years and has played
in Albee's THE AMERICAN DREAM, Kenneth Cameron's THE HUNDRED AND FIRST,
and Joe Orten's RUFFIAN ON THE STAIR. For her performance in Beckett's HAPPY
DAYS in 1975 she was chosen 'Star of the Week' by the Abendzeitung, Munich.


Maurice Rowdon, author of MAHLER, is director of English productions at the Studio-
theater Munich. He was born in London and has lived a great part of his life in Italy. Apart
from his work in the theatre he has published many books on various aspects of Italian life
and the Renaissance, and has frequently drawn on these for his dramatic subjects. His BBC
film THE FALL OF VENICE was based on his book of that name, dealing with the last
hundred years of the Serenissima's existence, and his one-man show BLACK BOBIN
(world première Studiotheater Munich June 1976) draws largely on his study of Spanish
imperialism in the sixteenth century, THE SPANISH TERROR.
Morgan Fisher, composer of the electronic pre-curtain music (based on the trumpet-
theme of Mahler's Fifth Symphony and the cowbells of the Sixth which Mahler also
incorporated into his work) is pianist in the famous Mott the Hoople group which recently
returned from a successful tour of the United States. For some time now Morgan Fisher
has begun to interest himself in the theatre as a composer of atmosphere-music and effects.
He wrote the Mahler music especially for the Studiotheater Munich production.
J.Drew Lucas, who stage-manages MAHLER, studied and acted in The Players Work-
shop both in New York and Munich. He played Jerry in Albee's ZOO STORY. In New York
he has also played with the La Mama Workshop and at the Old Reliable Theater. In Munich
he has played in Ionesco's DIE KAHLE SANGERIN, at the Freies Theater Munchen, and
in 1975 he was on tour with Vienna's English Theatre Group.


Gustav Mahler, director of the Vienna State Opera at the turn of the century, only
attained worldwide recognition as a great composer in the 1960s, a half-century after his
death. He was born at Kaliste in Bohemia on July 7 1860, the son of Bernard Mahler and
Marie Hermann. He met his wife, Alma Maria Schindler,in 1901. She was the daughter of
the celebrated 'court' painter Anton Schindler. Another painter, Karl Moll, equally well-
known in Vienna at the time, became her stepfather. Alma became pregnant before their
marriage. She outlived her first husband by over fifty years, and came to marry two other
men, Walter Gropius the architect and Franz Werfel the novelist. It is said that one of the
deepest attachments of her life was to Oscar Kokoschka. Gustav Mahler died in 1911 and
Alma in 1964 at the age of eighty-five.


What The Critics Said
"Whatever we may think of the musical ideas of the First Symphony, and the best that can
be said of them is that they are infantile in their simplicity, there was no doubt that he
believed in them and thought them strong enough to bear all the weight which a big scheme
involving much repetition and a big orchestra throws upon them - . This faith in himself
made him treat his own trivial ideas with an absurd seriousness, yet along with it went a
certain humour which sometimes succeeded in making his hearers suppose him to be
serious when he was laughing, for he was like a man who makes a little joke in a bass voice
and without a twinkle. Such a man has no right to complain if he is voted a bore."
(The Times, London, January 1913)
"If Mahler's music spoke Yiddish I would, perhaps, find it incomprehensible. What I find
SO repulsive about it is that it acts Yiddish. That is, it speaks German, but with the accent,
the inflection and, more than anything else, the gesticulations of an all-too-Eastern Jew.
But nobody has to be repelled by Mahler's musical personality to realise the emptiness, the
complete vacuity, of an art in which spasms of would-be Titanesque grandeur turn out to
be nothing more than the emotional satisfactions of a sentimental seamstress. c6 (Rudolf
Louis, 1909)
"The Adagio (of the Fourth Symphony) is harmless enough; but suddenly we are intro-
duced to a circus scene. This may be a not unwelcome diversion for some; but without
wishing to be traditional or pedanctic, we cannot but remark that for us it was a shock and
an unpleasant one . Portions of the Adagio could be used by pleasure steamers on the
Danube. A (Musical Courier, New York, 1902)
"No conductor is less concerned with the pictorial impression he makes upon the listeners,
or is more concentrated upon the business of the orchestra than Mr. Mahler. He has
absolutely none of the graces, none of the poses or ornate, unnecessary gestures of the
'prima donna' conductor as he stands upon the platform, short in stature without distinc-
tion of figure or manner, with left hand occasionally thrust into his pocket. His beat is
usually short, decisive and very clear: his motions are all for the orchestra, without graphic
or picturesque significance for the eye of the listener. But the intense energy, the keenness
and penetration, the force and authority of the man wereanelectricstimulustothe players:
(Richard Aldridge, New York, 1908)


Richard Strauss
"II have made a very attractive new acquaintance, Herr Mahler, who appears to be a highly
intelligent musician and conductor; he is one of the few modern conductors who under-
stands tempo modification, and he expressed splendid ideas generally, particularly about
Wagner's tempi (opposed to those of the accepted Wagner conductors of today)"(to Hans
von Bulow, November 1887)
"Mahler's death was a great blow to me. Now you'll find that even the Viennese will
realise that Mahler was a great man. 66 (to Hugo von Hofmannsthal, May 1911)
1 INRIURURIENT
NE BEUT
A0 ISBAREEMIEAE Theater andintidisaars
The Summer Theatre at Bad Hall,
where Mahler's career as a conductor began.


Mahler Quotes
"As a human being I'm prepared to make every concession. As an artist, I make none.
Anybody who fears he might lose a battle has already lost it. 66
"My Sixth will represent riddles to the solution of which only a generation which has
previously absorbed and understood my first five symphonies will have the courage to
applyitself. A
"Symphony, to me, means using all the available techniques to build a world."
"The most important things about music are not in the notes. 6
"Spitting on the floor won't make a Beethoven of you. i (to Alma, after she had asked him
why he bought expensive clothes)
"One can hardly believe how low the requirements of most conductors have become. Their
chief eagerness is to get the beat right: phrasing is a complete mystery to them, and the idea
of declamation gets lost in the process of time-beating. That is why they go SO wrong over
tempi, because it hasn't yet dawned on them that it is the tempo which brings a work to
life, to creative fulfilment. It takes a mature, highly conscious being, capable of thought
and feeling, to solve the conductor's problems,one who can think and feel as the composer
thought and felt when he created the work."
"When Il bang my head into a wall, it's the wall that gives way. 66
"The rough edges of a man's personality, which he tries to smooth down, are usually the
best part of him.
"What people call tradition is slovenliness."
"I must have some practical outlet for my musical abilities to balance the great inner
experiences of my creative work. G6 (Mahler referring to his conducting)
"Iwould prefer any life to that of a conductor. 66


"For me even the bassoon and the bass tuba, even the timpani, must sing. 66
"Since Beethoven's day there is no modern music that does not contain an inner pro-
gramme. But if somebody has to explain to the listener what it means, the music is
valueless."
"Strauss and I are two miners tunnelling from opposite sides of a mountain. One day we
shall meet in the middle. c6
"You admire Madame Mildenburg as the greatest dramatic soprano of our day. She wasn't
always like that. As a beginner she was clumsy, almost wooden. Itaught her to watch every
action she made, every gesture and every expression, in a mirror, as part of her musical
training. To teach her to achieve a graceful carriage, I made her take walks without an
umbrella, a muff or anything in her hands. I asked her to do physical exercises every night
and morning. 66
DEA
fitt titt Rite


hly
Zurtaclian I
wnue
My five sill


Maurice Rowdon's
Mahler
studiotheater
Gunnar Holm-Petersen


Mahler on his way tot the United States in 1910.


Brendan Donnison Ruth Cameron
Mahler
written and directed
Maurice Rowdon
Set by Egon Strasser Electronic music by Morgan Fisher
European Première April 3 1976
A Studiotheater Munich Production
Programme Karin Leyk


Stage Manager
J.Drew Lucas
Sound Mixer
Mike Thatcher
Miss Cameron's hair styled by
The English Haircutters
Make-up by
RobertJakob
Miss Cameron's Costumes by
Barbara Jacoby and Mira Prus
Studiotheater Munich wishes to thank Wilfried Hiller and Andreas Elsner for their patient
help in constructing the sound-track.
MAHLER was first performed in London in February 1973 at the Arts Theatre,
Leicester Square.
Mahler with his sister Justine.


Brendan Donnison, was born in Sheffield, England, and played the lead-role in HAIR
in Munich and other German cities. In JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR he was Annas. He
joined the San Quentin Theater Workshop under Ricky Cluchy and played Ham in
Beckett's ENDGAME at the Edinburgh Festival, and THE WALL IS MAMA at the ICA in
London. With the Monsieur Artaud Theater he played with Sally Willis and Michael Almaz
in SAILOR. He played Harry in Charles Dyer's STAIRCASE and Captain Ahab in the
BBC'sp production of MOBYDICK.
Ruth Cameron, is from Vancouver, Canada, and studied Drama at the University of
British Columbia. She has been working in Munich theater for some years and has played
in Albee's THE AMERICAN DREAM, Kenneth Cameron's THE HUNDRED AND FIRST,
and Joe Orten's RUFFIAN ON THE STAIR. For her performance in Beckett's HAPPY
DAYSin 1975 she was chosen 'Starofthe Week'by the Abendzeitung, Munich.


Maurice Rowdon, author of MAHLER, is director of English productions at the Studio-
theater Munich. He was born in London and has lived a great part of his life in Italy. Apart
from his work in the theatre he has published many books on various aspects of Italian life
and the Renaissance, and has frequently drawn on these for his dramatic subjects. His BBC
film THE FALL OF VENICE was based on his book of that name, dealing with the last
hundred years of the Serenissima's existence, and his one-man show BLACK BOBIN
(world première Studiotheater Munich June 1976) draws largely on his study of Spanish
imperialism in the sixteenth century, THE SPANISH TERROR.
Morgan Fisher, composer of the electronic pre-curtain music (based on the trumpet-
theme of Mahler's Fifth Symphony and the cowbells of the Sixth which Mahler also
incorporated into his work) is pianist in the famous Mott the Hoople group which recently
returned from a successful tour of the United States. For some time now Morgan Fisher
has begun to interest himself in the theatre as a composer of atmosphere-music and effects.
He wrote the Mahler music especially for the Studiotheater Munich production.
J.Drew Lucas, who stage-manages MAHLER, studied and acted in The Players Work-
shop both in New York and Munich. He played Jerry in Albee's ZOO STORY. In New York
he has also played with the La Mama Workshop and at the Old Reliable Theater. In Munich
he has played in Ionesco's DIE KAHLE SANGERIN, at the Freies Theater Minchen, and
in 1975 he was on tour with Vienna's English Theatre Group.


Gustav Mahler, director of the Vienna State Opera at the turn of the century, only
attained worldwide recognition as a great composer in the 1960s, a half-century after his
death. He was born at Kaliste in Bohemia on July 7 1860, the son of Bernard Mahler and
Marie Hermann. He met his wife, Alma Maria Schindler,in 1901. She was the daughter of
the celebrated 'court' painter Anton Schindler. Another painter, Karl Moll, equally well-
known in Vienna at the time, became her stepfather. Alma became pregnant before their
marriage. She outlived her first husband by over fifty years, and came to marry two other
men, Walter Gropius the architect and Franz Werfel the novelist. It is said that one of the
deepest attachments of her life was to Oscar Kokoschka. Gustav Mahler died in 1911 and
Alma in 1964 at the age of eighty-five.


What The Critics Said
"Whatever we may think of the musical ideas of the First Symphony, and the best that can
be said of them is that they are infantile in their simplicity, there was no doubt that he
believed in them and thought them strong enough to bear all the weight which a big scheme
involving much repetition and a big orchestra throws upon them . This faith in himself
made him treat his own trivial ideas with an absurd seriousness, yet along with it went a
certain humour which sometimes succeeded in making his hearers suppose him to be
serious when he was laughing, for he was like a man who makes a little joke in a bass voice
and without a twinkle. Such a man has no right to complain if he is voted a bore."
(The Times, London, January 1913)
"If Mahler's music spoke Yiddish I would, perhaps, find it incomprehensible. What I find
SO repulsive about it is that it acts Yiddish. That is, it speaks German, but with the accent,
the inflection and, more than anything else, the gesticulations of an all-too-Eastern Jew.
But nobody has to be repelled by Mahler's musical personality to realise the emptiness, the
complete vacuity, of an art in which spasms of would-be Titanesque grandeur turn out to
be nothing more than the emotional satisfactions of a sentimental seamstress. 66 (Rudolf
Louis, 1909)
"The Adagio (of the Fourth Symphony) is harmless enough; but suddenly we are intro-
duced to a circus scene. This may be a not unwelcome diversion for some; but without
wishing to be traditional or pedanctic, we cannot but remark that for us it was a shock and
an unpleasant one - Portions of the Adagio could be used by pleasure steamers on the
Danube. 6 (Musical Courier, New York, 1902)
"No conductor is less concerned with the pictorial impression he makes upon the listeners,
or is more concentrated upon the business of the orchestra than Mr. Mahler. He has
absolutely none of the graces, none of the poses or ornate, unnecessary gestures of the
'prima donna' conductor as he stands upon the platform, short in stature without distinc-
tion of figure or manner, with left hand occasionally thrust into his pocket. His beat is
usually short, decisive and very clear: his motions are all for the orchestra, without graphic
or picturesque significance for the eye of the listener. But the intense energy, the keenness
and penetration, the force and authority of the man wereanelectricstimulustothe players:
(Richard Aldridge, New York, 1908)


Richard Strauss
"I have made a very attractive new acquaintance, Herr Mahler, who appears to be a highly
intelligent musician and conductor; he is one of the few modern conductors who under-
stands tempo modification, and he expressed splendid ideas generally, particularly about
Wagner's tempi (opposed to those of the accepted Wagner conductors of today)"(to Hans
von Bulow, November 1887)
"Mahler's death was a great blow to me. Now you'll find that even the Viennese will
realise that Mahler was a great man. (6 (to Hugo von Hofmannsthal, May 1911)
L il INELUEURIEIE Thealer SUANERNNTENN
Si isihalemia
anduntiteslan
The Summer' Theatre at Bad Hall,
where Mahler's 's career as a conductor began.


Mahler Quotes
"As a human being I'm prepared to make every concession. As an artist, I make none.
Anybody who fears he might lose a battle has already lost it. 66
"My Sixth will represent riddles to the solution of which only a generation which has
previously absorbed and understood my first five symphonies will have the courage to
applyitself."
"Symphony, to me, means using all the available techniques to build a world."
"The most important things about music are not in the notes. 6
"Spitting on the floor won't make a Beethoven of you. 66 (to Alma, after she had asked him
why he bought expensive clothes)
"One can hardly believe how low the requirements of most conductors have become. Their
chief eagerness is to get the beat right: phrasing is a complete mystery to them, and the idea
of declamation gets lost in the process of time-beating. That is why they go SO wrong over
tempi, because it hasn't yet dawned on them that it is the tempo which brings a work to
life, to creative fulfilment. It takes a mature, highly conscious being, capable of thought
and feeling, to solve the conductor's problems,one who can think and feel as the composer
thought and felt when he created the work. c6
"When I bang my head into a wall, it's the wall that gives way. <6
"The rough edges of a man's personality, which he tries to smooth down, are usually the
best part of him. 66
"What people call tradition is slovenliness. (6
"I must have some practical outlet for my musical abilities to balance the great inner
experiences of my creative work. c6 (Mahler referring to his conducting)
"I would prefer any life to that of a conductor. 66


"For me even the bassoon and the bass tuba, even the timpani, must sing.' 6
"Since Beethoven's day there is no modern music that does not contain an inner pro-
gramme. But if somebody has to explain to the listener what it means, the music is
valueless.' (6
"Strauss and I are two miners tunnelling from opposite sides of a mountain. One day we
shall meet in the middle."
"You admire Madame Mildenburg as the greatest dramatic soprano of our day. She wasn't
always like that. As a beginner she was clumsy, almost wooden. I taught her to watch every
action she made, every gesture and every expression, in a mirror, as part of her musical
training. To teach her to achieve a graceful carriage, I made her take walks without an
umbrella, a muff or anything in her hands. I asked her to do physical exercises every night
and morning. 6
fu1t titte fent


hlip
Lurtardin I
finve will wmue


studioth neater
GUNNAR HOLM PETERSEN
IM FUCHSBAU
FROM APR. 3-29
MUNCHEN-SCHWABING
DAILY AT 8 p.m.
UNGERERSTRASSE 19
TICKETS FROM
Enghia!
MAHLER
A PLAY BY MAURICE ROWDON
WITH BRENDAN DONNISON + RUTH CAMERON
AS GUSTAV
AS ALMA
DIRECTED
SET
THE AUTHOR
EGON STRASSER


A rehearsal-photo from MAHLER showing author-director
Maurice Rowdon with Ruth Cameron (Alma) and Brendan
Donnison (Gustav). MAHLER had its world-premiere in London
in 1973 and is being performed for the first time in Europe at
the Studiotheater. Maurice Rowdon is the author of many books
and plays, and lives in Italy.


"For me even the bassoon and the bass tuba, even the timpani, must sing. 66
"Since Beethoven's day there is no modern music that does not contain an inner pro-
gramme. But if somebody has to explain to the listener what it means, the music is
valueless.' 66
"Strauss and I are two miners tunnelling from opposite sides of a mountain. One day we
shall meet in the middle."
"You admire Madame Mildenburg as the greatest dramatic soprano of our day. She wasn't
always like that. As a beginner she was clumsy, almost wooden. I taught her to watch every
action she made, every gesture and every expression, in a mirror, as part of her musical
training. To teach her to achieve a graceful carriage, I made her take walks without an
umbrella, a muff or anything in her hands. I asked her to do physical exercises every night
and morning. C6
tu thith e


hly
Lurtaclian I
My five will conue


studioth neater
GUNNAR HOLM PETERSEN
IM FUCHSBAU
FROM APR. 3-29
MUNCHEN-SCHWABING
DAILY AT 8 p.m.
UNGERERSTRASSE 19
TICKETS FROM
Enghia!
MAHLER
A PLAY BY MAURICE ROWDON
WITH BRENDAN DONNISON + RUTH CAMERON
AS GUSTAV
AS ALMA
DIRECTED
SET
THE AUTHOR
EGON STRASSER


A rehearsal-photo from MAHLER showing author-director
Maurice Rowdon with Ruth Cameron (Alma) and Brendan
Donnison (Gustav). MAHLER had its world-premiere in London
in 1973 and is being performed for the first time in Europe at
the Studiotheater. Maurice Rowdon is the author of many books
and plays, and lives in Italy.