|
4a 1964 ALMA, YOU HAVE NOT LIVED!
>
download Word-Doc
December 11th, 1964. The day of Alma's death. Alma meets
her former husband, Walter Gropius, and doesn't recognise
him after many years of separation. Alma is 85, half blind
as a result of her diabetes, and almost deaf.
U.S. ALMA Will
you help me, young man, will you, please, help me? Can you
assist me in finding my way out of this place? I want to get
to Vienna, you know, but the nurse refuses to let me go. Could
you perhaps take me there?
GROPIUS Vienna?
Why Vienna of all places? What would you like to do there?
U.S. ALMA I
want to find eternal peace near my beautiful and dearly beloved
daughter Manon. She's lying there, in Grinzing cemetery in
Vienna. And I'd also like to go to Mahler's grave, once I
am there. They wanted to bury me there too, beside Mahler,
my first husband, and then in California, near Franz, my last
husband. But I've had enough of my husbands. I couldn't stand
their smell when they were still alive, so just imagine what
it must be like now that they're dead. No, no, I want to find
my eternal peace near my beautiful and dearly beloved daughter,
Manon. She's the only one of all my children who resembled
me. No wonder. Two young Aryan gods found one another, and
she was the fruit of that ecstasy. She's lying there, in the
cemetery at Grinzing. »A la recherche du temps perdu«!
I'd like to look down on the city that once lay at my feet!
Werfel was always the worst when it came to stinking. No,
Zemlinsky was even worse. Always unwashed, smelling like a
coffee-house, half smoke, half sweat. But what a character,
a great character! Undoubtedly a genius!
A nurse (Alma 1) joins them.
NURSE And
Gustav Mahler?
U.S. ALMA Gustav
Mahler? My first husband? You know him? He stank too. And
how! You must know his name? He's become very famous in the
last few years. Very famous! An American conductor, a certain
Leonard Bernstein, another Jew, of course, made his music
very popular.
NURSE Leonard
Bernstein, the composer of West Side Story?
U.S. ALMA Yes!
Yes! He made Mahler's music popular. Very popular! Very popular!
They play his symphonies almost as often as they play Beethoven.
It's unbelievable what a revival he is going through. You
can't go to a concert these days without hearing a symphony
by Gostamalah. He's become a 20th century genius. The prophet
of modernism. And his reputation grows every day day, every
hour. The Adagio from his Fifth Symphony was the only thing
that made Visconti's »Death in Venice« reasonably
bearable.
The nurse accompanies U.S. Alma until they suddenly hear
music. They arrive at a room in which Gustav Mahler and Bruno
Walter(Almaniac) are at the "Announcement of Marriage".
U.S. ALMA Hello!
Is anybody around? - Who's there? What's all that noise ?
ALMANIAC It's
music.
U.S. ALMA What?!
What did you say? Can you speak up? I can't hear you! - Who
are you looking for?
ALMANIAC Nobody...
U.S. ALMA What
nonsense , you silly little man? - Turn on the light.
ALMANIAC The
light is on.
U.S. ALMA What?
NURSE The
light is on!!
U.S. ALMA Don't
shout. I'm not deaf! I just can't see, that's all.
ALMANIAC Maybe
there's something wrong with your eyes.
U.S. ALMA With
what?
NURSE With
your eyes! Your eyes!
U.S. ALMA Ah!
My eyes! Yes! My eyes... Of course! They used to call me »The
blue-eyed siren !«
MAHLER »The
blue-eyed siren «? Wait a minute...
U.S. ALMA My
eyes aren't what they used to be any more. They say I've got
diabetes, but that's rubbish. I can't have diabetes. That's
a Jewish disease, and in spite of all those sour little Jews
who clung to me all my life like flies to a pot of honey,
Jewishness is still not contagious, thank God! (sings to the
strains of “Falling in Love Again” from “The
Blue Angel”:) »Jews flock to me like moths flock
to a light, and if they get burned, it is not my fault.«
MAHLER Wait
a minute! I know this!
U.S. ALMA That's
a song, too, which I could have written. If I'd been allowed
to…!
MAHLER Alma?
U.S. ALMA Yes?
NURSE Yes?
MAHLER My
God! Is that you?
The nurse (Alma 1) puts down her doctor's gown and stethoscope
and leaves the room to "Dead Friends", together
with the Almaniac (Bruno Walter).
U.S. ALMA Eh?
What are you grumbling about there in the dark? If you want
me to hear you, speak up ! My hearing was never too sharp,
but in the last few years it's really become awful.
MAHLER Alma?
U.S. ALMA Eh?
MAHLER My
God! Is that you?
U.S. ALMA Young
man, you can't talk to me like that!
MAHLER Alma,
my God, look at me.
U.S. ALMA I
told you: I can't see anything.
MAHLER Don't
you remember my voice?
U.S. ALMA Your
what?
MAHLER Oh
God, oh Time! The Devil's trickster. What ugly jokes you play
on us, poor mortals. To see this skin which was once smoother
than the finest silk, now tattered like a worn-out rag, hanging
loose from that arrogant, haughty chin...
U.S. ALMA Who
is the author of this nice poem, young man?
MAHLER »Young
man«… - What an irony of fate! You were only 32
and I was already 52 the day I died, and now you call me a
young man! Was it a joke, all the suffering, all our life,
nothing but a silly joke?
U.S. ALMA Eh?
What are you mumbling about ? I can hardly hear you.
MAHLER I
am Gustav.
U.S. ALMA Who
are you?
MAHLER Gustav!
I am Gustav!
U.S. ALMA You're
Gustav? What a coincidence! My first husband was called Gustav
too.
MAHLER Almschili!
I am Gustav, your first husband.
U.S. ALMA Gustav
the first...
MAHLER Your
first husband, Gustav!
U.S. ALMA Are
you out of your mind?
MAHLER Alma!
- Almschi! - Almschili!
U.S. ALMA Sit
down. Sit down. Stop babbling, will you?! - Let me touch you.
Give me your hand. I don't understand. Show me. Show me. These
hands, these wonderful hands. May I examine them? These sinewy
fingers, the flat tips, the prominent nails. Yes. Yes. Yes.
It's him! It's him! It's him! It's him! Oh God!
MAHLER Oh
Alma!
U.S. ALMA It's
simply beyond belief! That smell! I'll never forget it. -
Are you still avoiding perfume?
MAHLER You
know I hate perfume.
U.S. ALMA But
still: you smell better than when you were alive! That's a
nice surprise. So long after your death! That's pretty unusual,
isn't it? It's been fifty-three years since the day you died.
So many things have happened in our world since then!
MAHLER So
they are playing my symphonies!
U.S. ALMA More
than ever.
MAHLER And
the critics?
U.S. ALMA What
critics?
MAHLER My
critics, of course! August Beer, for instance.
U.S. ALMA August
who?
MAHLER Beer.
- The one who claimed that my technical abilities hindered
rather than assisted me when it came to composing... That
I'm staggering with virtuosity... That all that's good in
my work has been borrowed from Richard Wagner and Berlioz...
The famous critic, August Beer, you must remember him…!
U.S. ALMA Are
you sure that such a person ever existed?
MAHLER Of
course! He was one of my bitterest enemies!
U.S. ALMA No
one remembers him any more.
MAHLER Or
that other guy, what's his name… that dreadfully arrogant
pig. He was feared in New York. »The drooling and emasculated
simplicity of Gustav Mahler! It is not fair to take up the
reader's time with a detailed description of that musical
monstrosity which masquerades under the title of Mahler's
Fourth Symphony. There is nothing in the design, content or
execution of the work to impress the musician, except its
grotesqueness. To the writer of the present review it was
an hour or more of the most painful torture he has been compelled
to endure.« Surely you can't have forgotten that, Alma!
Remember how angry you were back then!
U.S. ALMA I
was never angry in New York. I was only angry in California.
MAHLER What
was the name of that guy...? Kevin I think, Kevin Rich...
Or Kevin Glove. What's become of him?
U.S. ALMA I
don't remember such a name.
MAHLER He
was the star critic of the New York Musical Courier.
U.S. ALMA I
don't think the paper exists any more either.
MAHLER Do
you remember that other funny guy, the critic from the Boston
Daily Advertiser, what's his name, Carlson or Elison or something,
who wrote a review in the form of a satirical poem after listening
to my 5th Symphony? »Great praise the big brass tubas
won, and kettle-drums, I ween. Why, 'twas an ugly thing, said
little Wilhelmine. Nay, that you must not say, quoth he, it
is a famous symphony!» Why does one always have to tolerate
being pissed on? Am I a lamp-post? - Elson, that's him! Now
I remember: Louis Elson.
U.S. ALMA You
are certainly the only one in the entire universe to remember
that idiot. nowadays nobody cares about the whole bunch of
them.
MAHLER I
do. It's my life! My life!!
U.S. ALMA Forget
them, and they'll be deleted from the memory of mankind!
MAHLER They
tried to kill me!!
U.S. ALMA They
are dead and forgotten! All your enemies turned to dust, and
you are alive, Gustav. You're alive and kicking. In the last
ten years your fame has grown from day to day! You have become
the most famous modern composer! You have become a 20th century
genius. A prophet of modernism! And your reputation grows
every day, every hour. The Adagio from your 5th Symphony was
the only thing that made Visconti's »Death in Venice«
reasonably bearable.
MAHLER Alma,
I'm so happy to hear that my music has been recognised. I'm
truly delighted to have become so famous and successful. But
did all this finally make you love me?
Silence.
U.S. ALMA Is
that all that matters to you now, fifty-three years after
your death?
MAHLER Almschili,
though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and I
have no love, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all truth
so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
nothing.
U.S. ALMA Why
do you say this to me?
MAHLER Almschili,
don't you know that love never faileth, and what faileth is
not love? But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.
Whether there be tongues they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away. - When I was a child, I spoke
as child, I understood as a child, I thought like a child.
But when I became a man I put away childish things: For now
we see through a glass, darkly: but then face to face. Now
I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three: but the greatest
of these is love.
U.S. ALMA Good
God, why do you keep telling me all this?
MAHLER Alma,
you have lived a whole life, you always stood in the front
line, you have experienced everything that life can offer,
you have been loved by the most passionate men - and all you
did was let them love you. Alma, you haven't lived.
U.S. ALMA Wait
a minute! Where are you going?
MAHLER I'm
going to write my 10th Symphony.
|
