So *that's* Alma!
Watched a two part show on Gustav Mahler, and in the second half they finally got to his marriage. She really was quite a catch: young, smart, talented, and very pretty. No surprise that he felt threatened, and told her that she would have to stop composing after they married (good God, man, you're twice her age; you ought to have your shit more together than that. She should have told him to grow a pair, but things were different back then). He finally realized his mistake (of course AFTER the marriage started to break down - see below) but to my mind too little, too late.
They had a few good years, then everything went sour. Their oldest daughter got sick and died; he lost his job in Vienna (not that the Viennese were too upset about that; despite all the good he'd done, he was still seen as that odd little Jew), and Alma started an affair with Walter Gropius of the Bauhaus school, possibly to deal with her own grief. Sure, he found another job in the States and wrote some poignant late works, but he was a broken man in bad health, and within a decade of marrying Alma he was dead at age 50.
Despite taking a traditional woman's role in many aspects, Alma still remained her own woman, and carved a swath through the artistic men of Europe. Kudos to her.
They had a few good years, then everything went sour. Their oldest daughter got sick and died; he lost his job in Vienna (not that the Viennese were too upset about that; despite all the good he'd done, he was still seen as that odd little Jew), and Alma started an affair with Walter Gropius of the Bauhaus school, possibly to deal with her own grief. Sure, he found another job in the States and wrote some poignant late works, but he was a broken man in bad health, and within a decade of marrying Alma he was dead at age 50.
Despite taking a traditional woman's role in many aspects, Alma still remained her own woman, and carved a swath through the artistic men of Europe. Kudos to her.
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