Austria in the news: Just last week, there was the good Gov. Schwarzenegger, telling the GOP convention that after he left "Socialist Austria," he was attracted to the party by discovering (in translation) the "fresh voice" of Richard Nixon. And now, there is the play "Alma," coming to LA and NYC, with the music of Gustav Mahler, "a sumptuous buffet-dinner during the interval with Austrian specialities, sweets and a special `Alma'-wine from Spain, which is part of the performance, and included in the ticket price" of $125. Alma Schindler Gropius Werfel (Kokoschka Klimt Zemlinsky) Mahler, subject of a not-so-hot movie recently, has inspired Israeli author Joshua Sobol eight years ago to write a "polydrama, with various plot elements running in parallel." After seven years of touring in Europe, it's time for the New World. The announcement for the play's opening in the Los Angeles Theater on Sept. 23 says it is "more than a theater play, it is an act of watching lives being lived, the life of enchantress and devourer of genius. It's theater that smells of life itself." (The last sentence almost certainly the result of translation from the German.) That "sumptuous Austrian buffet" is actually a funeral banquet, marking the death of Mahler, who dies in the play just before intermission. I haven't quite figured this out, so here's the description from the producers: "When Mahler dies at half-time, his funeral banquet can be followed interactively to his music, and the spectators are subsequently invited to the buffet." Interactive food with Mahler's music? This I've got to see! Last year, the press release says, "Alma" was performed in Lisbon, "Alma's last station in Europe after her escape from Nazi Germany in 1940. The more than 50 scenes of Alma's life were shown in a 17th century monastery, including a church and a beautiful palm garden. Again the success was enormous. A real Alma-audience had developed, one fanatical fan set a record of attending 73 Alma-performances and followed his heroine over the Austrian border." Just like Arnold, although he must have been motivated by other factors. An important aspect of all this is the reopening of the Los Angeles Theater, a 1931 edifice, with "a Baroque auditorium teeming with golden angels, cherubs, and flowery swags... It has a rich restaurant space... glass-ceiling ballroom... marble-lined ladies room... circus-motif playroom..." Take a look: http://www.alma-mahler.at/engl/info_hollywood/spielort.html Janos Gereben www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]