Karen Cargill and the SCO to tackle the enigmatic Alma Mahler

Muse, inspiration, seductress, femme fatale, anti-Semite... take your pick from the collection of epithets often attached to Alma Mahler – née Schindler, though she’s invariably known by the surname of the first of her three husbands, Gustav Mahler. Alma is a figure of legend, with a larger-than-life reputation – a Viennese grande dame who lived through two world wars and held some of Europe’s most famous and influential cultural names as her confidants, and sometimes a lot closer than that.