The MGM logo: a hand-drawn cartoon of Mahler at the podium, glaring at the audience

Main heading: The Music of Gustav Mahler: A Catalogue of Manuscript and Printed Sources [rule] Paul Banks

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1	See John Tyrrell, Janáček: Years of a Life, vol. II (1914–28) (London: faber and faber, 2007), passim.
2	To date I have been unable to locate this passage in HLG1a.

Opera Project (1901)

Unknown

[1901]

Unknown

Unknown

None

None

The only published reference to Mahler's continuing (though underwhelming) interest in composing an opera is a brief reference by Henry-Louis de La Grange (HLG1, 716; 949, n. 10):

According to a very reliable source, Mahler did not give up the idea of writing an opera after 1888 and was still discussing another such project with his childhood friend, the lawyer Emil Freund, as late as 1901.

The 'very reliable' source of this information was Vilma Löwenbach (née Zucker, 16 May 1891–26 April 1975). Her family were close friends of Emil Freund, and apparently she received this information from him. Her husband, Jan Johann Löwenbach (29 April 1880–13 August 1972), was a Czech copyright lawyer, music critic and librettist who was connected with the music publisher Hudební matice and in later years acted on behalf of Leoš Janáček.¹

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HLG1, 716, 949 n. 10²