In the intimate yet demanding tradition of the monodrama, where a single voice must sustain an entire dramatic universe, Bulgarian composer Lyubomir Denev’s opera “Alma” arrives in Manhattan as a highly anticipated cultural fixture.

Performed on Oct. 17 at The Theatre at St. Jean (150 East 76th Street), the production will carry a distinct local flavor with a libretto penned by fellow musician and New Yorker, Gergan Tzenov. The piece reimagines the inner life of Alma Mahler at a pivotal moment when her own creative aspirations collided with the suffocating expectations of her celebrated marriage to Gustav Mahler and her tumultuous affair with Oskar Kokoschka.

Connoisseurs familiar with Arnold Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” (1909/1924) and Francis Poulenc’s “La Voix humaine” (1958/1959) will recognize the psychological terrain: the heroine’s labyrinthine anxieties, the fog of unresolved longing, and the quiet desperation of an artist stifled by history. Yet Denev and Tzenov broaden the canvas. Rather than focusing on a single night of crisis, they trace a lifetime of deferred ambition. Alma’s complex history—and her ultimate journey across the Atlantic to find refuge in New York City—becomes the dramatic engine of her restless wandering.

Musically, Denev’s score is a model of sonic nuance and theatrical economy. Written for a chamber ensemble, the music glides fluidly between late-Romantic lyricism—echoing the opulent, Mahler-inflected string cantilenas that conjure Alma’s Viennese youth—and sharper modernist edges of harmonic ambiguity. These contrasts mirror the emotional turbulence of its subject with remarkable precision: soaring vocal lines give voice to suppressed creative longing, while fragmented, speech-like declamation captures moments of inner crisis.

While the opera’s world premiere at the Ruse State Opera featured a commanding performance by mezzo-soprano Maria Helgath, the upcoming New York premiere will introduce a fresh interpretation of this formidable role. The transition to a new solo voice brings an exciting element of suspense to the Upper East Side staging, offering New York opera audiences a completely unique, localized debut of Alma’s psychological portrait.

Ahead of the New York engagement, audiences can glimpse the production’s atmosphere via the filmed world premiere streaming on YouTube (featuring the Ruse State Opera ensemble).