Mahler may or may not have subtitled it "Tragic" at some stage of its composition, and it could, possibly, contain music that consecrates and depicts his wife Alma.
What would have been a raucous summer show turned tragic, with fallen stage lighting crushing the 33-year-old to death.
The most famous living Pop star in the world drops of cardiac arrest while rehearsing for the biggest "come back" tour in history, never making it to the stage, tragic timing for a life both extraordinary and horrific all at once.
There have been both tragic and bright stages in our history.
History takes on aspects comic and tragic on New York stages this week, in a particularly intriguing slate of new plays.
The strange summer of Anthony D. Weiner is about to have its curtain call: "The Weiner Monologues," a play that imagines the erstwhile congressman and mayoral candidate as a tragic hero of the stage, will make its Off Off Broadway debut next month.
In the new biography "Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Icon," the authors Tayannah Lee McQuillar and Fred L. Johnson III write about the rapper's struggles in mythic terms, likening his story to those of Richard III, Willy Loman and other tragic figures of the stage.
Hall calls it "community theatre", noting that "many of the spectators would have performed in a tragic chorus at some stage in their lives, probably when they were young men; numerous others would be proudly watching one of their brothers, sons, nephews, grandsons or neighbours performing".
So, for example, theatre audiences derive enjoyment from the eliciting of their natural compassion by a tragic scene on the stage; then, convinced of their natural goodness, they are freed to act viciously outside the theater.
Jessica Tandy played the tragic Blanche DuBois in the stage version, but the film role went to Vivien Leigh, who had appeared in the play in London.
