# Opera wedding choruses or istrumentals



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I just realised, that "Here comes the bride", the most popular wedding chorus, is from the opera, where the actual marriage ends catastrophically before it even starts. 

What are the other opera-based alternatives for vocal or instrumental wedding music ? How does the wedding turn out in the operatic universe ?


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I know quite nice wedding chorus in Bellini's La Straniera, but they probably do not make it even to the oaths (or do they ?) before the groom runs away from the altar and commits suicide in 5 minutes or so 

In Rusalka, there is a chorus singing about the road decorated by white flowers and also the pollonaise. But the relationship cannot be recommended either.

My parents had a celebratory march from Aida at their wedding. Mind you, not the ballet music with the captive slaves, it was something else, with the bass in it. My parents' wedding was reasonably good, considering...


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

There's a Chorus of Professional Bridesmaids in Gilbert & Sullivan's _Ruddigore_, and it doesn't take much to set them off


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Bridesmaid's chorus from Freischütz ("Wir winden dir den Jungfernkranz"); it's not yet the wedding that is going to be postponed anyway, more "rehearsal". Not sure if it was commonly used for weddings but it used to be a very popular.
The Mendelssohn is about as famous as Lohengrin but it's not an opera. (Another very nice one, purely instrumental, IIRC composed for a wedding anniversary, is Grieg's "Wedding day at Troldhaugen"). Figaro has a brief chorus and the fandango but neither became popular outside this opera.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I heard Les Troyens - Marche Troyenne," by Hector Berlioz once plated by strings at a wedding , sounded profound .


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I've always wondered that about the Lohengrin chorus (seeing how things end in the opera it seems rather inappropriate).

I've often thought that the duet 'Prendi l'anel ti dono' would work sung at a wedding if you knew singers that could do it justice.

N.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Why should anyone care about the actual content of the opera when using the bridal march/chorus?


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Kreisler jr said:


> Why should anyone care about the actual content of the opera when using the bridal march/chorus?


Ultimately they shouldn't. However, weddings are occasions that invite a natural tendency to lean towards superstition. I believe the tradition of having the Lohengrin bridal march was started by the British royal family in Victorian times and I'd have expected them to be more superstitious.

N.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Rogerx said:


> I heard Les Troyens - Marche Troyenne," by Hector Berlioz once plated by strings at a wedding , sounded profound .


"Dieux protecteurs... "? Really?


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I vespri siciliani, Elena's bolero precedes the attempt of a wedding.
Lucía...
Kitezh contains preparatory songs (but the marriage is done in a surrealistic paradise).
The tale of Tzar Saltan ends with a wedding and nobody dies.
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk includes a wedding party, not the best example.
Incoronazione di Poppea ends with a love duet, but all that precedes it and the afterlife of the couple...
Nino Rota's Il cappello di paglia di Firenze is an endless wedding day.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

ColdGenius said:


> "Dieux protecteurs... "? Really?


As I said so, so yes .


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

The funny suggestion I read years ago was to take the 4th movement from Symphonie Fantastique


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

It was a fatal mistake not to mention a duet of Zerlina and Masetto with chorus from Don Giovanni.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

In the 3rd-Act Finale to _Nozze di Figaro_ a three-way dispute among Figaro, the Count, and Antonio is interrupted when "a Spanish march is heard in the distance"; everyone but the Count and Countess leave, and then, as the march draws nearer, re-enter in a formal procession of all the Count's "dependents" to present and array the two brides--Susanna and Marcellina--and receive the Count's formal "protection". Two peasant girls, then the chorus, sing a [barbed] song in praise of the Count's virtue in ensuring the chastity of young women in his domain, a fandango is danced, then the chorus is reprised -- and the wedding takes place offstage, between Acts.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

The wedding celebratory music after B.F Pinkerton and Cio Cio San have sealed their vows was "O Kami, O kami..."

Also, there is a beautiful wedding toast made by Micaele in _The Saint of Bleecker Street_.


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