As I told you yesterday, I was listening to Wagner’s Lohengrin. The most famous part of the opera is the bridal chorus (“Brautlied”) at the beginning of Act 3, which is – in defiance of the actual text – often referred to as “Here comes the bride”. I think, everyone has already heard this song. As television suggests, it is performed at nearly every wedding. A little YouTube research seems to confirm this. Personally, I have never heard this song at one of the weddings I’ve attended (as a guest as a matter of fact). The first line is
“Treulich geführt ziehet dahin, wo euch der Segen der Liebe bewahr’!”, which Wikipedia translates as:
“Faithfully guided, draw near to where the blessing of love shall preserve you!”
The chorus is performed after Elsa and Lohengrin’s wedding, when the women accompany Elsa into the bridal chamber. At weddings it is normally performed as an entrance song (apparently). Anyone experience with gay wedding music?
The thing is: Once the chorus is performed, it doesn’t take long until the marriage is in shambles. Only minutes after the women leave the bridal chamber, the newly weds start arguing and finally split up. Actually their wedding didn’t last for more than one hour after the chorus is performed. At the end of the day Lohengrin will have left the country (in a rather uncommon way), transform a swan into a boy and Elsa will have an emotional breakdown which she immediately dies of. And that’s not the whole tragedy. Lohengrin even kills an (evil) intruder (Friedrich von Telramund) in the bridal chamber while they are arguing.
Considering this, Lohengrin’s bridal chorus will definitely not be performed at my wedding.
The bridal chorus at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich directed by Richard Jones with Jonas Kaufmann (Lohengrin) and Anja Harteros (Elsa). Bridal chorus starts at 2:22:22 (!):
And in Bayreuth 2011 (not what you would call a “traditional” production): starts at 3:00:
And this is kind of weird:
what is it with your shoes? 