The Beautiful Bridegroom: An Opera in One Act

The Beautiful Bridegroom, a one-act comic opera for six women, has been hailed as "a little masterpiece" by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici. Based on an 18th-century play by Ludvig Holberg, this Mozart pastiche tells the story of a widow who has been searching for a young husband - not for her two marriageable daughters, but for herself. Perfect for opera workshops, college opera departments, and small opera companies.

 

The elderly Terentia, after a visit to the city to find a husband for her daughter Laurentia, decides that she herself would like to marry not her wealthy neighbor Jeronimus, who has made repeated offers, but rather a young man in his twenties. As she would like to keep this a secret from her two daughters, Laurentia and Leonora, she charges her indignant maid, Pernille, to keep quiet.

 

Leonora is trying to learn the minuet, which she hopes will be danced soon at a wedding for her older sister Laurentia. Laurentia herself is uninterested in getting married, which confuses the amorous Leonora. They spot an agitated Pernille, who lets slip that she is on her way to see Madam Kirsten; the two girls believe that she will be bringing a husband for Laurentia.

 

Madam Kirsten muses on her unusual assignment, and the fact that Pernille has asked her to help expose Terentia’s folly. She meets with Terentia, and encourages her to accept her old neighbor Jeronimus as a husband, but Terentia prefers the kind of man she has seen in the city: young, dainty, and beautiful. Madam Kirsten suggests the captain Frands von Frauenliebe.

 

Pernille, Laurentia, and Leonora prepare frantically for the coming visitor, unsure of how best to proceed. Kirsten enters and presents Captain Frands von Frauenliebe, who captivates all of the ladies. To the horror of Laurentia and Leonora, the marriage is arranged between Frauenliebe and Terentia.

 

While Terentia exults over her coming wedding, Pernille excoriates her for not having the captain marry Laurentia instead. Madam Kirsten enters in tears: the young soldier has mysteriously been transformed into a woman! Frauenliebe enters and bewails her fate. Terentia, humbled, agrees to marry Jeronimus. Laurentia is still mysteriously attracted to the female captainand perhaps it remains for Pernille to teach Leonora how to minuet.

 

Winner, National Opera Association Chamber Opera Competition, 2009