A Wedding

A Wedding is a 1978 comedy film directed by Robert Altman, starring Desi Arnaz, Jr., Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow, Lillian Gish, Geraldine Chaplin, Howard Duff, Nina Van Pallandt, Amy Stryker, and Pat McCormick. The story is told in the trademark Altman style, with multiple plots and overlapping humorous dialogue.

The story takes place in a single day during a lavish wedding that merges a nouveau riche Southern family with an established wealthy Chicago family having possible ties to organized crime.

Plot

Dino Corelli (Desi Arnaz Jr.) marries Muffin Brenner (Amy Stryker) in a lavish Episcopalian church wedding presided over by a doddering, forgetful bishop. After the ceremony, the wedding party and guests drive back to the Corelli mansion for the reception. Meanwhile, the elderly, bedridden matriarch Nettie Sloan (Lillian Gish), mother of Regina Sloan Corelli (Nina Van Pallandt) and grandmother of the groom Dino, is being tended in her upstairs bedroom at the mansion by drunk, lecherous Dr. Jules Meecham (Howard Duff). Nettie is lying in her bed speaking with wedding planner Rita Billingsley (Geraldine Chaplin) when Nettie suddenly dies peacefully. Dr. Meecham informs Dino's father and head of household Luigi Corelli (Vittorio Gassman) of Nettie's death, but leaves it to him to tell his wife Regina, which Luigi is unable to do because Regina is high on drugs and mentally unstable. Nettie's corpse remains lying in bed, appearing to be asleep, throughout the reception, while various attendees are quietly told about her death or in some cases visit her in her room without realizing she's actually dead. By the time her bossy daughter Toni (Dina Merrill) finds out and calls a family meeting to make a dramatic announcement, the other family members are mostly not surprised or even too upset.

A Wedding (opera)

A Wedding is a comic opera based on Robert Altman's 1978 film A Wedding and was composed by William Bolcom with a libretto written by Robert Altman and Arnold Weinstein.

Performance History

The Lyric Opera of Chicago commissioned the work, and the opera was first performed there on December 11, 2004. The premiere had stage direction by Altman and was conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. The film's 48 characters were trimmed down to 19 on stage.

Since the premiere, A Wedding has seen performances at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, the University of Houston's Moores School of Music, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. It will be performed by the Aspen Opera Center for the Aspen Music Festival and School's 2016 summer season.

Recently, the Music Academy of the West commissioned Bolcom to write a chamber version of the opera, with a reduced orchestration. This reorchestration received its premiere on August 8, 2008 in Santa Barbara, California.

Roles

Synopsis

Act I

A Wedding (Glee)

"A Wedding" is the eighth episode of the sixth season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 116th overall. The episode was written by Ross Maxwell, directed by executive producer Bradley Buecker, and first aired on February 20, 2015 on Fox in the United States.

The episode features the planning for and wedding day of Brittany Pierce and Santana Lopez, which unexpectedly turns into a double wedding, with Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel also marrying each other in a joint ceremony with Brittany and Santana. The episode features special guest stars Gloria Estefan as Santana's mother Maribel Lopez, Ken Jeong and Jennifer Coolidge as Brittany's parents Pierce and Whitney Pierce, and Gina Gershon as Blaine's mother Pam Anderson.

Plot