Die Hochzeit

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Die Hochzeit (The Wedding) is an unfinished opera by Richard Wagner. Wagner completed the libretto, then started composing the music in fall 1832. He abandoned the project after his sister Rosalie, who was the main supporter and the spokesman of the family, expressed her disgust at the story. Wagner abandoned the composition and destroyed the libretto.

What is still known of the story is that a maid named Ada was going to marry a young man called Arindal. This was not a marriage of love, but of political convenience. On the eve of the wedding, Cadolt, who was in love with Ada, enterered the bride's room for one last night of rapture. Ada refused Cadolt's advances, then successfully defended herself against rape by pushing the Cadolt over the balcony, to his death, thus preserving her own virtue. But Ada still had strong feelings for Cadolt: at Cadolt's funeral, she collapsed next to his body and died.

Today, only a septet from the opera remains.

Ada and Arindal were later the names of the two principal characters in Die Feen (The Fairies) (1833), Wagner's first completed opera.

Die Feen (recording and textbook, 1984), Munich: Orfeo GmbH.