Royal Wedding Music

Date

Friday February 17, 2023

Location

Ss. Peter and Paul parsh church

515 West Opp Street

Wilmington, CA  90744

Musica Transalpina will proudly present Heinrich Schmelzer’s Missa Nuptialis which was composed for the royal wedding of the Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. in 1666. The Infanta’s wedding to the Emperor was one of the most splendid ceremonies of the baroque era, whose lavish festivities––including pyrotechnics upon her entrée into Vienna, costly productions like Antonio Cesti’s opera Il pomo d’oro and Schmelzer’s famous horse ballet that the Emperor himself performed in––lasted for nearly two years. These celebrations were warranted because this union cemented Habsburg hegemony which, if an heir were produced, would ensure lasting peace following the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War.

In continuing with our tradition of historically-informed performances of baroque sacred music in liturgical settings, Musica Transalpina will help recreate the wedding Mass as it would have been heard by the select audience invited to witness this intimate 17th-century royal ceremony.