A Wedding

A Wedding is a 2004 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, University of Nebraska's Glenn Korff School of Music, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. It was 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.