The Vanishing Bridegroom

Judith Weir’s The Vanishing Bridegroom consists of three Scottish folktales, connected by the evolution of their central characters.

In ‘The Inheritance’ three sons ask their late father’s friend, the Doctor, for help when their inheritance money is found missing. He tells them a parable of a Bride who swore to love one man, but was forced to marry another. When the Bridegroom finds out about the woman’s Lover, he gives her back her dowry and sends the Bride back to her Lover. The Lover, however, refuses the money and sends her back to her husband. On the journey back, the Bride is stopped by three Robbers. Two Bad Robbers take her money and run, but the third one helps her to get home. When the Doctor asks the Sons who was the best character in this story, the Youngest Son claims it was the Bad Robbers who ended up with the money, and so the mystery of where the inheritance has gone is solved.

In ‘The Disappearance’, a Husband sets out from home, the night his baby daughter is born, to fetch a priest to christen the baby. On the way, he disappears into a hill. The Husband’s Friend, who accompanied him, tries to explain to the Policeman that they must wait for him to return. They wait for years, while the baby girl grows into a young woman, and just at the moment when the Policeman decides to arrest the Husband’s Friend, the Husband returns. He has been away only moments.

In ‘The Stranger’, the Daughter, now a grown woman, meets a Stranger on the hillside who asks her to marry him. She is suspicious of a man with hooves and horns, and her suspicion is confirmed by the Preacher; this man must be the devil himself. Circled by the protection laid down by the Preacher, the Daughter resists every force the devil can summon, using the words of an old folk song for her protection.

Act I: The Inheritance

The Deathbed

• ‘There was a man’ - Narrator
• ‘Cold, icy rain’ - Eldest Son, Middle Son, Youngest Son, Doctor, Chorus
• The Dying Man sits up ‘Sons, my sons!’ - Dying Man, Sons
• The Dying Man dies ‘Farewell to him’- Sons, Doctor, Chorus
• ‘Gone!‘ - Sons
• ‘I knew your father certainly’ - Doctor, Sons

The Passion

• The Bride and her Lover ‘Between your two arms til morning’ - Bride, Doctor, Sons
• The Bride's Father materialises ‘Her father discovered their love’ - Doctor, Father, Bride, Sons
• The Wedding ‘I would sleep wherever his bed might be’ - Bride, Bridegroom
• ‘He ended the wedding’ - Doctor, Bridegroom, Sons

At the Lover's House

• The Lover appears with a light ‘What brought thee here?’ - Lover, Bride
• A Priest appears ‘Gloria’ - Lover, Priest, Priestly Quartet (Doctor, Sons or Chorus)

The Wood

• The Lover vanishes - Doctor, Thick Wood (Chorus), Bride, Sons
• ‘In the trees of the Thick Wood’ - Doctor, Thick Wood, 2 Bad Robbers, Good Robber
• ‘Let me go!’ - Bride, Good Robber, Bad Robbers, Thick Wood
• The Bride and the Good Robber vanish into the distance - Doctor, Good Robber

The Reckoning

• ‘Now. Which of these people …’ - Doctor, Male Chorus, Sons
• ‘Shame!’ - Doctor, Male Chorus, Eldest and Middle Sons

Act II: The Disappearance

The Hill

• Introduction

At Home

• ‘I pray Peter’ - Wife, Three Women, Husband, Husband’s Friend

Towards the Hill

• The Husband and the Friend set out - Husband, Husband’s Friend
• ‘The endless expense’ - Husband, Husband’s Friend. Chorus

At Home

• ‘He just walked out’ - Three Women, Wife
• ‘People just disappear’ - Policeman
• The Friend enters, distraught - Friend, Policeman, Three Women, Wife
• ‘People don't just disappear’ - Policeman, Friend, Three Women

The Hill

• ‘Shiúbhlainn leat ro na trì na gleanntan’ (I’d go with you through the three glens) - Chorus

At Home

• ‘He's gone, he's gone’ - Women, Two Girls, Wife

The Hill

• ‘I think you told me a lie’ - Policeman, Friend
• ‘I went to the Land of the Living’ - Husband, Chorus
• ‘Could you not let me be for an instant?’ - Husband, Friend, Daughter, Wife, Women

Act III: The Stranger

• ‘There was a man riding frae the east’ - Daughter, Stranger, Chorus
• ‘You are whiter than the swan’ - Stranger, Daughter
• The Stranger performs a miracle ‘Lo! Lo! Spheres spheres’ - Chorus
• ‘Come away with me’ - Stranger
• ‘What a charming young man’ - Mother, Father, Daughter, Preacher
• ‘Hooves!’ - Preacher, Mother, Father
• The Priest marks a circle - Preacher, Chorus
• ‘No fire shall burn me’ - Daughter, Stranger
• ‘Hosts of angels on thy side’ - Chorus