Coronation March

Giacomo Meyerbeer's Coronation March comes from his grand opera Le prophète (The Prophet), which premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1849. The march appears in Act IV during the coronation scene of the opera's protagonist, Jean de Leyde, who leads an Anabaptist uprising in 16th-century Münster. The opera was based on the historical Münster Rebellion of 1534-1535, though Meyerbeer and his librettist Eugène Scribe took considerable dramatic liberties with the actual events.

The Coronation March became one of the opera's most famous excerpts and has enjoyed a life independent of the full work, frequently performed as a concert piece and used for ceremonial occasions. Its popularity has endured far beyond that of the opera itself, which is rarely staged today despite being enormously successful in the 19th century.