A Tantalizing Third Season of Bridgerton
May 22, 2024
By Michelle Medina Villalon
🔔 Spoiler warning: This article reveals major details about Bridgerton Season 3. If you prefer to get the buzz about this season from Whistledown herself, proceed with caution.
Last weekend was a particularly busy one in the ton, or more accurately, for dear fans of the Netflix original series Bridgerton. After a two year long absence, the series has returned with a new season centering the slow-burn romance of Lady Whistledown herself, Penelope Featherington, and Colin Bridgerton. The first four episodes of the appropriately dubbed “Polin season” debuted on May 16th with the release of four more episodes scheduled for June 13th.
This strategic release plan has certainly left viewers eager for what’s still to come. However, the perceived brevity of the first release does not speak for the depth of detail infused into each of the four episodes. From costumes to well-timed glances, and of course, a great deal of classical music, the first half of the season left us plenty of breadcrumbs to savor while we wait for June. So, grab the mille-feuille and pour the tea as we unpack our latest outing into the Mayfair marriage mart.
Though Bridgerton has the air of your typical period drama, the series has become known for its subversion of the genre through blending Regency era conventions with contemporary culture. With each season, audiences delight in vibrant reinventions of Regency silhouettes, string quartet arrangements of familiar pop songs, and diverse casting representation. The world of Bridgerton brings a fresher version of a period drama to this generation, which is arguably most visible in its music.
As with any visual storytelling medium, Bridgerton relies heavily on musical underscoring to not only match the emotional weight of its scenes, but also to create a thematic sense of how fantasy meets history in the series. In this season, audiences heard snippets of Mozart and Beethoven alongside classical music-inspired covers of hits by artists like Taylor Swift and Pitbull as we journeyed through the drama unfolding in the ton.
Perhaps the most “sparkling” example of classical music’s influence this season comes from Francesca Bridgerton, the shy, musically-inclined Bridgerton daughter who starts the season by making her debut on the marriage mart. Episode 1 opens with Francesca Bridgerton’s rendition of Mozart’s Funeral March, a witty nod to her slight dread of coming out into society. Francesca also plays Scarlatti’s Keyboard Sonata in G major later in the episode after her brother, Colin, brings it home as a gift to her from his travels.
In Episode 2, Francesca references her enjoyment of the Ries Piano Trios and Beethoven’s Appassionata. She plays the latter piece at the end of the episode before being caught by Queen Charlotte, who subsequently names her the season’s “sparkler” for her skills at the pianoforte.
This character has been featured briefly in past seasons, but since being recast, fans are expecting to learn more about her story. Though she is not at the forefront of this season, we can foresee a focus on her to come sooner rather than later.
But Francesca is not the only important source of classical music in the season. Haydn fans may rejoice to hear many of the composer’s string quartets shine throughout each of the episodes, and Episode 4 opens with Peter Gregson’s Sequence (Three) as tensions rise in the Featherington household. Even Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 2 , III. ‘Allegro assai’ makes it into the mix!
Of course, we’d be remiss to not acknowledge the musical backbone of Bridgerton: its array of classical covers of contemporary pop songs. To create greater buzz around the first release, Netflix and Shondaland announced all the classical covers in Season 3 ahead of May 16th.
As is standard for the series, the list includes a Taylor Swift cover, “Snow on the Beach,” a collaboration with alt-pop artist Lana del Rey from her Midnights album. Recent Academy Award winner Billie Eilish’s 2021 hit “Happier Than Ever” is also featured on this season’s soundtrack.
However, in this author’s view, the classical cover that stole the show was featured in Episode 4 as Penelope and Colin finally make the crossover from friends to lovers. Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything” was transformed into a stripped down arrangement for strings performed by Archer Marsh. Fans of the show have been pining for this scene since the first season, so this gorgeously intense cover certainly gave us everything we’d been waiting to see.
Though we’re still a little less than a month out for the next installment of Bridgerton, there are already some musical moments to look forward to. The series will debut its first original song in the next four episodes: “All I Want,” arranged by composer Kris Bowers and performed by two-time GRAMMY award winner, Tori Kelly, will show up somewhere in the second half of the season alongside covers of Doja Cat and Meghan Trainor songs.
It’ll be exciting to see what new classical music morsels Bridgerton gives us come June. Let us hope the unfolding drama will be just as, if not more, delectable.