All the brilliantly dark classical music in Wednesday Season 2

12 August 2025, 15:27 | Updated: 12 August 2025, 15:36

The new season features Mozart, Verdi and more.

Dark, whimsical, and macabre, Netflix’s Wednesday has returned for a second season. Full of gothic charm, it is also filled with classical music. And yes, Jenna Ortega does return to the cello, bringing her signature eerie moodiness to the performance.

Here’s how classical music and tango weave into the shadowy world of Nevermore Academy in the second season of the hit Netflix series.

Read more: Jenna Ortega learned to play Bach cello suites for hit Netflix series ‘Wednesday’

Prokofiev’s ‘Dance of the Knights’

British audiences might best associate ‘Dance of the Knights’ from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with The Apprentice, but in Episode 1 of Wednesday, its brooding grandeur becomes the perfect sonic introduction to Wednesday’s fierce composure.

Ortega returns to the cello, much to the disapproval of the new Nevermore music teacher Isadora Capri, played by Billie Piper.

Read more: What’s the classical music in ‘The Apprentice’ and who wrote the now famous TV theme?

Mozart and Verdi 

Some of the most exciting vocal works appear in Episode 2: Morticia Addams’ fundraising soirée is underscored by strains of Mozart’s ‘Voi che sapete’, from The Marriage of Figaro. In contrast, when Wednesday tries to hijack Enid’s driving lesson, we hear the dramatic ‘Dies Irae’ from Verdi’s Requiem.

In Episode 4, more Mozart returns, and this time the ‘Andante di molto’ from Symphony No.34 brings a surprising moment of serenity as Fester takes part in an art class.

Read more: The 10 most life-changing pieces of music by Mozart

Tango

Episode 3 delivers one of the most poignant and romantic musical moments of the season. As Roberto Alagna’s La Cumparsita plays – a timeless tango full of longing and drama – Morticia and Gomez share a sultry and sincere dance. The moment is a homage to the 1993 Addams Family Values, where Morticia and Gomez similarly passionate tango, then played by Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia.

Wagner’s Die Walküre

The Ride of the Valkyries has become synonymous with on screen battles, and here it is no different and students go to war against a troop of ‘normies’. Music supervisor on the series Nicole Weisberg said: “Opera signifies that storytelling. It pairs well with the Addams Family characters that you picture throughout time.”

Read more: Imposing organ rendition of Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ will get your heart racing

Does Jenna Ortega really play cello in ‘Wednesday’?

Ortega learnt to play the cello for Season 1 of Wednesday, and it seems that she has returned to her instrument for the opening of Season 2, when Wednesday performs Prokofiev’s ‘Dance of the Knights’ in the opening episode.

Although the sound we hear is not Ortega’s actual performance, but that of a professional cellist, the actor spent two months learning the instrument before Season 1 in order that her performances looked and felt authentic.

She told Wire that she took cello lessons twice a week in the two months before filming for the series began. “I probably couldn’t play too well now,” she said, “It is something that I want to continue to pursue. I have immense respect for anybody who plays the cello. I think it’s such a delightful instrument”.

The musician credited on IMDb for Wednesday’s “cello solos” is Ölveti Mátyás, a Hungarian cellist and cello teacher at the University of Debrecen.

Wednesday season 2 trailer teases Enid’s death and deadly new mysteries

When is Wednesday season 2 out on Netflix?

Wednesday Season 2, Part 1, is now streaming on Netflix and Part 2 will follow on 3 September 2025.

Joanna Lumley joins the cast as Grandmama Hester, Morticia’s formidable mother, alongside Billie Piper as Isadora Capri, the Academy’s new head of music (who is also a werewolf). Lady Gaga is also due to appear in Part 2 of the season as a teacher called Rosaline Rotwood.