It's our anniversaries tomorrow (both Hebrew and English, a really rare occurence) and someone asked me a kind of strange question that relates to them. She asked me if there is anything that I would have done differently at my wedding if I had it to do over today. Well, there is something that I regret didn't happen at our wedding, but I'm not sure that it would be any different if the wedding were first taking place tomorrow.
Young girls have all kinds of dreams. They play wedding at the drop of a hat. And yes, I had one dream that sprouted when I was very young. A bit of background necessary. Both of my parents loved classical music and opera in particular. I can still see our first record player--one of those old RCA Victor turntables with the wide horn speaker. And the first record bought for that machine? An operatic recording. I could sing in Italian before I could parse verbs in English. And I fell in love with Verdi's Aida. And somewhere in my mind lodged the notion that the Triumphal March from Act II was the absolutely most perfect music for a kallah to come down to the chupah to.
Now it happens that my mother also loves the music from Aida, but...when it came time to choose my chupah music I was steered in a different direction. Mom agreed that a kallah coming to the chupah would certainly deserve a triumphal march, but it was going to be just a tad difficult to hire a full orchestra plus all the extra trumpet players, not to mention an 80 member chorus. I was willing to compromise and do without the chorus, but alas, "saner" voices prevailed. I came down to Dodi Li, and yes, the music is beautiful, but Aida it isn't.
So yes, if I have any regrets about my wedding it's that my dream music and my real music were not one and the same. We got married when wedding films were without sound. I'm going to be having our wedding films put on a DVD, and they are offering an option to add sound. And oh yes, I am so tempted to finally get what I wanted then. Wouldn't change the husband for any money on earth, but the music? Hmmm, I wonder if they would make me two copies: one with Aida and one with Dodi Li.
You'll have to excuse me now; I've just put on a copy of Aida, and I'm not missing those trumpets for anything.
If you have never--gasp--heard the Triumphal March you are in for a treat. The entire march is gorgeous but the part that I wanted for the chupah can be heard here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeuFK61YNIg&feature=related And for any opera buffs out there, just get a load of the pictures of La Scala in the accompanying slides.
11 comments:
happy anniversary
Happy Anniversary! Can we ask how many years?
Happy anniversary, and may that be the biggest regret of your married life!
An interesting choice, though: I know nobody's supposed to care about the plot of operas, but it takes a brave man to stand at the chuppah while his bride comes down to a tune celebrating military conquest (and I'm not even going to think about the opera's ending...) :)
Don't suppose it's going to hurt your feelings now but all of us then were betting that your mom would win this one. You got the red dresses--1 out of 2 isn't bad.:)Besides, you got the right guy. Happy anniversary to both of you and many more years of happiness.
Mazel tov! I'm guessing hubby got over having to drive to the wilds of Far Rockaway to take you out.
Happy Anniversary! May Hashem bless you with much continued happiness and satisfaction from your family.
It snowed the day you got married too. Can we blame the weather now on your having an anniversary? And if both the Hebrew and English are going to be tomorrow does that mean we are going to get double the snow?
Congrats to both of you.
So I'm thinking you might have changed the fact that you were all but thrown down a flight of stairs by Babi to avoid seeing Tatty when you both showed up at the hall at the same time because of the snow :)
Happy 38th Ima!
38 years--that's some serious number there! Hope that you have many more in health and joy and happiness.
as far as chupa music goes, my mother-in-law still won't forgive me that i refused to get a violinst.
it's was a nice wedding, she says, but it could have been nicer.
Have a wonderful anniversary!
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