No Doubts on Applause in This Group

The criticism leveled at local concert-goers since the Orange County Performing Arts Center opened Sept. 29 did not apply to those attending last Thursday night. Unlike previous crowds, there was no clapping by these cultural sophisticates after the first movement of the symphony, in this case, Beethoven’s Eighth. For this was opening night for the Orange County Philharmonic Society--the music-under-any-conditions faithful who have been attending concerts in basketball courts and high school auditoriums since 1954.

On this night, the Philharmonic Society celebrated the new hall with a concert that truly seemed worth the wait: the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Kurt Sanderling conducting and violin soloist Isaac Stern, followed by an elegant black-tie gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.

“We have been wanting this for 30 years,” said society president Eva Schneider, who said she feels like a pioneer in Orange County. “I’ve been to supermarket openings and shopping center openings. I remember when Freeway 57 was finished to Lincoln Boulevard and there was an enormous party under the overpass.”

Schneider couldn’t recall the freeway’s inaugural date, so she called upon a fellow pioneer, past Arts Center president Elaine Redfield for help, but to no avail. “I don’t know. It all swooshes together,” was Redfield’s response.

But this evening’s gala was not for a supermarket or freeway. The Four Seasons Hotel proved an ideal setting for a champagne and dessert gala to mark the Arts Center’s opening. “This is uptown,” said party-goer Tom Doan.

“Classy,” corroborated Center supporter Charles Huegy.

Some may have preferred more substantial fare, but most delighted in the three types of champagne and tables overflowing with strawberry mousse tartlettes, mocha eclairs, mini-strudels, 10-layer cakes and bite-size nectarine turnovers (6,000 pieces in all, according to the hotel’s executive assistant manager, John Stauss).

Pianist Played Requests

As guests grazed the pastry platters, pianist Rodger Whitten played requests for Gershwin and Cole Porter tunes but eventually worked his way to Stephen Sondheim. “I’ve exhausted the 40s and 50s,” he said by midnight.

Kitty McCoy chaired the gala, wearing dazzling, diamond-embedded lucite drop earrings, a gift from jeweler-escort Charles Weinstein. McCoy’s guest list numbered 450, including Stern, who ventured into the Grand Ballroom just long enough to munch a few desserts. “A brief moment,” Philharmonic Society executive director Erich Vollmer called it and later confided, “We were lucky to get him at all.”

Although Vollmer didn’t think it fair to criticize previous audiences, he commented on the applause subject, as did others that night. “If the music moves you, you applaud, but there is such a thing as music etiquette.”

So much has been said of Orange County’s lack of musical sophistication that coaching suggestions ranged from flashing “No Applause” signs at the audience to dispensing “applause-buster” buttons to the Center’s ushers. (A variation of the Ghostbuster emblem, with clapping hands to replace the ghost.)

Dorothy Doan seemed particularly tolerant. “If they want to applaud, let them applaud,” she declared.

Concert Main Topic

But the new hall, and the evening’s superb concert, were the group’s main topics of discussion.

“Who could not feel ecstatic about being in such a hall?” Vollmer wondered.

“There’s a clarity here that we’ve never heard before,” commented Georgia Spooner.

Accolades for the hall continued through the evening, from Philharmonic Society members such as Jack and Nancy Caldwell, Milton and Jane Grier, Ed and Floss Schumacher, Richard and Pat Allen, the Robert Lowrys, Kit and Stephen Toth and Jean Tandowsky.

But despite the improved acoustics, comfort and elegance of the new Center, some OCPS members said they would always harbor a fondness for the Santa Ana Auditorium, the rickety-seated site of their previous musical seasons.

“I miss the intimacy. The noises. You had a feeling of closeness with the orchestra,” admitted Superior Court Judge Bob Knox.

His wife Ardis agreed, but then explained, “It’s not a negative. It’s just different.”

When party-goers filed into the Center Club Sunday night, there was cause for celebration. The Master Chorale of Orange County was about to launch its 31st season, this year for the first time at the new Performing Arts Center.

The evening, in fact, was distinguished by “firsts” for both the chorale and the Center. Never before had the Master Chorale teamed with the Joffrey Ballet and never before had a dance company performed on the Center’s stage.

Without question, this night deserved a special gala. And so, for 500 guests, the party began with a black-tie pre-performance buffet and ended with dancers and chorale members joining in for post-concert champagne and desserts.

Mingling with the late night crowd, the ballet’s artistic director, Robert Joffrey, expressed pleasure in having his dance company inaugurate the Center’s stage. He called the opening ballet, “Passage,” with its mystical qualities, particularly appropriate for the occasion. “It was almost like giving a blessing to the future of dance,” Joffrey said.

Dedication to Arts

Associate director Gerald Arpino said he felt moved by Orange County’s exuberance and dedication to the arts. “It’s a special time here,” Arpino said. “When you have people thinking this way about the arts and actually putting their bucks up, there’s great hope for all of us, as a nation and as a people. . . . I get inspired when I see lima bean fields turning into art fields.”

“We hope this is the first of many collaborations,” Dr. Maurice Allard told Joffrey. (Allard, who is music director for the Master Chorale, had more than most to celebrate--in a speech that evening, Costa Mesa Mayor Norma Herzog declared the day “Master Chorale and Dr. Maurice Allard Day.”)

“We’re so excited about the Joffrey being here,” beamed Patti Brennan, looking rather elegant, but concerned, in her black-feathered gown with veiled hat. (“I wonder how Marlene Dietrich ate and drank through this sort of thing,” she whispered into her veil.)

In point of fact, eating and drinking were difficult for most, at least during the pre-performance fete. Most guests whiled away the gala in a buffet line, barely moving through the crush between the dining room and bar. Some reported waiting 50 minutes for their food, which included oysters Rockefeller and fried won tons. Others weren’t so lucky. By the time they arrived at the silver platters, some of the stately containers held steam alone.

Part of the problem was the affair’s surprise sell-out status, according to event organizers. “Three or four days ago, we had less than 200 people coming. Now there are over 500,” said Teresa Resare, co-chair of the gala, who glittered in a gold and silver-streaked ensemble.

By dessert, however, she, co-chair Claudia Roxburgh and the club’s management had remedied the situation. With buffet tables set in two rooms this time, guests could choose their pastries in comfort.

New Experience

It wasn’t the first gala at the exclusive Center Club, where original art dots the walls and floral bouquets wax exotic, but director of service Joe Gatto said 500 people arriving at once was a new experience. Just another first that Sunday.

“It was also the first time we saw the curtain,” said Kit Toth, who was attending her sixth “Opening Night” at the Center in regal style, to be specific: a strapless white curve-hugger of a gown.

“We wondered if they even had one (curtain),” added Ruby Lloyd who, as a Center founder, had also enjoyed many a gala since Sept. 29.

Among those enjoying this gala were Master Chorale president Paul Bent, “Californians” sub-group director Charles Cassey, Harold and Sandy Price, Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Venuto, Stewart Woodard and Noelle Resare, Jim Lodge, Donna Bunce, Phillip Wall, Sandy McCune and Erich Vollmer in a Japanese “happy” coat “because I’m happy . . . and tired of wearing tuxedos.”