Music Center Opera Sets Date for Gala

There’s just a little pomp and circumstance about opera. So, it’s hardly unusual that in many major cities, the opera signals the traditional opening of the Fall Social Season. Capital letters.

Los Angeles is no exception. The Los Angeles Music Center Opera’s second season opens Sept. 8 with a production of Puccini’s “La Boheme” starring Placido Domingo (the opera company’s artistic consultant). And in grand style, the performance will be followed by a Gala Opening Night Party expected to help generate $300,000 for the opera company and lots of excitement for the opera season.

Gala invitations (designed by John Coy) are expected in the mail this weekend from Gala Dinner Committee chairman Mrs. Paul A. Erskine, who is starry-eyed that both the performance and the gala will be underwritten by Wells Fargo Bank and that the gala will be held in starlight on the terrace of the Department of Water and Power. Don’t blink, but tickets are $600 per person: That’s how these affairs produce financial shine.

Georgianna Erskine reported to Peter Hemmings, general director of the Music Center Opera, on progress this week over fresh fruit followed by chocolate/almond triangles (the Music Center’s answer to Dove Bars). Committee members Carol Henry, Margaret Pexton Murray, Margaret Buckley Parker and Elizabeth Kennedy were there for moral support and idea-spawning.

“Because ‘La Boheme’ has a cafe scene,” Erskine explained, “our party will be a Cafe Momus lively scene, under the stars, with 18-foot liquidambar trees (to look like French poplars) and twinkling lights, with red carpet, mounted policemen to escort guests across the street, Rococo catering and Art Deco for dancing. There will be masses of red geraniums, maybe girls with baskets of flowers, a gay street scene. . . .”

“Will there be snow?” interjected Hemmings. Snow? “Well, the cafe scene takes place in the winter.” Erskine didn’t miss a beat. “No, but could we have banners waving? You know, promoting all the operas of the season? And, wouldn’t Cafe Momus be nice in neon--somewhere?”

And, yes, the Water and Power fountains will be playing and the “lake” will be filled.

Amazingly, word is already out, because the party is limited to 600, and 350 reservations are in.

Wells Fargo Bank considers both the performance and the gala to be a convenient way to stress the fact that the company is definitely interested in Southern California and is rumored to be considering moving headquarters here from San Francisco. In any event, Hemmings wants Wells Fargo eventually to underwrite “The Girl of the Golden West,” several years away. There’s a character in it who’s a Wells Fargo agent. Can they say no?

But, 1987. This season other new opera productions are Prokofiev’s “The Fiery Angel,” Sept. 16, and Rossini’s “La Cenerentola,” Sept. 18. In addition, “La Boheme” will be presented Sept. 11, 13 and 23; the “Fiery Angel” Sept. 19, 22 and 25; and “La Cenerentola” Sept. 20, 24 and 26--all in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. More operas come later in the year. All first-nights are scheduled with parties, and the bulk of first-night seats will be sold by subscription, though one can attend a single opera and party.

Hemmings is elated that last year’s season of 26 performances has been increased to 42, and that there will be seven operas rather than five. Last year, 97% of the seats were filled, and with the openings still weeks away, already 60% of the seats are gone. “We want people to come for the whole season, not just a single opera,” Hemmings said, before he scooted out for Cooperstown, N.Y., and viewing of the Glimmer Glass Opera.

The committee--also including Marta Domingo, Mia Frost, Leonore Greenberg, Joan Hotchkis, Joan Thompson, Emily Severinsen, Terry Stanfill, Nancy Vreeland and Maggie Wetzel--is hoping opening gala-goers will dress to the hilt with elegant gowns and lots of polish. The men will settle for black tie; the ultimate white tie, more or less, hasn’t been seen at opera events in Los Angeles since the memorable 1960s white-tie openings at the Shrine, though it’s still the staple for the poshest debutante balls.

In San Francisco, the tradition of formality at the opera is so ingrained that invitations for the gala opening Sept. 11 of “The Barber of Seville” at the War Memorial Opera House don’t specify either white or black tie. First-nighters will attend in either for the San Francisco Opera Guild’s pre-performance 5 p.m. cocktails and dinner on the courtyard adjacent to the opera house and the post-performance supper dancing affair until 2 a.m.

Mrs. Charles Gillespie and Miss Diane Lynn Morris co-chair that party, which will be tented with garlands of flowers like a formal fairyland. Then, there’s the Metropolitan Opera Club in New York. Gentlemen wear white tie, sit in boxes together as a club, and their wives mingle in another area.

DEBUTANTES: The Assistance League of Long Beach hosts its 28th annual Presentation Ball on Saturday in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency. Today, debutantes Brynn Fraser, Kelly Elmore, Alecia Beebe and Erin Brockman entertain at a beach party; the rehearsal dinner is Thursday. Already debutantes Julie Jones, Lora Stansbury-Weiss, Stacy Berg and Jenny Niles have staged a Western party, and Jena Rummel, Cynthia Chambers, Norma Saatjian and Robin Coleman have put on a ‘50s hop. President Mrs. Henry Schaffner has named Mrs. Philip McCafferty ball chairman. Others assisting are Mrs. Richard Watkins and Mrs. Charles Westlund.