Post-Opera Plot Takes on a Lighter Twist

It’s just as well that life rarely chooses to imitate art. Mayhem, madness, murder--these are just part of a day’s work in grand opera, and who knows what might have happened had the committee behind Saturday’s Season Opening Night Celebration for the San Diego Opera had taken the point of view that a gala should borrow its mood from the stage.

The season opened with “Lucia di Lammermoor,” famed not only for the hottest mad scene in all opera, but for a general flow of misery that by evening’s end makes some viewers wish they’d brought an extra handkerchief. The story line makes it something of a “Romeo and Juliet” set in the Scottish Highlands, with a few nice twists, such as when Lucia goes bonkers in Act III. The scene is riveting.

The scenario sketched out for the benefit gala followed a decidedly more cheerful plot. At the beginning of the evening, event chairman Lee Goldberg reacted with amusement when a guest asked if the tone of “Lucia” had influenced the planned entertainments.

“No!” she said. “No, no. We’re going to have nothing but fun and happiness! Everyone will dance at least until one. This is a party !”

It was, as things developed, a party with more than a few plot twists of its own. The third in a series of major annual fund-raisers, the opening night celebration is a night on the town unique among San Diego big deals--it is a genuine all-night affair, at which the guests bounce around a dance floor at the Westgate Hotel until 2 a.m. or so, and then stay on for a gala-concluding brunch the following morning. It is known as the fanciest slumber party in town, and at least at present seems in no danger of losing that reputation.

The gala started with a late-afternoon reception in the Westgate lobby, at which guests were encouraged to stoke up on lobster bisque, pate and other noshes, since supper would not be served until after the performance. The mood took a momentarily formal turn when opera director Ian Campbell marched a squad of guests to the landing on the grand staircase, from which elevated spot the group was introduced as members of a newly founded support group called the Bravissimo Medal Patrons. Members pledge donations of up to $100,000, and among those medalists attending were arts patron Muriel Gluck; San Diego Museum of Art president Joseph Hibben and his wife, Ingrid; Judson and Rachel Grosvenor; Mary Louise and Charles Robins; Frank and Lee Goldberg; Marianne McDonald, and opera president Esther Burnham.

When a guest cheerfully suggested to Burnham that there seemed “something illicit” to spending a night in a hotel in one’s own city, she responded that she thought it rather nice to be able to “take the elevator home” after a night of partying.

‘We All Are Escaping’

“An overnight is just a wonderful way for all of us to sneak away from our troubles at home,” she said. “Here we all are escaping. What better way to spend a weekend?”

A total of 259 guests shared Burnham’s point of view. The figure stood in some danger of being upped to 260; Ann Campbell, the wife of the director, said that her second child was expected momentarily and suggested that no one be surprised were she to leave rather suddenly. There would have been a name to add to the guest list, since the Campbells, with the knowledge that they were expecting a boy, long ago chose David Lawrence as his name. (In keeping with the times, they spent the morning at what Ann Campbell called “sibling rivalry class” with their 20-month old son, Benjamin Colin.)

In deference to the opera’s setting in Scotland, Goldberg engaged a band of kilted Scots to pipe the guests over to the Civic Theatre. Nature lent a hand to make the moment perfect; as the opera-goers marched into Civic Plaza, they were halted by the sight of a great, silvery full moon--a mad, loony moon for “Lucia”--that hung between the double row of skyscrapers on B Street. It was a prop that the set designer doubtless would have loved to take inside, and Junko Cushman took one look at it and predicted “Something crazy will happen tonight!”

Back to Hotel

Pocket handkerchiefs soaked and mascara running, the guests headed back to the Westgate after the tearful conclusion of Act III of “Lucia” and settled in for for Act III of the opening-night celebration. The committee had commandeered both the Versailles and Fontainebleau rooms, had decked them out in brilliant floral arrangements that captured the purples and lavenders of the Scottish heath and had even slung tartan sashes over the shoulders of the waiters.

The Bill Green Orchestra started the dance music immediately, but given the late hour, most guests headed directly to dinner. Designed with a Highlands theme by Jeanne Jones, it commenced with Scottish salmon, continued with roast quail (which was nothing to grouse about) and finished up with a poached, minted pear, although under the circumstances, a nuttier dessert might have been in order. The dinner concluded, the dancing began in earnest and continued far later than at the great majority of San Diego fund-raisers.

Several committee members prided themselves on their success in competing for guests with the other major events of the weekend, the balls given in honor of the inauguration of President George Bush, which drew a number of regular opera patrons to Washington. Among those who opted to head to the nation’s capital was Dorene Whitney, who founded the opera’s opening night celebration in 1986 and also chaired the 1987 version.

The gala did, on the other hand, draw a roster of very special guests, the principal singers from “Lucia di Lammermoor,” who entered the dining rooms to choruses of bravo and sustained applause. This group included title soprano Gail Dobish and her character’s star-crossed lover, tenor Richard Leech, who sang the role of Edgardo.