Irvine Concert an Aural and Oral Treat

“We’re waving the flag, not burning it!”

With that, Marcy Mulville waved Old Glory with gusto on Wednesday night at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, site of the “All-American Celebration” concert by the Pacific Symphony.

Mulville, the lively chairwoman of the symphony board, joined about 100 music buffs for the Fourth of July gourmet picnic that accompanied the start of the orchestra’s popular summer series.

Available for sampling on tables set up in the orchestra pit: tender honey-baked ham with mustard sauce, corn-bread muffins and a crisp salad tossed with a rainbow of posies (nice touch). Mini pecan pies and steaming coffee arrived at intermission. The picnic fare was whisked to the tables--set with gold-edged ivory china and spotless linens--in huge baskets wrapped in firecracker-red cellophane.

And while the food was something to write home about, it was the brut champagne that gave this event its gourmet status. Guests could toss the bubbly down with dinner or savor it--chilled as it was in elegant silver buckets--throughout the concert.

Pacific Symphony supporters have a good thing going. For $2,700 per table of four, subscribers can enjoy all five summer concerts and dine grandly in the orchestra pit every time. Each ticket really costs $1,200 (actually, you get eight tickets--four for the dinner table and four for the stands--should you desire to be serenaded somewhere other than in the pit). The remaining $1,500 is a tax-deductible donation, according to symphony organizers.

Guests can also pack their own picnic fare. Joyce and Jim Justice, trying out their table for the first time, dined on chilled veal loin with peppercorn sauce, caviar, smoked salmon, fruit compote and chocolate mousse cake. “This is so much nicer than the Hollywood Bowl,” Joyce said. “There, you’re lucky if you get a decent table.”

After the concert, which included the classic “Rhapsody in Blue” (performed on a red, white and blue Baldwin by pianist Evans Haile), concert-goers were treated to a 20-minute fireworks extravaganza.

Also on the scene: board members Anne and Tom Key (she in a white shirt spangled with red stars, he telling fellow picnickers that he is a distant relative of Francis Scott Key), Gina and Reed Royalty, Charles and Geraldine Spencer, Gene and Nadine Layton, Martin and Margie Hubbard, Charles and Pat Poss, and Louis Spisto.