A Memorable Night After the Opera : Parties: Romantic Spain served as the backdrop for the Music Center Opera’s season-opening gala, after the premiere of ‘Fidelio.’

After the Los Angeles Music Center Opera mounted Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” a monumental tale of anguish and the triumph of courage, faith and love, 700 black-tie party-goers put on a collective happy face for the season-opening party.

Gray entrance cards were required for Tuesday night’s balmy alfresco affair on the Music Center Plaza, and those who had them found the glorious fountains on the plaza in full swoosh and the Lipchitz sculpture a glowing centerpiece for festivities that continued past midnight.

In a season of modern tensions, first-nighters did not fail to compare the opera’s story of oppression to today’s Middle East crisis. At the opera and later at dinner, Ed and Ruth Shannon were most-sought conversationalists because of their frequent travels to Kuwait.

The theme of the opera did present a problem for gala chairmen Peggy Parker Grauman and her husband, Walter Grauman. They vetoed the opera’s setting--a dungeon near Seville--as a motif for the gala, instead opting for a romantic illusion of Spain with white bouquets designed by Kensington Gardens.

Co-chair Jennifer Diener came swathed in a green Bob Mackie chiffon and escorted by her husband, Royce. On her arm was the tattoo of a butterfly. “Everyone my age went through a hippie stage,” she explained.

Merrill Lynch underwrote the performance and the gala (a $650-a-person ticket), so the evening’s net may top $250,000, a good part of the gala patron subscription goal of $600,000.

Fresh from Labor Day holidays, the crowd looked healthy and wealthy. Susana Funsten was in charming Scaasi black polka-dot netting. Patricia Kennedy was bowed in Christian Lacroix hand-painted silk. Julie Pizzinat wore a long wisp of hair free form to enhance her bejeweled Mary McFadden. Joni Smith was swathed in Christian Dior chiffon. Flora Thornton, escorted by Eric Small, looked brilliant in Trigere’s metallic clusters.

Beautiful people danced to Rudy Baron’s orchestra and traded travel talk. Among them: Robin and Gerry Parsky, Joan and John Hotchkis, Douglas Cramer, Shirlee Fonda, Maurice and Carolyn De Wald, Georgia Frontiere, Carol and Warner Henry, Franklin and Judith Murphy, Franklin and Anne Johnson, Hubert and Shirley Laugharn Jr., Suzanne and Fred Rheinstein, and Irwin and Sue Russell.

Orange County Performing Art Center stalwarts Henry and Renee Segerstrom joined a throng of Los Angeles leaders that included Stephen Koffler (managing director of Merrill Lynch Capital Market) and his wife, Enid; James and Inge Miscoll; Richard and Dee Sherwood; Tamara Asseyev with new Arco senior vice president Kent Damon; Music Center president Esther and Tom Wachtell.

Party-goers had just finished their spicy gazpacho in baby melon bowls when Peter Hemmings, LAMCO director, stepped forward to greet the opera stars. Standing ovations went to the group, led by director Gotz Friedrich.

Katherine Domyan had asked Neiman Marcus to provide the table gifts--Ungaro Diva perfume for the ladies and Chanel Pour Monsieur for the gents.

Those touches were noticed by opera supporters Joe and Alice Coulombe, Dr. Frank and Joan Thompson, Howard and Diane Deshong, Dorothy and Leonard Straus, Joan and Arnold Seidel, Barbro Taper and Bill Taubert, and a young crowd that included Latham and Susan Williams, and Jeff McDermott and his fiancee, Ashley Brittingham.