They Went Thataway for Opera Fund-Raiser

A forest of fringe swung in the night breeze Saturday at Dick and Jolene Engel’s Western dress-up party for opera buffs. Borrowing its theme from Puccini’s “The Girl of the Golden West”--staged at the Performing Arts Center last June--the $100-per-person benefit drew 70 guests for cocktails, buffet dinner and a mini-concert by Los Angeles Rams owner Georgia Frontiere and baritone Richard Fredricks. Opera Pacific netted $7,000.

Home on the Range

. . . With Ferraris, limousines and valets.

This was the West minus the mess. Designer boots trod a red carpet through the Engels’ white-on-white Newport Beach manse to the back yard--a Potemkin Village of cowboy ambience. Wooden facades on the yard’s perimeter advertised a “Livery Stable,” a “Wells Fargo Stage Coach” stop, “Sally’s Bordello” and the “Polka Saloon” (the setting for Puccini’s opera). Constructed by South Bay caterer California Celebrations, the structures doubled as buffet stations for dinner of grilled tenderloin with pistachios, chili-spiced chicken, Texas-style chili and jalapeno corn bread. Passed hors d’oeuvres included smoked trout with apple horseradish sauce and potatoes stuffed with sour cream and caviar.

If it’s not clear what Jesse James, Billy the Kid, et al, would have made of caviar and toast points, surely the dusty gunslingers would have enjoyed the atmospherics provided by David Allan Cruz, a Palm Springs-based musician who strummed guitar and crooned thematically (“Garden Party,” “Desperado,” etc.).

City Slickers

Bill Roberts, Opera Pacific’s board chairman, wore a white hat. His wife, Barbara, accessorized with white gloves--in honor of the white gloves worn by the heroine in the recent production of “The Girl of the Golden West.”

George Schopick cinched his bolo tie with a turquoise clip. Lea Petersen was a one-woman festival of suede fringe.

Paul Lukes jangled around in silver spurs and provided this insight: “Modern houses are not built for spurs; I had to go up the stairs sideways.”

Also seen: Andree and Jay Kurtz (who ride quarter horses and thoroughbreds on their ranch in San Diego County and who looked thoroughly authentic in their jodhpur jeans and boots), Julia and Irving Rappaport, Carolyn and Bill Klein, Anne and Tom Key, and Liz and Bob Sliepka.

Guest Shot

An hour and a half past her estimated time of arrival, Georgia Frontiere debarked a shiny blue limousine with singin’ pardner Richard Fredricks, who has performed with the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera.

Taking their places in the curve of the Engels’ grand piano--with the 50 or so remaining guests arranged before them--the duo launched a 20-minute set that included medleys from the Broadway shows “Kismet” and “Showboat.”

Frontiere and Fredricks sang together at a Master Chorale benefit earlier this year--and made such a hit they were promptly auctioned off. Engel won the spontaneous bidding skirmish, ponying up $5,500 for the private concert.

Saturday’s performance garnered enthusiastic applause.

Quote

While guests were herded from the back yard into the living room, Frontiere bided her time with members of her entourage. She looked perfectly calm. She smiled and laughed. How to explain her nerves of steel?

“I don’t think about it,” she said. “If I thought about it too much, I’d get nervous.”