RSVP : Masking Merry on Opera Pacific’s Behalf

Knowing that opera buffs have a weakness for theater, colorful costumes and great singing, the Opera Pacific Society of Founders offered all of that and more at their annual gala, “Music, Masquerade and Merriment.”

Ellie Cortese, widow of the late Ross Cortese, who founded the Leisure World retirement villages, opened her contemporary hilltop estate in the Lemon Heights area of Santa Ana to about 300 guests for the Mardi Gras-style gala Saturday night. The $125-per-person event grossed $60,000 for Opera Pacific in Costa Mesa.

Paper Faces

Party-goers, many sporting eye masks color-coordinated to match their summer cocktail attire, spent the reception exploring the 12,400-square-foot home and listening to the jazz sounds of the Sam Conti Quartet. Many assembled outdoors to ogle the 360-degree view and a 14-foot-high marble Venus that presides over the pool.

Inside, they wandered from room to room admiring the fine art and lush furnishings. Many looked into the guest bathroom, which has walls and ceilings covered entirely in smoked mirrors.

“Imagine having to polish them all,” one man said.

This was the second time Ellie Cortese has hosted the founders’ gala.

“Last year I didn’t know anybody. I felt like a stranger at my own party,” Cortese said. “This year I have so many friends. (Opera Pacific) has added another dimension to my life.”

To create a mini-Mardi Gras, founders chairwoman Mary Raymond tracked down a company in New Orleans and ordered shiny decorations in the official Mardi Gras colors--purple, gold and green. The grounds were festooned with banners and a towering jack-in-the-box, and many of the estate’s statues sported masks.

The founders chose a masquerade theme because “we wanted to include all of the elements of the arts--the drama, the music, the masks,” said Linda Cassuto Mandelbaum, event chairwoman.

More Merriment

Dinner took place outside on the tennis courts, which were transformed into an outdoor New Orleans cafe, complete with old-fashioned street lamps, banners and tables draped in purple cloths. Small trees with shiny purple, gold and green leaves served as centerpieces.

Michael Kang, owner of Five Feet in Laguna Beach, prepared a New Orleans-style menu that included a Southern cucumber tomato salad, chicken Creole, sticky gumbo, oven-roasted New York steak and, for dessert, a mango Napoleon.

After dinner, members of Opera Pacific’s Overture Company (Brent Luck, Michael Daniels, Dyan McKinney and Robin Lee Parkin) performed selections from operas and musicals that feature masks, including “Die Fledermaus,” “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

Funds raised by the Society of Founders are earmarked for Opera Pacific’s mainstage season productions and the Apprentice Artists Program. The opera company, the 11th largest in the country, will open its ninth season with “Aida” in October.

Among the guests were honorary chairman Niles Gates (Gates was recovering nicely Monday following a fall during the festivities in the Cortese home); co-chairwomen Nancy J. Miller and Ellie Faber; David DiChiera, general director of Opera Pacific; Irv and Gloria Gellman, president of the guild alliance; Ralph and Georgene Smith, David Scott and Gayle Widyolar, Ed and Floss Schumacher, Jim and Nora Johnson, Jerry and Maralou Harrington, Eve Foussard, Sharon Lesk, Robert and Ladorna Eichenberg, Ted and Mary Jean Simpkins, Robert and Maxine Gibson, Dorothy Ellis Hopper, Herb and Milli Wieseneck and Peter and Mary Muth.