The Loveliest Ladies in Hades

“Faust” audiences have a hard act to follow.

On stage, the heroine rolls around on the floor in a tiara and so many pounds of jewelry that it looks as if she pulled the Tiffany’s heist. Satan cuts a dashing figure in long hair, a cutaway with tails, tight pants and thigh-high leather boots that could do justice to the most notorious playboys hanging out at The Gate.

While the audience on Friday may not have been quite as showy as all that, the opening event of the opera season is still among the city’s best-dressed nights of the year, proving that we don’t need a billion TV viewers to put on our finest garb.

The decade-long spell of all-black clothes appeared to be broken by the gala invitation suggesting red. Out came a crimson tide of velvet, chiffon and satin. Those women who chose the safety of black often did it in a new way--long columns (done with either slender dresses or separates) spiced up with some kind of interesting accessory, such as a turban, a long antique scarf or sheer voluminous ball skirt. The mix included equal shares of short and long, with only a handful of women going for full-on ball gowns.

The night’s best dressed included Patricia Kennedy in a one-of-a-kind stained-glass dress by Hubert de Givenchy; Nancy Olson Livingston in a coral Bill Blass column with ‘40s coral brooch; Beverly Todd in a Donna Karan dress and on the arm of Robert Guillaume; Eileen Zimmerman in a treasured red and black suit by the late Travilla, and Annette O’Malley in a new fall Chanel dress.

Equally elegant were a few who picked up fashions that didn’t require a pact with Mephistopheles to afford. Diane Ferguson found her Pamela Dennis slip dress at Neiman Marcus’ Last Call sale. Christina Kim bought a long Carole Little with ivory scarf at The Broadway.

A few men gussied up their tuxes with devil-may-care touches; in the case of Paul Erskine, that meant a red tie with black polka-dots and matching cummerbund.

Fashion arbiter Mr. Blackwell was spotted re-pinning a woman’s ruby brooch to a more complementary place on her lapel, and heard to whisper “next time wear real” in her ear.

But wearing fake jewelry wasn’t the biggest faux pas of the night, Blackwell said later. “Women need to get out of those ugly leather shoes when they go out at night,” he said, discreetly nodding toward a woman in ungainly office flats. “They should get into evening shoes and heels. And learn how to walk.”