RSVP : Devil-May-Care Gala Ignites Opera Season

The Event: Hellfire, damnation and the worst of the summer heat were banished in style as the Los Angeles Music Center Opera opened its eighth season with a new production of Gounod’s “Faust.” The performance was followed by a gala benefit dinner on the Music Center plaza, where guests danced to the big-band music of Rudy Varon. Five hundred gala patron subscribers and others paid $650 to attend the event, benefiting the Opera. They partied with the care-free innocence of the just, lingering long after the musicians and the caterers closed up shop.

Weather Forecast: Opening night of the Opera traditionally launches the fall social season. For most in attendance, the evening’s performance was a delightful way to send off both the devil and the hellishly hot summer, although a few reluctant husbands seemed to view the milestone the way most schoolchildren see Labor Day. “My husband said no! But then he didn’t fall asleep once,” laughed Nancy Olson Livingstone, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in 1950’s “Sunset Boulevard” and is now married to Alan Livingstone.

The Mood: Is it fair to call “Faust” the “Natural Born Killers” of opera? L.A. society seems to find solace in this tale of the saved and the damned: The sense of catharsis was palpable as the audience floated dreamily across the plaza. “It’s interesting that this opera used to be so popular, and then went out of fashion,” said Patricia Mitchell, deputy general director of the Opera and one of many sirens who turned out in drop-dead red. “I think it’s back now because it’s all right to be that emotional again.”

Chow: Pavillion Catering wisely chose to depart from the evening’s red theme, providing delicate fare that would not prevent one from passing through the eye of a needle, including veal-stuffed free-range chicken followed by white chocolate and macadamia nut ice cream.

Who Was There: Co-chairs Alice Coulombe and Peggy Parker Grauman were joined by General Director Peter Hemmings and his wife, Jane; Chairman of the Board Bernard Greenberg and his wife, Lennie; Vice-Chairman Warner Henry and his wife, Carol; and board members Roy and Lila Ash, David and Kay Ingalls, Tara Colburn and Flora L. Thornton. Also in attendance were Caroline Ahmanson, actor Robert Guillaume, actress Beverly Todd, L.A. Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, and Ardis Cranwick of the Chicago Lyric Opera, which co-produced “Faust.”

Quoted: From board member Carol Warner: “I’ve heard that wine and beer song on just about every compilation of opera drinking arias there is.” Happily for us, the well-rounded Mrs. Warner is in charge of special events.