Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

PERFORMING ARTS

Disney Hall Gifts: Walt Disney Concert Hall officials on Tuesday announced a series of new gifts totaling $8.36 million, bringing the sum of money raised since last December to $71.68 million. The latest donations include $1.45 million from various L.A. Philharmonic Board members; $1 million from the California Community Foundation; $1 million from retired First Interstate Bancorp Chairman Ed Carson and his wife, Nadine; $1 million from Ginny Mancini, wife of the late composer Henry Mancini; and $3.9 million from additional unnamed corporations and individuals. Added to the $113.5 million raised before the current efforts, led by Disney Hall ad hoc fund-raising Chairman Eli Broad, a total of $185.18 million is in hand. Broad estimates the cost of the building to be approximately $220 million, although that number will not be firm until guaranteed estimates come in from builders.

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Opera’s Record Year: The L.A. Opera set a box-office record during the 1996-97 season, with ticket sales reaching $10.2 million, far surpassing the previous high of $8.8 million set in 1994-95. The season, which concluded in June with Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” drew 138,000 attendees to 47 performances in the 3,000-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion; 27 of those shows were completely sold out. The opera has also set an annual fund-raising record, surpassing $5.5 million in contributions for the first time in the 11-year-old company’s history. Peter Hemmings, the opera’s general director, credited “superb artists, outstanding productions, effective marketing and a growing interest in opera throughout Los Angeles” as contributing toward “L.A. Opera’s most successful season thus far.”

POP/ROCK

Ka-Ching!: Concert grosses for the top 25 pop music tours during the first half of the year were up more than 20% from the same period a year ago, thanks to U2’s “PopMart” stadium trek. Based on 27 shows in 21 cities, the Irish band accounted for $49 million of the overall total of $307.1 million taken in through June. Despite U2’s purse, however, the rest of the concert industry’s grosses weren’t so rosy. “You factor [U2] out and business is actually down,” says Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a concert industry trade publication. “Judging by the comments from promoters, there are plenty of shows out there that are not doing the business that they expected.” Rounding out the list of Top 10 tours so far this year, according to Pollstar: Metallica, which grossed $34 million in 77 shows; Phil Collins, $16.6 million in 35 shows; the double bill of Kenny G and Toni Braxton, $15.8 million, 45 shows; Bush, $14.8 million, 61 shows; Tina Turner, $14.7 million, 42 shows; Jimmy Buffett, $12.5 million, 21 shows; Ozzfest ‘97, $12.3 million, 21 shows; John Mellencamp, $12.2 million, 50 shows; and KISS, $12 million, 38 shows. KISS grossed $43.6 million in 92 shows last year, making it the top concert attraction of 1996.

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Not So Smooth: For the third time, singer Sade failed Monday to show up for a Jamaican court date to face charges of dangerous driving and using abusive language with police in conjunction with a high-speed car chase last February. The judge ruled that the singer, who had slipped out of the country, will be arrested if she ever returns. She had pleaded innocent and faced fines of no more than $200.

TELEVISION

Bostwick Recuperating: Actor Barry Bostwick is recuperating at home after undergoing prostate cancer surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last week. “The pathology report confirmed that the surgery removed all of the cancer and Bostwick feels very fortunate that it was detected early,” the actor’s publicist said Tuesday. Filming on ABC’s “Spin City,” on which Bostwick plays Mayor Randall Winston, resumes next month.

ART

Buyers Beware: A bicoastal art dealer who has sold pottery, furniture, paintings and other items to the likes of Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand and Bruce Willis has been charged with defrauding his clients of more than $2.5 million. Todd Michael Volpe, whose client list also includes producer Kathleen Kennedy, Paul Stanley of the band KISS, composer Carole Bayer Sager and Christie’s auction house, was charged with 38 federal counts of mail and wire fraud, from selling counterfeit art to selling works belonging to his clients and keeping the profits for himself. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. Volpe, who filed for bankruptcy in 1995, is due in a Manhattan courtroom on July 10. He could not be reached for comment.

QUICK TAKES

Tickets go on sale today at 10 a.m. for a special 21-and-over Fourth of July concert by the rock band Porno for Pyros, with supporting acts Poe, Ozomatli and Sparkler, at the 500-seat Ivar Theatre in Hollywood. The 8 p.m. show--which will also feature a speaker from Greenpeace--is intended to raise awareness of toxicity in the environment. . . . Full-time students (with ID) will be able to purchase $25 discounted tickets for all upcoming performances of “Ragtime.” The tickets can be purchased at the Shubert Theatre box office two hours before show time. . . . Tom Bergeron has left his job as host of the Fox network’s morning show, “Fox After Breakfast.” His replacement has not been named. . . . Mark Volpe, 39, executive director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 1991, has been named managing director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.