A Holiday of Operatic Proportions
Mezzo Frederica von Stade and legendary cabaret singer Bobby Short will put zing into Cupid’s arrow at the Los Angeles Music Center Opera’s onstage benefit on Valentine’s Day. What’s being concocted is a romantic dinner-dance on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s stage, amid the glorious sets for Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte,” which opens Feb. 27. Fashion retailer/designer Fred Hayman is honorary chairman, and the opera’s general director, Peter Hemmings, will host.
According to Joan Hotchkis and Mary Hayley, unique items will be auctioned including a $4,200 Lana Marks jeweled alligator evening bag, an evening of live opera in your home with resident artists and an opportunity to sit backstage during a performance. The usual travel packages are planned, but are matched to major opera cities.
Benefit tickets are $350 per person and $500 for patron seats. The first onstage gala for the opera was held in 1990.
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With Heart: Saks Fifth Avenue will present the Chanel spring 1996 collection at the Colleagues’ Valentine’s Day luncheon. Georgiana and Ricardo Montalban will receive the “Champion of Children Award” from Nancy Reagan. Nearly 500 are expected to attend the noon event at the Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. Saks is underwriting the affair.
Colleagues support the Children’s Institute International, which provides abuse-prevention services.
Actor Montalban has long been devoted to charitable causes involving children. The award will be given for that, as well as for his wife’s devotion to CII, according to Colleagues spokeswoman Chardee Trainer.
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In Salute: Robert Erburu, former chairman of the Times Mirror Co., parent company of the Los Angeles Times, will be honored Jan. 31 at a luncheon at the California Club. Among those saluting Erburu’s many years of community service will be Michael Bolin, John Bryson, George Gibbs, new Times Mirror Chairman Mark Willes and Harold Williams.
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Flu and Pneumonia: Remember the happy acceptance rates for holiday parties at the beginning of December? Those rates took a downturn in late December and January when it seemed as if the whole world was in bed with flu, pneumonia or sniffles. Jean Smith, wife of the late U.S. Atty. Gen. William French Smith, planned a dinner party for “just Pasadena” friends in her Westside home, and invited Arli Catering to come with Chasen’s chili. On the morning of the party, she counted 24 acceptances, which rapidly dwindled to 16, as the ill called in. A cheery group, however, mingled: Ross Barrett, Jim and Harriet Fullerton, Linda and Jim Dickason, Nancy and Dick Call, Andrea and John Van de Kamp, Jeanne and Russell Smith, Liz Morton, Jane Curran, Janey Wilcox (visiting from New York) and Jim Lee.
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“I’m 70. . .!”: Gaby Ross is known for her laughter, wisdom and optimistic quips, as well as her gift for gab. Thus, it was that friends (except those with the flu) turned out in droves for her invitation, “Please come and have tea with me. I’m 70. . .!” She held court at the Los Angeles Country Club for “No presents, only your presence.”
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Beauty in Flowers: Rosemary Korostoff is still accepting kudos for the Pasadena Supper Club white-tie holiday party. The California Club ballroom was brilliant with red roses and orchids. Greeting guests were chairwoman Anita Garnier and husband Tony, and Bitsy and Richard Hotaling. Supper club members and their husbands included Paulette and Bill Burkitt (she’s next year’s chairwoman), Adam and Penny Bianchi, Suzy and Don Crowell, Polly and Long Ellis, Cici and Tad Williamson, Dan and Joni Baker, Susie and Tom Hollingsworth, John and Barbara Poer, Steve and Marcia Cannell, Bruce and Susan Seidel, Sam and Cynthia Coleman and Arthur and Mary Louise Crowe.
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True Blue: Though the Sinatras--Barbara and Ol’ Blue Eyes--have sold their home at the desert and are spending most of their time in Beverly Hills and Malibu, they’ll still be the focus of the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Golf Tournament on Feb. 9-10 at Marriott’s Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert. It will attract participants worldwide, and, as always, will benefit Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center for abused children at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and the Palm Springs Desert Hospital.
Nelda Linsk again will chair the St. John fashion show/luncheon Feb. 9, and Twyla Tharp will chair the Feb. 10 black-tie gala. The Sinatras will host a “Night Cap” reception at the Marriott in a room adorned with prints of Frank’s paintings and photos of his seven King Charles cavalier spaniels and Rocky the parrot--all from his former desert living room. There’s no place like home.
Elsewhere on the Social Circuit
When Les Dames de Champagne International Hostesses gave their Twelfth Night Bal Masque, they honored 1995 Nobel Prize recipient in medicine Dr. Edward B. Lewis, giving him a 24-carat gold fly lapel pin--perfect for the laureate known for his work on the genetics of drosophila fruit flies!
* Twenty-one debutantes were presented by William Garnett, husband of ball chairwoman Becky Garnett, at the National Charity League, San Marino Area Chapter ball at the Regency Beverly Wilshire. They are Bethany Andrews, Christina Blecksmith, Joelle Conzonire, Lindsay Dietrich, Kristy Dolan, Ashley Flanagan, Bonnie Houston, Elizabeth Hugar, Kelly Moran, Jennifer Palmer, Jill Parrin, Margaret Pearson, Elizabeth Randall, Megan Robinson, Dori Rosenthal, Elizabeth Stevens, Jessica Sullivan, Kelley Tavares, Allison Twist, Vanessa Voors and Robin Weir.
