Cultures Mix at ‘Midnight in Moscow!’

Soviet director Roman Viktyuk and set designer Vladimir Boyer went native Saturday night and dived--with knives and forks that flashed as bravely as Georgian dancers’ swords--into California culture as represented by salad with goat cheese, surf ‘n turf and raspberry cream cake.

The arrival of the cake occasioned a consultation between Viktyuk and his interpreter, who explained to Viktyuk that the 350 chorused voices in the Hotel del Coronado’s Crown Room were climbing the scales in honor of the Moscow director’s birthday. Viktyuk responded with a quick wave and a tired smile, but could be forgiven for looking partied out, since he had spent the previous evening at a downtown San Diego nightspot celebrating his natal day in an enthusiastic survey of California wines.

Viktyuk and Boyer, in town to help stage the world premiere of Soviet playwright Nikolai Kolyada’s “Slingshot” playing at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, shared the spotlight as guests of honor at the Rep’s “Midnight in Moscow!” gala, which was given as one of the seemingly innumerable ancillary events of the city’s Soviet arts festival.

Despite its name, the party actually began at 6 p.m. (or 5 a.m. Moscow time) with a VIP reception that gave top-level patrons a chance to schmooze, through interpreters, with the visiting Soviets. Viktyuk and Boyer made easy targets because, like most visiting Soviets, they wore suits instead of black tie. (The light gray pinstripe regularly sported by Soviet Minister of Culture Mikhail Gribanov, who did not attend the Rep gala, has already become something of a legend).

Not quite everyone required an interpreter. “I’ve been really practicing that Russian,” reported Rep managing director Adrian Stewart as he rattled off a greeting in what may have been a Moscow accent. “I know how to say ‘hello, good evening and nice to meet you.’ ” (Stewart added that he also knows moznah , moznah , which he said now echoes through Rep offices and auditoriums. It translates as “move it!”)

Jennifer Hankins and Linnea Arrington shared the duties of mounting “Midnight in Moscow!”

“Having ‘Slingshot’ here is so thrilling that we had to build our gala around it,” Hankins said. “We have Russians here tonight, but we’re also making a lot of money, which for any arts organization in this day and age is pretty exciting.”

“Having the Russians here made this event an easy sell,” added Arrington, who echoed a comment made by other party-givers who have been lucky enough to snare a Soviet or two. Anything Soviet is so “in” in fund-raising circles these days, in fact, that itinerant Soviets could easily become a growth industry for San Diego charities in the 1990s.

Hankins estimated net proceeds of $50,000, a fair portion of which was raised by a live auction of such items as a purebred Siberian husky pup (the buyer, who paid $750, actually will get the pick of the next litter at the donating kennel) and a walk-on role in a November preview performance of the Rep’s annually staged “A Christmas Carol.” That bit of fleeting fame cost its buyer $3,250.

One of the blue crystal “Friendship” eggs, commissioned as a commemoration of the arts festival by Jessop’s Jewelers and created by British artist Carl Faberge, ended in the hands of Shelia Davis and hotelier Larry Lawrence. Davis was listed as event honorary chair in recognition of her help producing “Slingshot,” a donation that won her considerable praise from table-mate and Rep producing director Sam Woodhouse.

“Shelia’s contribution is one of the boldest acts of generosity in our history, because it allowed us to bring to San Diego an artist (Viktyuk), who I would say is a genius,” said Woodhouse, who went on to praise his theater’s production. “This is a work of art like San Diego has never seen. We’re not doing middle-of-the-road American theater. This is a very Russian, very passionate, very international piece of art.”

Guests at the gala contented themselves with international art in the form of the Wayne Foster Orchestra, which enticed the Soviets to the floor with “La Bamba” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and with performances of an Uzbekistan drum dance and a traditional Russian shawl dance. The Wayne Foster singers, who make a point of moving with the music, stood by and marveled at the exotic arabesques of the Soviet dancers.

The guest list included Dottie Georgens, emigre artist Natasha Doubrovskaya, Amy and Bill Barnett, Susan and John Wertz, councilman Bob Filner, Sheri and Ben Kelts, Diane Saikhon with Alex Szekely, Maggie and Scott Anderson, Valerie Preiss with Harry Cooper, Bud Fischer, Susan Zale with Jack Berkman, Mary Swanby, Pat and Charles Beck, and Susan Eddington with Larry Favrot.

SAN DIEGO--A sextet of Soviets drew several dozen key supporters of the San Diego Opera to a genuine midnight supper and cast party after the Oct. 21 opening of “Boris Godunov.”

Bill and Rene Jenkins hosted the intimate soiree in an upstairs room at the San Diego Yacht Club and cheered delightedly when title bass Alexander Morozov, conductor Jansoug Kakhidze and other cast members burst into song over the stuffed eggs, offered from a tray by a strolling server who looked altogether enchanted by this response to so ingenuous an hors d’oeuvre.

All the other principals, including mezzo-soprano Irina Bogacheva and tenor Teimuraz Gugushvili, joined members of the opera’s Bravissimo Forte Patrons (who donate $5,000 or more per year) for the buffet of chicken hash, roast beef and blinchikis , all of it set around a carved ice bear that dripped slowly onto a silver platter of crudites . Most cast members paused first to accept the glasses of iced vodka and champagne that waited just inside the door.

The scene was jovial, occasionally musical and never quiet. Mayor Maureen O’Connor arrived in the company of her sister and brother-in-law, Mavourneen O’Connor and Tom Kravis, and provoked nearly operatic peals of laughter when she addressed Kakhidze as “Spencer Tracy;” the conductor evidently is very proud of his close resemblance to the late actor, and he offered a toast when given the nickname.

Opera director Ian Campbell and San Diego Museum of Art assistant director Jane Rice huddled by the buffet and reminisced about Thanksgiving 1987, which they spent in Moscow with O’Connor and other members of the San Diego delegation that negotiated the exhibits and performances for the Soviet arts festival.

“We laid the groundwork there,” Rice said solemnly.

“It was only 15 months from ‘go’ to ‘whoa,’ but we put the opera together that fast,” added Campbell. “That’s a very short time period when you’re dealing with the Soviets.”

Among the guests were opera President Esther Burnham with Jack Lasher, Lollie and Bill Nelson, Lee and Frank Goldberg, Frank Rice, Sally and John Thornton, Ann Campbell, Kathryn and James Colachis, Monsignor I. Brent Eagen, Jacque Powell and Marion Bateson.