‘Feel-Good’ Opera’s Opening Night Toast

Gone Fishin’

Members of the Impresario Circle of Opera Pacific gathered for a post-show hobnob Friday following the opening night performance of “The Pearl Fishers.” About 100 society regulars mingled with cast members at Scott’s Seafood Grill, tipping back glasses of champagne and Chardonnay and sampling the fishers’ handiwork on the buffet (shrimp, salmon and oysters; also steak tartare and frog legs Provencal).

Getting Bizet

The opera, with music by Georges Bizet, is the second of three produced by the company this season. “It’s a bold move by Opera Pacific to do (“The Pearl Fishers”), because it’s not mainstream,” said Richard Engel, who co-chairs the support group with Walter Henry. “But we’re committed to doing one grand French opera per year--there are some wonderful masterpieces, and if they’re not revived they’re going to die.”

Engel said the “growth pattern” for the company has charted five operas for next season and as many as eight per season by 1995.

Performance Notes

This 19th-Century tale of love and death (opera’s bread and butter) went down easy with the company’s big-time donors. “I’ve listened to recordings of it, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen it,” said Floss Schumacher, chairman of the board of directors. “So of course it was fun to put it all together. It’s like going to the moving pictures.”

LaDorna Eichenberg said she avoided reading anything about the opera or listening to recordings of it so she could be “surprised this time.” And was she? “Well, yes,” she said, laughing, “because my husband said it had a happy ending--he forgot to mention that (one of the main characters) dies!”

Cathy Louden said the relatively lightweight music and plot were salves to her war-torn sensibilities. “I think this was the first time I’ve felt happy and carefree in weeks,” she said. “You know how they say, ‘It’s a feel-good movie’? Well, this was a ‘feel-good’ opera.”

Faces

In the black-tie crowd were Laila and Bill Conlin (who underwrote the performance of soprano Janice Hall), and Arlene and George Cheng (underwriters of soprano Ai-Lan Zhu and tenor Jianyi Zhang, who will perform in an alternate cast).

Also partying were Jeanette and Hal Segerstrom, Betty and Phillip Quarre, Dorothy and James Conte, Martha and Hansel Benvenuti, Cassie and Scott Walker, Dottie and Glen Stillwell and Opera Pacific General Director David DiChiera, who stepped behind a podium at midnight to thank the fund-raisers and introduce the singers.

Quote Jolene Engel, wife of opera enthusiast Richard Engel, made what may be the first rock-and-roll quip ever recorded at an opera party. Asked how she liked the show, Engel joked that since the heroine was named “Leila” she “kept expecting Derek and the Dominos to come barging in and play.” (Hint: Leila is pronounced “Lay-la.” If you still don’t get it, ask your kids.)