A Look Back at What Kept the Social Scene Front and Center

Pride, confidence, a new awareness--those are the terms the cognoscenti use when they talk about the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s impact on the local social scene.

Perhaps arts leader Henry Segerstrom says it best: “The Center has boosted our self-esteem, broadened our perspective, opened our minds. With the Center, this community finally thought big enough and accomplished big enough.

“It’s hard to imagine it wasn’t here a few years ago.”

I was on hand that September night in 1986 when maestro Zubin Mehta raised his baton and forever altered Orange County’s social landscape. After the concert, thousands of decked-out party-goers--many of whom had arrived in champagne-equipped limousines--streamed into the massive tents erected for the christening festivities.

We’d all been to parties, but this one was different. It had a worldliness.

The magic ingredient of that exhilarating night was anticipation. We’d had time to dream about the legendary Mehta and Leontyne Price performing in Segerstrom Hall.

And we knew it wouldn’t end there. Afterward, we’d discuss the performance over champagne and supper at a glittering, post-performance splash.

The good news is nothing has changed.

Tonight, when hundreds of arts supporters arrive at the Center to dine and dance on stage at “Starlight Expressions”--the gala celebrating the Center’s fifth anniversary--they will be where they belong: in the spotlight. Their patronage has made it all happen.

Before the advent of the Center, says arts catalyst Janice Johnson, Orange County couldn’t count itself among the communities with a nationally respected social circle--a core group that stages high-profile happenings again and again.

“There just weren’t many parties of high caliber,” says Johnson, a former New Yorker.

Looking back, you know she is right.

Here then, a sampling of the gatherings that have put Orange County on the national social map:

* Who can forget the 1989 night that ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev, after playing the King of Siam in “The King and I,” clowned with party-goers at Scott’s Seafood Bar and Grill? One minute the danseur noble was scowling on stage, the next he was mugging it up for the paparazzi, shoving a white linen napkin in his mouth and making faces.

On that night, arts lovers mingled with Nureyev and his co-star Liz Robertson, widow of lyricist Alan J. Lerner (“My Fair Lady,” “Camelot,” “Gigi”). In the audience: Leslie Caron, Loretta Young (guest of Henry and Renee Segerstrom) and legendary dress designer Jean Louis.

* Opera lovers Martha and Dr. Hansel Benvenuti welcomed diva Joan Sutherland into their Harbor Island home in 1989. Such is life for members of Opera Pacific’s prestigious Impresario Circle. Time and again, they entertain the best of the best--Sutherland, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, for starters.

On this afternoon, the auburn-tressed Aussie and her husband, Richard Bonynge, enjoyed a champagne reception and luncheon buffet.

“It’s terribly like Sydney,” Sutherland chirped, drinking in the sight of sun-dappled Newport Bay.

* Then there was the night songbird Diahann Carroll mingled with guests for a post-theater dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel. Spicing up the supper were Carroll’s starry-set pals, including Jackie Collins, Allan Carr, designer Nolan Miller, and Hollywood Reporter columnist George Christy. Quote of the night (from Christy): “Everyone keeps asking me if I’m Truman Capote; don’t they know he’s dead?”

* In 1988, Pavarotti was feted by Opera Pacific with a post-performance benefit gala at the Red Lion Inn. Among guests watching the earthy tenor--who was wearing a stoplight red chemise--toss down Cabernet Sauvignon and antipasto were fans Ernest Borgnine and Richard Thomas. Janice Johnson pronounced the Italian “sexy. When he sings Puccini, you have to fall in love with him.”

* Guests didn’t know whether to shake Sarah Brightman’s hand or give her a sympathy pat when they partied with the then-wife of Andrew Lloyd Webber after her performance in 1989. Brightman had arrived at the bash, sans Webber, and guests weren’t sure what to make of it. Later, they would learn the couple’s marriage was skidding out of control. Among guests: Dale Kristien, who played “Christine” to Michael Crawford’s “Phantom” in “The Phantom of the Opera.” (Remember, Brightman played it first. “This is the first time I have heard Sarah sing,” Kristien said.)

* Then there was that jewel of a party in 1988 staged by Bulgari of New York that feted the Angels of the Arts, the elite, all-women Center support group that antes up hefty annual dues. Domingo was the honored guest, and his entrance upstaged the zillion dollars’ worth of jewelry Bulgari was hoping to sell. Guests were treated to a piano recital by Lalo Schifrin, composer of the “Mission Impossible” theme.

(Domingo was also here this year--partying up a storm with supporters of Opera Pacific during his “The Girl of the Golden West” engagement.)

* One of the most poignant post-performance parties was staged at the Four Seasons Hotel this year after Itzhak Perlman’s debut at the Center. The Orange County Philharmonic Society made sure Perlman had a double scoop of his favorite dessert--vanilla ice cream--when he schmoozed with symphony buffs.

Perlman was worried that night. The Persian Gulf War was about to begin and his father was in Israel. “I am concerned for him,” Perlman said. “But he has been through it all before.”

* Nureyev made his an earlier local appearance in 1987 when he partied at Birraporetti’s following the West Coast premiere of Paris Opera Ballet’s “Cinderella.” Among guests at the performance was Douglas Cramer--producer of “Dynasty”--who’d flown to Orange County from Los Angeles by private plane, just to catch the show.

* And finally, there was that wonderful night in 1987 when the elusive Mikhail Baryshnikov summoned the courage to spend a few shining moments with guests following an appearance by the American Ballet Theatre at a party in the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel.

“I think it was a good performance,” he said shyly. “I’m never perfectly happy. But, yes. I think it was a good performance.” Then, the man they call Misha strolled into the night.

Here’s to the next five!