Dining and dancing for the sake of the Opera Pacific

B.W. COOK

Summer on the Balboa Peninsula could not have been celebrated with

more enthusiasm than at the recent dinner gala billed as “A Seafaring

Life.” Opera Pacific and its auxiliary, Gold Ring Society of

Founders, organized the summer frolic by the bay to honor one of its

own, Margaret Price. The historic Balboa Pavilion, erected in 1905

and recently refurnished, was the site of dinner, dancing and

sentimental tributes to Price, 87, who has devoted her life to family

and to music.

“My family has always come first, but next to family, music is

what has been most important in my life,” Price told the crowd.

A founding member of Opera Pacific and its Guild Alliance, Price

originated the “pre-performance lecture series” for the opera. As the

founder and chair of the opera’s Prologue Series and the Guild

Alliance Tours, Price has been a steadfast member of the community in

support of music and, in particular, opera in Orange County.

Currently serving on the executive committee of Opera Pacific, Price

has enjoyed a six-decade career in music as a concert artist,

teacher, director, coach, singer and performer. She appeared in Opera

Pacific productions of “My Fair Lady,” “Aida” and “La Boheme.”

The evening by the bay was chaired by two devoted Opera Pacific

ladies, Eve Foussard and Laila Conlin, both of Newport Beach. The

evening honoring Price was a major success. The crowd was invited to

a cocktail reception at sunset, prior to dinner, on board the yacht

Mara Vanessa, moored adjacent to the pavilion. Several hundred Opera

Pacific patrons boarded the vessel to toast the opera in Orange

County and then ascended the turn of the century steps in the

pavilion to find their dining table in the Harborside Grand Ballroom.

As a dinner of grilled salmon and stuffed chicken was served to

the capacity crowd, Shanda Lear and her band, All the Brass,

entertained the guests, and dancing became the mode of the summer

evening.

Lear is the daughter of Bill Lear, the creator of the Lear Jet.

Her family generously donated to the Opera Pacific auction along with

other merchants and individuals, helping to raise the financial bar.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary season in 2005-06, Opera Pacific

is led by president Robert Jones and John De Main, artistic director.

In the handsome summer crowd were Ruth Ding, Catherine and Jim Emmi,

Whitney and Jerry Mandel, Ron and Donna Phelps, Barbara and Bill

Roberts, Babs Soros, Gayle Widyolar and David Scott and Scott Clark,

chairman of the medical firm Smart Care. Clark flew in from Utah to

support friend and gala co-chair Foussard.

Also supporting the event were Renee Adler, Vesta Curry, Bob

Eichenberg, Leonardo Flores, Jane Grier, Elaine Keck, Charles

Ledgewood, Rudy Lukes, Julia Rappaport and Georgene Smith.

* THE CROWD appears Thursdays and Saturdays.