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Blooming
in Herald Square. 8:35 PM. Photo: JH.
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I
love to sing. To sing with Sinatra, or Bing, or Elvis,
or John and Paul, Dylan or Neil
Young, or Fats or Noel or Cole or Bobby or Marian or Merman or Billie or Luciano.
To sing like them (in my wildest dreams). Of course when
Luciano sings Nessun Dorma, I can only listen
and fill to the brim with the rapture of his sounds.
And I’m not bad, as a singer – although
I’m not good. When I was a very young
man and studying to be an actor, I studied voice with a wonderful
man, a great teacher, named John Mace. The
result was a big (as in loud) and handsome voice that could
hold a tune, consistently. Sometimes when I’m singing
along with one of my favorites, like Alfred Drake or John
Raitt in “Oklahoma” or “Carousel” I
think for a minute that I still have that voice that I developed
in Mr. Mace’s studio. Until they get to the high notes,
and then alas, I am suddenly aware…I do not. At that
revelation there is a ping of regret. But only a ping, because
I do not believe in “regrets.”
But I still love to sing. And I’m
still loud. I play the piano and sing and I listen to my
iTunes day in, day out, night after night after night, and
sing. I pretend my neighbors can’t hear me, that I
live in a soundproof box. Although I can hear their tellys.
(Shrug.) But I love to sing.
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Screenshot
of Pavarotti's tribute to Montserrat Caballé
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And
so that may be why, although I am by no means
an opera buff, I am drawn year after year to the Metropolitan
Opera Guild luncheon where each year they honor one of their
greatest living voices. Last year it was Luciano,
as Diary readers may recall. This year it was Montserrat
Caballé (Kab-ah-yay).
Nine hundred of us congregated in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf along
with a score of opera legends, officers and supporters of the Metropolitan
Opera where they showered Madame Caballé with testimonials of encomiums
and affection and awe. The program began with everyone taking their seats.
Then came the introduction, on stage, of the Honored Guests. Then came
a video history of Madame Caballé’s life, from early childhood
on in pre-Franco’s Spain. Then there was her appearance in Madame
Butterfly with a handsome baritone Bernable Marti.
At the end of one aria, the leading man kissed the leading lady passionately.
At the end of the next aria, he asked her to marry him. On stage and in
real life. Then came the moment of chance and serendipity that formulates
the future.
Marilyn
Horne was booked to sing a concert at Carnegie Hall
in New York. She was eight months pregnant at the time and
decided that the program would be too demanding of her and
so she had to cancel. Last minute they hired a young unknown
to replace her: Montserrat Caballé. The next day Rudolf
Bing of the Met came to see her and to persuade
her to stay in America. The rest is history. There was a
video of Luciano from Italy congratulating his leading lady.
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Caballé and
Marilyn Horne
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There
was Sherrill Milnes describing
what it was like to work with this very sweet woman who could
disapprove (of a tempo, a costume,
a direction) with a simple swoon that had its effect. There was Marilyn
Horne, the woman whose cancellation jump-started Caballé’s
American career. Ms. Horne related how the two women later worked together
in Aida and afterwards became friends. The testimonials from colleagues
are always, ultimately, backstage show biz stories, and endlessly fascinating
to us civilians and fans listening in to the “inside.”
There was a special heart-rending serenade to
Montserrat Caballé by fourth-graders
from New York City Public School 212Q (Kat Alston,
Choral Director). These kids are participants in The Guild’s
Urban Voices Program – one of the programs funded by
these fundraisers. Then there was a musical tribute by Deborah
Voight singing a specially written piece of material
addressed to the honoree called “It Isn’t Fair,” which
was a Carol Burnett-like tribute in irony
to the talents of Montserrat Caballé. Ms. Voight demonstrated
a fabulous comic sense of timing (and musical delivery) that
had the honoree and the audience shaking and quaking with
laughter.
I am always curious how these great opera fans become such
for although I love music and am often moved by it, I was never drawn to
grand opera with the intensity and passion that surrounded me in the Grand
Ballroom yesterday afternoon. I was seated next to Thelma Fisher,
whose son Sandy Fisher produces events for the Metropolitan
Opera, such as the Mario Lanza tribute we covered on these
pages several weeks ago.
I knew from our conversation about the luncheon testimonial that Mrs. Fisher
is an opera buff. I asked her how that happened. She told me about her
late husband who had been a musician and music lover all while growing
up. He had wanted a musical career although his parents discouraged him,
fearful of his financial future. So he became a businessman and music was
his avocation. Music and art. On their first date which must have been
about sixty-five years ago, he took her to a concert at Carnegie Hall.
Third balcony. And although she liked Sinatra and Bing
Crosby she wasn’t crazy about classical music. But because
she liked her date, she pretended to be interested. From then on, he took
her to the Met, which he loved. So passionate was he, she said, that when
he saw a great performance, he would cry; and when he saw a lousy performance,
he’d leave after the first act. All the while, his girlfriend, who
then became his wife, went along, although only with an accommodating interest
in opera.
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Plácido
Domingo and Caballé at the Met on
Tokyo TV
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Then one
night they went to a performance of Lily Pons in Lucia
de Lammamoor. There was the scene when Lily Pons comes
down the staircase and sings her aria. For some inexplicable
reason, Mrs. Fisher, long familiar and only slightly not
indifferent to grand opera, was overtaken and overwhelmed
by Pons’ aria in Lucia. And that was it. It
clicked. All these years later, her husband having passed
away, she subscribes to not one but two series of afternoon
opera performances (she thinks of herself as too old to be
going alone to the nighttime performances), and she is, as
she confided to me, “an opera buff.” And now,
with summer coming, she lamented, and the season, ending,
she will be without her beloved grand opera, and it will
be a real loss.
This was the 70th anniversary of the Metropolitan
Opera Guild Luncheon. It was started by a woman
named Eleanor Robson Belmont, an actress
who married a very wealthy financier. She lived for a year
more than a century and in her long life, she devoted herself
to helping the Met stay alive and advancing its influence
in the world. Mrs. Robson’s work was not in vain, although
today the Met continues to look for ways to stimulate the
interest of younger generations in the opera. It is a challenge
they feel that is best cultivated in the earliest years.
Mrs. Fisher’s son Sandy, now no longer a kid – far
from it, you could say, as an opera buff, he has used his
professional talents to share his passion and advance the
interests of the Met and its millions of fans.
The luncheon started at 12:15 sharp and despite the number of people (almost
1000), and the intensity of emotion that fills the room with the performances,
the memories and the personages, we were out of there by a little after
two -- sated and satisfied, and not altogether unconvinced that the world
is indeed a beautiful place, especially when there is singing. |
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Metropolitan
Opera Guild Luncheon's Guests of Honor:
• Licia Albanese
• Lucine Amara
• Rockwel Blake
• Nico Castel
• Lili Chookasian
• Lonetta di Franco
• Mignon Dunn
• Rosalind Elias
•
Simon Estes
• Marcello Giordiani
• Marilyn Horne
• Soile Isokosky
• Evelyn Lear
• Frank Lopardo
• John Macurdy
• Bernabe Marti (Mme. Caballe’s husband)
•
Montserrat
Marti (their daughter)
• Sherrill Milnes
• Anna Moffo
• Kurt Moli
• Rene Pape
• Roberta Petres
• Paul Pilshika
• Eve Queler
• Regina Reznik
• Julius Rudel
• Risë Stevens
• Thomas Stewart
Dais guests:
• David A. Dik
• James Marcus
• Regina Reznik
• Paul Kellogg
• Roberta Peters
• Carlos Caballe
• Marilyn Horne
• Joseph Volpe
• Susan Braddock
• Winthrop Rutherfurd, Jr.
• Montserrat Caballé
• Bernabe Marti
• Juan Manuel Egea Ibanez
• Sherrill Milnes
• Risë Stevens
• Lee C. Wortham
• Sarah Billinghurst |
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Lucine
Amara, Montserrat Caballé, and Marilyn Horne
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Risë Stevens
and Lee Wortham
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Thelma
and Sandy Fisher with Joan Marcus
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Lew
Miano, Karen Lerner, and Neal Goren
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Fourth-graders
from PS 212Q and participants in The Guild Hall Urban Voices
Program singing "Ers Tú"
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Regina
Resnik and Joe Volpe
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Regina
Resnik and James Marcus
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Nimet
Habachy, Charles Hamlen, and Elisabeth Hayes
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Jean
and Barry Tucker
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Montserrat
Caballé and
her husband Bernabe
Marti
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L.
to r.: Win Rutherfurd, Regina Resnik, Sherrill
Milnes, and Montserrat Caballé; Deborah Voigt
singing her hilarious tribute to Montserrat.
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Marilyn
Horne,
Sandy Fisher, and Sherrill Milnes
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Anna
Moffo Sarnoff, Joe Volpe, and Susan Braddock
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A warm
April evening and lots going on in New York. Over at New York Presbyterian, old friends of Bill
Blass congregated
for cocktails
and dinner in honor of the late great designer for his enormous bequest
to the AIDS unit of the hospital – an evening chaired by two
of his closest friends, Casey Ribicoff and Mica
Ertegun.
Then down at the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf Astoria, The Pasteur
Foundation held an annual fund-raiser “An Evening of French
Wine,” and honoring The Honorable William J. Clinton, 42nd
President of the United States with the Pasteur Foundation’s
2005 Award. Honorary Chairs were Anne Cox Chambers, Dr. Judith
Sulzberger and Mrs. and Mrs. Guy Wildenstein. Gala Chairmen were Elizabeth
Fondaras, Mrs. Georges Hibon and Mrs. Spiros Milonas.
Me, I was over at Gotham Hall on 36th and Broadway where Pratt Institute was holding their 6th annual “Pratt Legends” dinner which
raised more than $400,000 for scholarships for Pratt students.
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Dana
Tyler
and Marc Rosen
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This year’s
award winners were Robert Wilson (who was unable to attend because
he was in hospital in Germany where he was being
treated for gall bladder problems), the artist James Rosenquist,
fashion designer Cathy Hardwick, costume jewelry designer and tycoon,
Kenneth Jay Lane and Helmut Jahn, the great German architect who
resides and works in Chicago.
The evening was hosted by CBS anchor Dana Tyler and chaired by Marc
Rosen and Juliana Curran Terian, who herself was once a Pratt scholarship
student. Mr. Rosen and some members of the board started this events
in 1999 and since then they have raised millions to assist Pratt
students and in the meantime have also elevated the public profile
of this great New York art school.
The first recipient at last night’s dinner was Cathy Hardwick
and her presenter, Tom Ford, was unable to attend but was on video.
Mr. Ford, now a tycoon of world fashion, got his start with Ms. Hardwick,
and he got it by pure stick-to-it-iveness. He kept after her until
she gave him a job. He even confessed on camera that it probably
wasn’t his portfolio that got him hired, but that she just
was impressed by his ambition. Later, Ms. Hardwick told the audience
that she herself had had no formal training to be a designer (although
she’s since taught at Pratt) but always encouraged people to
go after what they want and to specifically pursue fashion houses
that interested them most.
Kenny Lane, now one of the great social figures of the last half-century
of New York, droll, wry, witty, and never without a last word, told
the audience that “My parents had a big problem with me. I
was an only child and when you decide at age eight that you are a
legend, it’s not easy for the parents.” Diana
Vreeland was a great mentor for him. “Diana knew nothing about negativity,” he
recalled. “She was only interested in the positive.” He
started out as a shoe designer and happened into costume jewelry,
borrowing from, inspired by the greats, such as Fulco Verdura. In
short time, his work was so popular with the chicest of women that
he became a household word. Today his designs are a million dollar
business on QVC and he rejoices in his continued success: “Not
only have I been able to keep the wolves from the door, but I’ve
been able to keep women (and maybe some men – who knows) happy
with my jewelry.” Furthermore, he added, reflecting on his
design beginnings, “Jewelry doesn’t hurt – shoes
can hurt.” |
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Thomas
Schutte,
James Rosenquist, Juliana
Curran Terian,
Cathy Hardwick, and Helmut
Jahn
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Helmut
Jahn was somewhat confounded by the term “legend,” regarding
it as something that sums up a life and career, while he is still
vitally involved with his work. As a partner in Murphy/Jahn,
his work is indeed legendary – the Bayer Building in Leverkuson,
Germany, the IIT Student Housing in Chicago, the Sony Center
of Berlin, the Munich Airport Center, the European Union Headquarters
in Brussels, the RCID Administration Building in Buena Vista
Florida, the Principal Mutual Life Insurance Company Corporate
Expansion in Des Moines (see more by visiting his web site: http://www.murphyjahn.com),
what was impressive about Mr. Jahn was his obvious modesty and
continuing passion for his work and objectives.
James Rosenquist came to New York from the midwest in the early 1950s with a
scholarship to the Arts Students League. He got a job painting billboards for
Art Craft Strauss which had almost a monopoly on signs on Broadway and all over
the city. He recalled his first job was painting Hebrew National Salami Signs
in East New York and Coney Island. He painted so many Schenley ads that included
a reference on the label to the ingredients of the alcoholic concoction that
out of whim and boredom, he began changing the copy to “Mary Had a Little
Lamb.”
Mr. Strauss, of Art Craft Strauss, remained impressed with the young man’s
talent and so he remained on the job. Looking today at the museum collections
of Mr. Rosenquist’s work (he still looks like a grown up farmer’s
son from North Dakota, and a very youthful septuagenarian), one can easily see
how his early experiences in New York City, opened up a world class career and
influence on the art history of the century.
Characteristic of all of last night’s awardees was their plain and simple,
and never fancy attitude toward their work. They pursued those things which intrigued
and interested them and found ways of turning uncommon interests into common
objects of life enhancing beauty.
New York, New York, it’s a helluva town! |
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Kohle
Yohannan,
Cathy Hardwick, and Richard Turley
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Kohle
Yohannan, Cathy
Hardwick,
and Michael Vollbracht
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Paula
and Ken Wolfe
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Michele
Gerber Klein
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Sharon
Hoge and Kenny Lane
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Sharon
Bush
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Juliana
Curran Terian
and Carole Holmes McCarthy
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Bob
Osborne and Karen Weinberg
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Spring Shopping Spree
Charlotte Ford • Clay Barr • Diana Feldman
and Nancy B (Jewelry by Nancy Bothamley Lobel)
Gifts for:
Weddings • Anniversaries • Birthdays • Graduations • Mother’s
Day • Father’s Day • Hostess • Bar and Bat Mitzvahs • Party
Favors • Corporate Events
Tuesday April 19th through Thursday April 21st
10 AM – 6 PM*
The Surrey Hotel, 20 East 76th Street, New York City
1-800-317-Gift or www.omnipresentsgifts.com
*other times by appointment
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A
bouquet upstairs at
the cocktail reception and the table settings as seen from above |
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Mario
Buatta and Roger Webster
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Marc
Rosen, Bob Osborne, Jane Powell, Arlene Dahl, and
Dickie Moore
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Cece
Cord and Jonathan Marder
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Joan
Jedell
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R.
Couri Hay, Cece Cord, and DPC
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The
table
settings
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