Wednesday
night, the New York City Opera opened its 2005-2006 season with a gala
dinner and performance of Capriccio by Richard
Strauss. Directed by Stephen Lawless (City Opera’s The
Flying Dutchman in 2001 and Daphne in 2004) Capriccio stars City Opera
favorite
Pamela Armstrong as the Countess. In the salon of the young, widowed
Countess Madeleine, plans are afoot to celebrate her birthday.
The composer Flamand has written a string sextet in her honor,
while the poet Olivier has penned a play. Rivals both in art and
for the hand of the Countess, the men are challenged to unite their
offerings into a single gift, an opera. Its finale, however, depends
upon whom the Countess chooses to love. Will it be the man of letters
or of notes?
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Pamela
Armstrong and Paul Kellogg
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The evening
celebrated the General and Artistic Director Paul Kellogg’s
10th anniversary with the NYCO. After the performance the guests
moved to the Grand Promenade of the New York State Theater at
Lincoln Center for the Dinner. Peter Duchin and his orchestra
played.
Among the guests: Susan Baker, Michael Lynch, Michael Ball,
Nancy Bass, Robert Couturier, Brooke Hayward and Peter Duchin,
Edmee de M. and Nicholas Firth, Yung Hee-Kim, Kitty Carlisle Hart,
Maisie
Houghton, Jasper Johns, Paul Kellogg, Evelyn and Leonard Lauder,
Donald and Sue Newhouse, Mark and Lorry Newhouse, Roxana and
Hamilton Robinson, Liz and Jeffrey Peek, Lillian Vernon and Paolo
Martino,
Rufus Wainwright, Princess Alexandra of Greece, Elaine Sargent,
and Barbara Tober.
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