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A Trilling Evening
On February 2nd, the entryway to the Civic Opera House was strewn with oriental carpets and set aglow with henna-patterned, pink light projections. For the 24th Annual Fantasy of the Opera Gala, organized by Lyric Opera of Chicago's Guild Board of Directors, Fantasy chairman Jim Staples collaborated with co-chair Christina Rashid to come up with a “Rock the Casbah” theme. “Morocco has an appealing, warm and exotic culture,” explained Staples, “(and) that is in line with our mission to create a fantasy evening.”
To bring the fantasy to life, Staples and Rashid called on the design talents of Bill Heffernan (of Heffernan Morgan), who added sultry Moroccan spice to the Civic Opera House. Silent auction tables tented in pink and orange silk were meant to evoke a North African marketplace. Behind a set of billowing orange drapes, the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Grand Foyer was thematically dressed for dinner and dancing. Tables swathed in teal, merlot and orange satin linens were topped with trios of silk, cylindrical lamps. Surrounding the lobby, voile shades in hues of orange, pink and green bathed the room in a fairy-tale glow. Areca palm fronds, belly dancers, and strolling French legionnaires breathed more life into the casbah theme.
On style watch as we sipped our pomegranate martinis (a.k.a. casbah cocktails), Factio spotted plenty of vividly-colored glad rags. Magda Krance, Lyric’s Manager of Media Relations, sported a vintage Leonard de Paris gown splashed with a très-Moroccan orange and blue pattern.
Cocktails were followed by a cabaret-style performance in the opera’s Ardis Krainik Theatre. Seven stars of Lyric’s season belted out opera favorites and Broadway classics. Though all the performances blew us away, our favorite diva of the evening was Amber Wagner, whose soaring soprano in “Bess, You Is My Woman” positively trilled us.
After a buffet-style, Blue-Plate catered dinner of salmon and couscous, guests headed downstairs to an after-dinner retreat modeled after the mythical Rick’s Café Américain. In the Casablanca-inspired lounge, partygoers caffeinated with cappuccino and Ethel’s chocolates and got cozy on upholstered benches piled with embroidered pillows. The lounge’s floor was covered with oriental carpets, and pink lotus flowers floated in self-illuminating, glass cylinders.
Back upstairs, Lynne Jordan and the Shivers performed till the wee hours in front of a sea of bopping fezzes, which guests had snatched up from their place settings.
This year’s ball raised $569,460.
-Jenny Berg
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