Striking and unusual decor surrounded guests arriving at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ spring gala. Following a performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion—a story that revolves around the romances of a soldier in 19th-century northern Italy—at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, a cocktail reception and dinner took place at the Tent at Lincoln Center. Mary Callaghan, the director of special events for Lincoln Center, worked with event designer Roy Braeger, whose decor was inspired by the musical’s romantic tale.
To evoke the moon inside the tent, Braeger suspended a huge white ball of ostrich feathers over a square bar garbed in deep blue linen. Sectioning off the cocktail area from the rest of the tent was a giant sheer scrim covered with projections of an antique Italian geometric pattern, and benefitgoers could peer through the translucent fabric to see the dining area, where tall candelabra curved up from the tables to create dramatic patterns in the room. (Braeger told us the candelabra were made to emulate the sabers of the soldiers in Passion.) Spiral-shaped chandeliers with arms that echoed the candelabra hung from the tent's ceiling.
For the tables’ centerpieces, squat black velvet boxes held masses of tulips—some 20,000 were used throughout the dining room. And among the items on the menu from Catering by Restaurant Associates were pan-seared veal medallions in an osso buco sauce served with mascarpone and Parmesan polenta, and.phparagus with toasted corn and morels.
—Mark Mavrigian
To evoke the moon inside the tent, Braeger suspended a huge white ball of ostrich feathers over a square bar garbed in deep blue linen. Sectioning off the cocktail area from the rest of the tent was a giant sheer scrim covered with projections of an antique Italian geometric pattern, and benefitgoers could peer through the translucent fabric to see the dining area, where tall candelabra curved up from the tables to create dramatic patterns in the room. (Braeger told us the candelabra were made to emulate the sabers of the soldiers in Passion.) Spiral-shaped chandeliers with arms that echoed the candelabra hung from the tent's ceiling.
For the tables’ centerpieces, squat black velvet boxes held masses of tulips—some 20,000 were used throughout the dining room. And among the items on the menu from Catering by Restaurant Associates were pan-seared veal medallions in an osso buco sauce served with mascarpone and Parmesan polenta, and.phparagus with toasted corn and morels.
—Mark Mavrigian

Tall metal candelabra held votives and soared from dinner tables at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ spring gala at the Tent at Lincoln Center.

Upon entering the tent, guests encountered a large, fanciful orb covered with white ostrich feathers suspended over the bar.

A sheer scrim adorned with decorative projections afforded a dramatic view of the dining area's arrangement of tall votive candelabra.

Antipasti from Catering by Restaurant Associates included truffled artichoke bottoms with lemon and chervil, smoked salmon with American caviar, and eggplant caponata on crostini.