Wearing a royal blue dress adorned with an feather collar, Beverly Sills flashed her infectious, megawatt smile as she was honored for her eight-year tenure as chairman of the board of Lincoln Center at the spring benefit gala. Scads of gala-goers turned out to fete the Brooklyn-born diva, who left the chairmanship at the end of 2002. She remains chairman of the board for the Metropolitan Opera.
Lincoln Center's director of special events Mary Callaghan oversaw the event, which was the organization's biggest fund-raiser to date. Matthew David used two colors schemes for the evening's decor. The cocktail hour, held on the promenade of the New York State Theater, featured tall cocktail tables draped with gold organza overlays embroidered with vines atop pale yellow bengaline cloths. Small, warm-hued flower arrangements with parrot tulips and amaryllis inside footed bronze vases decorated the tables. Bentley Meeker lit the room with muted pink lights that nicely illuminated the Elie Nadelman statues that flank both sides of the floor.
A tribute performance MCed by Carol Burnett, Liz Smith and Barbara Walters followed, and included performances by Audra McDonald, Terrence McNally and Nathan Lane, among others. Next everyone headed to dinner at Damrosch Park. Stamford Tent provided a large tent with tempered glass walls on one side to give guests a view of the park, and a bubble machine—in honor of Sills' nickname "Bubbles"—sent streams of soapy spheres into the air. Inside, David opted for spring colors, with purple vines embroidered on lavender overlay tablecloths and spring centerpieces of peonies, hydrangea, anemones, roses, lisianthus, amaryllis, lilies and parrot tulips. The showcase of the tent's decor was a 12- by 8-foot chandelier draped with white, purple, lavender and pink ribbons and accented with white hydrangea.
—Suzanne Ito
Lincoln Center's director of special events Mary Callaghan oversaw the event, which was the organization's biggest fund-raiser to date. Matthew David used two colors schemes for the evening's decor. The cocktail hour, held on the promenade of the New York State Theater, featured tall cocktail tables draped with gold organza overlays embroidered with vines atop pale yellow bengaline cloths. Small, warm-hued flower arrangements with parrot tulips and amaryllis inside footed bronze vases decorated the tables. Bentley Meeker lit the room with muted pink lights that nicely illuminated the Elie Nadelman statues that flank both sides of the floor.
A tribute performance MCed by Carol Burnett, Liz Smith and Barbara Walters followed, and included performances by Audra McDonald, Terrence McNally and Nathan Lane, among others. Next everyone headed to dinner at Damrosch Park. Stamford Tent provided a large tent with tempered glass walls on one side to give guests a view of the park, and a bubble machine—in honor of Sills' nickname "Bubbles"—sent streams of soapy spheres into the air. Inside, David opted for spring colors, with purple vines embroidered on lavender overlay tablecloths and spring centerpieces of peonies, hydrangea, anemones, roses, lisianthus, amaryllis, lilies and parrot tulips. The showcase of the tent's decor was a 12- by 8-foot chandelier draped with white, purple, lavender and pink ribbons and accented with white hydrangea.
—Suzanne Ito
A 12- by 8-foot chandelier draped with white, purple, lavender and pink ribbons and accented with white hydrangea hung from the ceiling of the tent at Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts' "Thank You, Beverly" spring benefit gala.
Matthew David decorated dinner tables with spring centerpieces of peonies, hydrangea, anemones, roses and lisianthus.
The dinner for 1,200 guests was held inside a tent atop Damrosch Park.
Stamford Tents provided a large tent with tempered glass walls on one side to give guests a view of Damrosch Park.
