Saturday night was a late one for the local arts supporters who purchased tickets to the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Opening Night and Opera Ball. The two-events-in-one evening comprised an hors d'oeuvres buffet at the Civic Opera House and a three-plus-hour performance of the French opera Manon, and—after all that—a ball that involved dinner, dancing, and a trumpet-scored march at the nearby Hilton Chicago. Because each component of the evening is considered its own event (and guests could opt to purchase tickets for the performance, the ball, or both), each had a different co-chair responsible for its execution.
Alison McNally oversaw the planning for opening night, and to create the evening's look, she and her team enlisted the services of Heffernan Morgan, the design firm that produces several annual events at the Civic Opera House (including May's Alliance Française gala). Designer Bill Heffernan said that the performance inspired his choice of decor for the evening. "It's a French country opera, and I wanted to reinterpret that in the opera's grand foyer," he said, adding that his vision was "French country, through the mind of Marie Antoinette."
Prior to the opening night performance, guests milled about the opera house's Rice grand foyer, where two rectangular pedestals (built by Lyric carpenters and fluted to match the foyer's interior columns) had hollow interiors that stored trays of heated hors d'oeuvres such as curried chicken-filled pastry puffs from Jewell Events Catering.
Heffernan worked closely with the opera's tech department to create lighting that would complement his gold, pink, and orange floral arrangements. In order for the grand foyer to "glow in autumn tones," Heffernan said, the tech department created leaf-shaped projections in pink and amber hues.
Of the more than 3,500 guests that attended the performance, 700 carried on to ball, which entailed a shuttle-bus ride to the Hilton for dinner, dancing to the Stu Hirsh Orchestra, and the event's traditional grand march, in which the opera's stars are presented in a procession accompanied by trumpets and drums. Suzette Bulley acted as chairman of the ball.
In the hotel's grand ballroom, Heffernan carried on his French autumnal vision, though he had less set-up time than he did at the opera house. "This year, a prior event event concluded less than 10 hours before the ball, so Heffernan Morgan had less time than is customary," McNally said.
Nevertheless, by the time guests arrived in the dining room, they found tables swathed in orange-and-pink mini-check linens, topped by towering six-foot-tall crystal vases filled with Japanese maple branches and illuminated with custom-made bronze light boxes. The dancing portion of the evening went on till nearly 1 a.m.—a feat considering the night's festivities kicked off at 5 pm.
