An Evening of ‘Countess’ Delights in L.A.

Yvonne Kalman, daughter of the late composer Emmerich Kalman, was there to hear her father’s 1924 operetta, “Countess Maritza,” delight L.A.

“It was wonderful to hear so much laughter, to see people realize they can have fun. They can really let go,” she said. She also could have been describing the mood of the party Saturday in the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion following the L.A. Opera’s opening-night performance of the lively romance.

“I’m really enjoying myself,” said musician Mike Stoller, as he took in the Gypsy music played for the 400 party-goers by 13 members of the Budapest Gypsy Orchestra who had flown in from Hungary for the occasion.

In other signs of the Hungarian theme, red, white and green tables were decorated with wreathes of wheat, poppies, cornflowers and daisies and Barack Palinka (apricot brandy) was served before the dinner of chicken paprika with spaetzle.

Guests included Gyorgy Banlaki, Hungarian ambassador to the U.S., and party-goers got to mingle with the cast, among them the love-struck “Countess” herself, Ashley Putnam, who was escorted by her real-life fiance, Dean Anthony.

Peter Hemmings, L.A. Opera director, stuck to his tradition of keeping the requisite speech short but took the opportunity to acknowledge Kalman’s wife, Vera, and daughter, Yvonne, and also Henry Grunwald, former U.S. ambassador to Austria, former editor of Time and son of “Maritza” co-librettist (with Julium Brammer) Alfred Grunwald. Henry Grunwald, with his wife, Louise, had come from New York for the evening.

After midnight, as she waltzed on to the dance floor in the arms of Jean-Paul Vignon, Em Green, chairwoman of the gala, remarked, “I’d hoped to deliver a new base for support of the L.A. Opera, and I think and hope that is what happened.”