Things are Looking up

Social gridlock reigned supreme at the home of Montecito artist Tom Mielko and his wife, Eileen, when they hosted a sunset soirée at their hilltop aerie.

“After what our community has suffered earlier this year, we thought we needed something to really cheer everybody up,” says Tom.

Among the guests quaffing the Veuve Clicquot and noshing on the eclectic selection of comestibles by caterer Elena Wagner, as pianist Patrick Maiani entertained, were Bill and Sandi Nicholson, Tipper Gore and Bill Allen, Robert and Christine Emmons, Leslie Ridley-Tree, Hiroko Benko, Susan St. John, Miles Hartfeld, Gretchen Lieff, Ray Winn, Peter Kavoian, Peter and Gloria Clark, Lana Marme, Barbara Woods, Diana Starr Langley, David and Lily Marx, and Jeff and Margo Barbakow.

A memorable evening.

Horne of Plenty

Legendary opera singer Marilyn Horne is in a whole new aria!

After nearly half a century on the East Coast, much of it in a duplex in the Big Apple, a tiara’s toss from Central Park and a seven-minute walk to the stage door of the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, Marilyn, 84, has moved permanently to her longtime aerie in our rarefied enclave.

“The stairs started to bother me a couple of years ago and I have had a house, on just one floor, here for 20 years, but it was still a hard decision to make,” says Marilyn, a four-time Grammy Award winner who sang on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and sang more than 1,300 recitals, including London’s Covent Garden and Milan’s La Scala.

“It was a real wrench leaving New York, having lived 40 years in my apartment. Both my homes on both coasts boasted spectacular views. I have a tendency to go for views and have never regretted it.

“We also started getting some real high-rises on our street, which made a real mess with traffic. It was not as nice as it once was. And I won’t miss the winters.”

Marilyn says she will return to the Right Coast on occasion, staying at the 1870 Lotos Club, one block away from my former Upper Eastside home, which was founded by journalists, writers, and artists.

I was last at the club in 1981 when Chanel had a glittering champagne-fueled launch party for its men’s cologne, Anteus, only the second male fragrance from the French fashion giant since Chanel pour Monsieur in 1963.

Marilyn, who dubbed the singing voice of Dorothy Dandridge in the film Carmen Jones in 1954 and won a National Medal of Arts in 1992, says she intends to continue teaching, including her regular masterclasses at the Music Academy of the West, which named a hall in her honor two years ago.

“My granddaughter, Daisy Houle, is going to be a sophomore at UCSB and I am thrilled to have her here. She is studying Chinese in China right now. I just got a text from the Forbidden City. I am still amazed by all this technology.”

Welcome to the ‘hood.