OSB’s Celebration of Love

Everyone was clearly in the right aria when Opera Santa Barbara, celebrating its 26th anniversary, threw its annual gala at the Biltmore, with the 150 guests raising more than $236,972 for the organization, including $116,400 from a paddle raise conducted by artistic and general director Kostis Protopapas.

The boffo bash, co-chaired by Joan Rutkowski, board chair, and Steven Sharpe, general director for 11 years until 2017, honored dynamic duo Roger and Sarah Chrisman, a board member, for their generous philanthropy over the years, including sponsoring the Chrisman Studio Artist Program.

Tenors Chandler Johnson, Arnold Rawls and Daniel Montenegro, sopranos Anya Matanovic, Sarah Vautour and Julia Metzler, mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra and baritone John Allen Nelson, accompanied by Tim Accurso on piano, provided the entertainment, with Josh Wheeker rendering a particularly rousing Nessun dorma from Puccini’s opera Turandot.

Among the teeming tony torrent of supporters, noshing on honey glazed duck breast, Chilean sea bass and wild mushroom risotto, were mayor Cathy Murillo, Barbara Burger, Carol Vernon, Janet Garufis, Joann Younger, Anne Towbes, Mary Dorra, Nina Dunbar, Marilyn Gilbert, Palmer and Susan Jackson, Miles Hartfeld and Gretchen Lieff, Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp, Dick and Marilyn Mazess, Ed and Renee Grubb, Jonathan Fox, Greg Gorga and Tam Trinh, Mahri Kerley, Caren Rager, Robert Weinman, Bob and Sandy Urquhart, Kevin Marvin, Simon Williams, Dan and Meg Burnham, and Howard Jay Smith.

An evening of high note and many in between…