Onegin a Win

We were all clearly in the right aria when the Music Academy staged Tchaikovsky’s classic Eugene Onegin at the Granada, directed by Peter Kazaras, head of Opera UCLA.

With the orchestra under Slovenian-born conductor Daniela Candillari, Yale-educated baritone Samuel Kidd as Onegin, and soprano Johanna Will as his lover, they were absolutely superb in the colorful show based on Pushkin’s classic novel of love, hope, loss, and betrayal.

Mezzo soprano Joanne Evans, contralto Sarah Margaret Dyer, tenors Maximillian Jansen and Luke Norvell, baritone Alex Matthews and bass Eric Delagrange, just added to the production’s star quality.

Many of the tickets for the opera were just $10. No wonder everyone was Russian to get a seat!

A UN Address

Prince Harry and former actress wife Meghan Markle have been in New York this week with Queen Elizabeth’s grandson addressing the United Nations.

The speech, part of Nelson Mandela Day, saw the Duke of Sussex, 37, in front of an informal General Assembly gathering. The tony twosome wanted to honor the late South African president after visiting his widow, Graça Machel, in 2019.

Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, met with Mandela in Cape Town in March 1997, just five months before her tragic death in Paris. The Sussexi appeared at their last UN General Assembly in September 2021. During that visit the couple didn’t participate in the speeches in the famed assembly hall.

Musical Chairs 

It was all change at the Lobero when Grammy-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich, who was due to perform as part of the Music Academy’s 75th annual summer festival, was forced to cancel because of illness.

Fortunately, Academy teaching artists violist Richard O’Neill and pianist Margaret McDonald stepped in to perform Rebecca Clarke’s sonata, with the rest of the entertaining program remaining the same, including Loeffler’s two rhapsodies for oboe, viola, and piano – with Eugene Izotov, Cynthia Phelps, and Natasha Kislenko – and Dvořák’s “String Quintet No. 3 in E-flat Major” with violinists Martin Beaver and Danny Jin, violists Zechariah Mo and O’Neill, and cellist Noah Seng-hui Koh.

An enchanting evening….

Newlyweds in the Park

Oscar winner Jeff Bridges took on the role of father of the bride when he helped his daughter Hayley tie the knot in a romantic wedding in the Santa Ynez Valley.

The 79-year-old Montecito resident, dapper in a navy-blue suit, walked his youngest child up the aisle in an August 2021, ceremony.

The details of the fairytale nuptials are now being shared in Brides magazine.

Interior designer Hayley and her husband, wealth advisor Justin Shane, chose to spend their special day at Kestrel Park, a 100-acre private estate in Santa Ynez with 123 guests. 

The ceremony was originally planned for August 2020 but was postponed because of the pandemic.

Back to the Musical

Montecito actor Christopher Lloyd reunited with his film co-stars from the iconic series Back to the Future onstage at the London production of the movie musical.

Christopher, 83, joined the cast members at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End as he posed with his theater counterpart Roger Bart and Claudia Wells who played Marty McFly’s girlfriend in the movie 37 years after the 1985 film.

Other actors at the reunion included Frances Lee McCain, Donald Fullilove, and screenwriter Bob Gale.

Baring Fashion

Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow went topless while modeling clothes at her $4.9 million Montecito estate. The barefoot 49-year-old Oscar winner repped her G Label clothing company in a $295 pair of Geiger high rise, wide legged jeans, which come in blue and ivory. Paltrow, who boasts 14.4 million social media followers, artfully crossed her arms across her chest during the shoot.

Sightings

TV producer Christopher Lloyd at Lucky’s… Actress Joanna Kerns checking out Local… Actor Taylor Lautner at the Rosewood Miramar.

Pip! Pip! Be safe, wear a mask when necessary, and get vaccinated.