Vogue Covers Opera Fashions On MET's Opening Night "Figaro"

Pre-Nozze: Anna Netrebko and soon-to-be-husband Yusif Eyvazov at opening night festivities.

Vogue photographer Hannah Thomson was at the Metropolitan Opera's Opening Night Gala. The evening featured a performance of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. Evening attendants included Maggie Grace, Zac Posen, Vera Wang, Grace Coddington, Josh Lucas, Christine Baranski, and more. See the full gallery of the glamorous night by clicking here. 

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Did Anna Netrebko And Mercedes Bass Get A Contact High?

Netrebko and Bass post-concert at
Le Poisson Rouge (Photo: Facebook)

"They say the old culture-world distinction between uptown and downtown New York has vanished, but on Wednesday evening at Le Poisson Rouge, the Greenwich Village basement club, it still felt like a meeting of two disparate domains. There was delicious incongruence between the sight of Mercedes Bass, the Metropolitan Opera’s elegantly coifed vice chairwoman, and the unmistakable scent of marijuana just a few feet away. Ms. Bass and cannabis had descended the stairs for the latest in a series of concerts presented by the Met in collaboration with the indie-hip, intimate Le Poisson Rouge. The program, 'Russian Exoticism and ‘Prince Igor,’' was offered as a kind of promotion for the Met’s new production of 'Igor,' the Borodin masterpiece, which opens Feb. 6." [Source]

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"Patricia Clarkson, wearing a strapless velvet gown, declared herself 'pumped' to see Anna Netrebko singing the title role. "I saw her in Anna Bolena and she was astonishing," the actress recalled. 'I know it's this gala and I love the Met, and I love my YSL clothes—come on, I mean, gorgeous—I'm going to sleep in them, have sex in them. But I am truly beside myself about seeing her tonight.'" [Source] For a big photo gallery of stars and opera patrons (including Mercedes Bass, January Jones, Barbara Walters, Chuck Close, Michael Stipe, and Patti Smith) wearing Yves Saint Laurent, click here!

Metropolitan Opera Opening Night Gala Dinner Photos

Henry Kissinger, Met Opera General Manager Peter Gelb, bass-baritone Erwin Schrott, soprano Anna Netrebko, Sid Bass, Mercedes Bass and Oscar de la Renta.
(Photo: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg)

“'Let’s just say, I think this is my time,' Anna Netrebko suggested after her performance in Anna Bolena at the Metropolitan Opera’s opening gala last night. 'Tomorrow it’s going to be someone else’s.' Netrebko sang in a new staging of Donizetti’s opera about Anne Boleyn, whose beheading started a trend at the court of Henry VIII. Netrebko had taken her seat at the post-performance supper. The meal was spiced lamb and pearl couscous. The decor included giant banners of Holbein paintings, candlelight and bowls filled with flowers, grapes and pears. It was a sumptuous conclusion to Anna’s final mad moments when she swept her long hair away from her neck and ran off to her beheading. Netrebko, seated next to her director, David McVicar, recalled staging the moment. 'We worked together, and we came up with the simplest solution,' McVicar said. 'He is the one who decides,' Netrebko said. 'What I work on, is if I have enough rings on my fingers to really sparkle.' 'She is the true queen of the opera,' Mercedes Bass, chairman of the gala and wife of oil billionaire Sid Bass said, as waiters passed around sherry trifle. 'She controls the stage.' The Basses funded the production, the Met’s first of the opera. The Met plans to produce Donizetti’s two other Tudor operas, even though Netrebko has declined to sing in them." Click here to see more photos of the event. [Source]