Segerstrom gets good reception

Sept. 15 still may be nearly two months away, but you wouldn’t have known it Tuesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Hundreds of people gathered for a morning reception that finished with a hard-hat tour of the soon-to-open Renee & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

The protective headgear was a must as workers banged hammers, threw sparks and jackhammered the ground outside the new 2,000-seat hall, designed by acclaimed architect Cesar Pelli.

“The forms anticipate the music you will hear,” Pelli said as he described his vision of the hall, which features “Pacific Ocean”-like waves and undulations from its glass facade to its acoustic insides.

The morning event was meant to whet the crowd’s appetite for the main course: the Sept. 15 gala opening of the new hall, which will feature Placido Domingo performing a world-premiere song cycle based on the work of Spanish poet Federico GarcÃa Lorca.

Domingo’s voice will be the first officially heard in the new hall, said Elizabeth Segerstrom, chairwoman of the gala celebration committee and wife of Henry Segerstrom, whose family gave the land where the center is as well as a substantial amount of the money that has helped it be built.

Once the hall is completed, it will become part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, which will also include the present performing arts center hall and South Coast Repertory.

? By S.J. Cahn