The Crowd:

It was daring and avant-garde for the conservative Orange County audience. Rufus WainwrightRufus Wainwright, cutting-edge singer/songwriter hailed by Sir Elton John as the “greatest songwriter on the planet” sauntered on stage in the Island Hotel ballroom, Newport Beach, and began singing for the Newport crowd that had come to support the OC Philharmonic Society and its 55th season of outstanding musical performance on the Orange Coast.

Wainwright is not your typical troubadour. Classically trained with a love of opera; this child of folk singers appears as if he might be more at home on the Left Bank of Paris or perhaps at the piano in a Baz Luhrmann film. The thin and wiry man with a half-week’s growth of beard and a long scarf wrapped around his neck opened his set with a remorseful love song lyrically written from the point of view of a wronged woman looking yet again for love. His vocal quality was original, voice superbly controlled, mannerisms deliberately effete.

Wainwright took the silent audience from his haunting personal material to old standards made popular by the late Judy Garland. The theme of the evening, after all, was “Puttin On The Ritz.” He also performed an original piece based on an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which he is creating in collaboration with director Robert Wilson and the Berliner Ensemble. The work recently premiered in Europe. Wainwright was accompanied by pianist Bill Cunliffe when leaving his piano for a number of solos at the microphone. An intimate evening at Carnegie Hall was transplanted to Newport Beach.

Founded in 1954 the Philharmonic Society of Orange County has devoted more than a half century to expanding the cultural growth of this community through outstanding musical presentations. The 2009 Spring dinner and concert, chaired by Kathy Hamilton, wife of Noel Hamilton, was elegant and special befitting a gathering with ticket prices beginning at $1,000 per guest.

Dean and Kaly Corey were on hand to liven the crowd. Philharmonic devotees including Eleanor Anderson, Ruth Ann and John Evans, Sharon McNalley, Mary Ann and George Wentworth, and Bobbitt Williams ensured the overall success of the night.

Also lending tremendous support were Philharmonic board Chairman Alan Beimfohr and his wife, Linda, Marsha and Darrel Anderson, Sabra and Peter Bordas, Sharon Lebon and Stephen and Madaline Gordon to name only a few.

The Newport Beach couple with the most style, Pat and Dick Allen, were on hand as well as the glamorous Carol Lee and her dapper husband, Marshall Lee. Debra Gunn Downing looked quite chic in Valentino escorted by beau Charles Kantor. Classy Kathryn Glassmyer was also front and center representing major Philharmonic benefactor South Coast Plaza and arts patrons Henry and Elizabeth Segerstrom.

Funds raised by the Philharmonic Society will in part support musical programs for local youth along with underwriting great performances of international stature made available to the diverse O.C. public at large.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.