Laguna’s Festival of Opera not to be forgotten

Harry J. Lawrence

Recent articles in the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County

Register give the impression that Opera Pacific was founded at the

Performing Arts Center of Costa Mesa.

Lest we of Laguna Beach forget, great opera for Orange County was

founded in Laguna in 1961 and the first performances were given in

August 1962 in the Festival Bowl with Metropolitan stars in “Carmen,”

“La Traviata” and concluded in September with the “Barber of

Seville.”

Surprising as it may seem, Laguna had 10 great years of Grand

Opera. Thanks to a dinner party in 1961 at our home of Oriental Art

Collectors, where the subject soon changed to music, then why not a

Festival of Opera? The discussion was led by Velma Sun of Laguna and

a summer resident Sylvain Robert of European Opera Fame. It’s almost

unbelievable that in the following summer Velma and Robert, with

staging help of Homer Greathouse, created a successful season using

the Orange County Symphony for their orchestra.

Ever expanding with each season, adding stars and musicians, the

organizers did not overlook the great operas of “Madam Butterfly,”

“Pagliacci,” “Devil and “Daniel Webster, Die Flandermaus,” etc. The

ever-expanding cost was challenging but the Festival of Arts, the

city, Mrs. Lewis Moulton, the Irvine family and others made up the

deficit over the gate and kept us afloat.

Great was the day when the Performing Arts Center, with thanks to

the Segerstrom family, welcomed us to be a part of their ambition to

put Orange County on a map as a “cultural center.”

We became “Opera Pacific” with huge success due to the great

performances and the many support groups. One of which is the Laguna

Opera League, which supported our Festival of the Opera / Lyric Opera

founded by Fran Anderson in 1963.

It was my hope in helping re-start the Chamber of Commerce in 1948

that the chamber had in mind three challenges to accomplish. Laguna

needed an economic base -- select tourism; enhance our cultural art

image with ballet and opera; and beautify and clean our very rundown

village.

Our success, now some 50 years later, is almost too overwhelming

in the three areas as we are now a city double in size bursting with

activities and renown for our artists, Pageant of the Masters, Laguna

Art Museum and great hotels for our worldwide visitors.

* HARRY J. LAWRENCE has been a Laguna Beach resident since 1946.