Coming from a (rather opinionated) opera regular, the gentlemen at last fall’s opening night gala may have outshined the women in the looks they chose for the big night, one of New York’s most upscale social events.
With bated breath, this guest, who herself opted for a simple black ensemble, wondered what fashionable moments might descend down the opera house stairs at Tuesday’s 2023 opening gala at the Metropolitan Opera. As it turned out, she was in step with her changed ensemble: much of the VIP crowd followed suit, dressing at once festive but also appropriate given the evening’s show: Dead Man Walking, the story of a nun working to help overturn a conviction to the death penalty for rapists and murderers.
Even before the heavy production of the night arrived, the lobby of the opera house was buzzing during cocktail hour. Selfies were taken and champagne was poured as Metropolitan Opera goers and celebrities milled about. Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance were among the first celebrities to arrive and posed for photos before disappearing into the room. There was Sigourney Weaver, who chatted with Whoopi Goldberg; Jon Hamm and his new wife Anna Osceola, who had a date night for the occasion and asked for directions with furrowed brows after fulfilling photo obligations; Christopher Abbott, who stars opposite Aubrey Plaza on Broadway this fall in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, wore a dark, rumpled suit; and Bridget Everett (one of the rare visitors wearing colored clothing) exclaimed as a greeting.
Anne Hathavi and her husband Adam Shulman arrived shortly before the performance began, and as they headed into the theater, she was distracted by another request for a photo, which she gladly complied with. “But if I get into trouble, it’s your fault!” she teased the photographer.
After her conversation with Weaver concluded, Goldberg strolled around the room with a pair of crocodile-themed shoes on her feet, stopping to take selfies as requests came in.
Ben Stiller, an unusual face in New York society circles, was there, and he caused quite a stir.
“What?” – said the woman in the fur scarf to her companion in palazzo trousers when she saw the actor. “Yes!” – she answered her in the same breath.
Stiller, for his part, made a comedic joke as he walked past reporters. “I don’t really like opera,” he grinned.
Other guests included Peter Sarsgaard, Georgina Chapman, Patti LuPone, Rebecca Hall and Morgan Spector, Ellen Burstyn, Edie Falco, Marcia Gay Harden, Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell, Gina Gershon, Neil Patrick Harris, Rupert Friend and Aimee Mullins, Sarita Choudhury , Jeremy O. Harris, Zac Posen and others.