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On Monday night, the Metropolitan
Opera honored Barbara Tober at
their annual On Stage at the Met Gala. Benefit
Chairman was Peter Marino,
Co-Chairman was Frank Sciame, with
Leadership Committee members Deborah
Borda, Joel Ehrenkranz, Isabelle
Harnoncourt Feigen, Carole Bailey French
and John French III, Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar
Tang, Judy and Leonard Lauder, Daisy M.
Soros, and Henry Timms.
The capacity crowd was seated on stage
surrounded by the sets of Puccini’s
final opera Turandot, designed by
the legendary Franco Zeffirelli. The
honoree declared, “You may ask yourself
why Barbara Tober – NOT an opera singer
– is On Stage at The Met tonight. Good
question! I have been going to the Opera
since I was eight years old. I began to
appreciate the music and the power of
the stories as I grew older. That power,
and life's soaring passions of love,
hate and longing, began to influence my
world. Then, sad reality came crashing
in a few years ago and I dedicated those
seven glorious Lobmeyr lobby chandeliers
to my beloved husband Donald after he
passed away in January 2021, so his
spirit could forever soar with the music
he loved so much. Opera is about the
blood and guts of life, and the essence
of humanity’s passions, emotions, and
exhilarations. It is where reality and
fantasy blend dramatically to move the
soul as well as one's aesthetic senses.
Thirty years as Editor in Chief of Brides magazine
convinced me that love does indeed ‘move
mountains’ and hate can separate the
very oceans of humanity. For that very
reason, the stars of the opera are
passionately committed to their art,
their voices, and to the responsibility
they have to their audiences all over
the world.”
The Turandot set – an Italian
fantasy, set in a fairy tale China, that
ends in a grand wedding – was fitting
for the former editor of Brides magazine.
There was a table for Barbara’s past
colleagues, as well as a table for her
personal staff who she endearingly calls
“Toberville.”
“I am thrilled to announce this year we
have raised over $1.5 million!” said Ann
Ziff, Chairman of the Metropolitan
Opera’s Board of Directors. “While we
are here basking under the glow of the Donald
Gibbs Tober chandeliers, I would
like to take this opportunity to
recognize our gala leaders who have
helped bring this evening together and
make it such a success, including Elizabeth
Segerstrom, who joined Barbara and
me as Gala Underwriter. Quite a few of
you here tonight are regular attendees
of On Stage at the Met. I want
you to know how much we appreciate your
dedicated support of this unique event.
It is always a pleasure to share our
phenomenal stage with our loyal Patrons
and good friends. I encourage you to
keep coming back. And for those of you
visiting the Met for the first time
tonight, I hope to see you return many
times in the future.”
“We’re honoring a legend in her own
time, one of the Met’s most loyal
patrons and a true Renaissance woman,
Barbara Tober,” said Peter Gelb,
the Metropolitan Opera’s Maria Manetti
Shrem General Manager. “It was on this
historic stage that Barbara and her
beloved late husband Donald danced the
night away at past galas, and where
Luciano Pavarotti and Leontyne Price
once reigned. The Met will continue to
flourish thanks to the support,
devotion, and generosity of Barbara and
everyone in this room.”
The evening included performances by Met
stars SeokJong Baek, Anthony Roth
Costanzo, Ryan Speedo Green, Clémentine
Margaine, Ailyn Pérez, and Elena
Villalón.
Sitting on stage were over 400 guests
including Afsaneh Akhtari, Marika and Neil
Bender, Gigi and Harry Benson, soprano Angel
Blue, Millie Bratten and John
Bratten, Tina Berrero, City Council
Member Gala Brewer, Joan Hardy Clark,
Bonnie Comley and Stewart Lane,
Suzi Cordish, Judith-Ann Corrente, NYC
Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie
Cumbo, Machine Dazzle, Layla Diba, Joel
Ehrenkranz, Elizabeth and Jean-Marie
Eveillard, Alexandra Fairweather and Eric
Goodman, Prudence Fairweather, soprano Renée
Fleming, Lee Fryd, April Gow, Susan
Gutfreund, Sylvia Hemingway, Marifé
Hernandez and Joel Bell, bass Soloman
Howard, Susan Jaffe, Yue-Sai Kan,
Angela and Thomas Keesee, LaVon
Kellner and Tom Roush, Michele
Gerber Klein, Helen Little, Tinu Naija,
Philippe Petit and Judith Friedlaender,
Sana Sabbagh, Adrianne and William
Silver, Tommy Soros, Ruben Toledo,
Andrew Martin Weber, Jacqueline Weld,
Damian Woetzel, and Marcella
Guarino Hymowitz (dressed
in a vintage 70’s Bob Mackie creation
originally for Lauren Hutton).
ABOUT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA
Under the leadership of Peter Gelb, the
Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General
Manager, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin,
Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director,
the Metropolitan Opera is one of
America’s leading performing arts
organizations and a vibrant home for the
world’s most creative and talented
artists, including singers, conductors,
composers, orchestra musicians, stage
directors, designers, visual artists,
choreographers, and dancers. The company
presents approximately 200 performances
each season of a wide variety of operas,
ranging from early masterpieces to
contemporary works. In recent years, the
Met has launched many initiatives
designed to make opera more accessible,
most prominently the Live in HD series
of cinema transmissions, which
dramatically expands the Met audience by
allowing select performances to be seen
in more than 50 countries around the
world.
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