The Ellie Caulkins Opera House opens Sept. 10 with the party of the year. So dust off your dancing pumps.
About a dozen reporters from Europe and America will show up a day early. They’ll be treated to a party at the Red Rocks Visitor Center – the same night Dave Matthews throws down a concert there. They can sneak out of the party and catch some of the act, but don’t count on it. “These are classical music writers,” says Opera Colorado mouthpiece Rex Fuller. “They probably don’t know who Dave Matthews is.”
The party starts in earnest Sept. 10 at 5 p.m. – with a black-tie cocktail party in the lobby of the opera house. Big names at the early mixer include Charlie and Posey Dana (he’s former commodore of the N.Y. Yacht Club; they both went to DU); bandleader Peter Duchin (an old friend of Caulkins), former Rocky editor Michael Howard; actress Lois Chiles; John and Sally Nordstrom; Met Opera chair Bill Morris; Donaldson and Marnie Pillsbury; Met Opera GM Joseph Volpe; Tim and Wren Wirth; Hizzoner John Hickenlooper and his wife Helen.
After cocktails comes the concert, then a late supper, followed by dancing on the main stage to the Peter Duchin Orchestra. What a swellegant, elegant party this will be.
Weather man
Viewers of Fox News Channel on Monday morning caught former Fox 31 anchor Phil Keating at the W Hotel in New Orleans reporting on Hurricane Katrina. Wet work.
After a wild run through Denver, Keating left town in March 2004 to be Fox’s man in Dallas. He has covered much of the South during his time there, which means hurricanes. But word comes that he has snagged the Fox job in Boston and will be moving there soon. More fun, less weather. (OK, there is that Boston winter.)
Sold
Aspen Daily News reports that tennis great Martina Navratilova has sold her Aspen home for $8 million. The house sits off of Castle Creek Road a few miles from town and had been on the market for several years. A rainbow flag usually flew from one of the gateposts.
Navratilova was for years an Aspen local, even playing on the women’s hockey team, the Aspen Mother Puckers. These days she spends most of her time in Florida.
Laughs
Jerry Seinfeld has added a 7 p.m. Oct. 8 show to his gig at the Buell, which has two sold-out Oct. 7 shows. There is speculation that he might play the Comedy Works that weekend, but the club’s spokeswoman, Susan Collyar, is keeping mum. She does say that a “very big act” will play the Comedy Works that weekend, but it can’t be announced until a week before the gig and then only on the club’s website: comedyworks.com.
The club just booked Drew Carey and the Improv All Stars at the Colorado Convention Center for Oct. 28. Tix on sale Sept. 10.
City spirit
Miss USA, Chelsea Cooley, joins Ch. 7 sportscaster Lionel Bienvenu at the Teal Soiree on Sept. 10 at the Adams Mark, a funder to fight ovarian cancer … Donna Dewey starts filming “Looking for Sunday” in Empire today … Sez who: “I hate babies. They’re so human.” Saki
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Husted also appears on Fox 31 News. You can reach him at 303-820-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com.
