New York City’s Metropolitan Opera premiered a new production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare on April 4, 2013, which was celebrated with a pre-opera dinner, followed by a cast party after the performance.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at the Metropolitan Opera’s Giulio Cesare gala cast party on opening night!
Well, I’ve got the next best thing, dear readers. Some beautiful photos to share with you from that early April Lincoln Center gala, a sparkling event–literally–thanks to art jewelry designer Gilbert Albert, who sponsored the evening.
Carol Miller (left) is wearing the “nouvelles ecorces” necklace with emeralds. Mezzo-soprano Patricia Bardon, who sang the role of Cornelia, is wearing the Unique “ecorce” necklace with modlavites, freshwater pearls, quartz and diamonds.
Gilbert Albert’s three-story New York boutique recently opened at 43 West 57th Street though the company turns 60 this year. One of their immediate goals was to support the arts in New York City. In an official press statement, Majid Pishyar, Chairman of 32Group, owner of the Gilbert Albert brand said, ”Gilbert Albert believes the quest for excellence in opera and all the arts perfectly complements our own goal of producing the finest quality jewelry. It is with great pleasure that we are supporting the Metropolitan Opera’s gala this spring.”
Alice Coote (left) is wearing a Gilbert Albert necklace with fulgurite (sand struck by lightning). Sharon Ray, vice president of Gilbert Albert, is wearing the “perle” necklace with azurite stones.
The boutique displays necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, and pendants that are unique, one-of-a-kind works of art inspired by nature. Each piece combines gold and precious stones with a variety of natural exotic materials including crystals, meteorites, corals, shells, scarabs and, most inspiring of all, fossilized dinosaur bones. Many of Gilbert Albert’s pieces are adorned with both cabochon and rough cut stones, a contrast that is magnificent and rarely seen in fine jewelry. The pieces also use fulgurites, which are tubes of glass formed by the extraordinary release of energy when lightning strikes the desert sand.
This is not the first time the designer has been involved in the arts; Gilbert Albert and Prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili together founded the prize “Star” for young ballet dance talents an annual award that has been presented since 2008 at the Rustaveli State Theatre in Tblisi, Goergia.
What could be better following a winner of a new Giulio Cesare, which Forbes Magazine called “sparkling, playful and musically rich,” than a cast party with extra dazzling fine jewelry, courtesy of Gilbert Albert.
Carol Miller (left) and her husband Richard J. Miller, Jr., opera guild president, flank Met Chairman Ann Ziff, who is donning Gilbert Albert earrings.
