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34 MAKING BEAUTIFUL MUSIC SHELBY HODGE SWOONS. PHOTOGRAPHY WILSON PARISH. M erriment displaced the heartbreak of Rigoletto as Houston Grand Opera patrons swanned from Wortham Theater Center — where Verdi's tragic opera opened the season — to a party tent on the adjacent Ray C. Fish Plaza. In a nod to Verdi's Italian heritage, The Events Company dressed the tent in flower-decked chandeliers and topped tables with explosions of colorful blossoms, while Tony's delectable three-course dinner reflected the influences of Tony Vallone's Italian heritage, and 400 black-tie-attired guests toasted HGO's 65th anniversary season with Prosecco cocktails. The evening was the handiwork of chairs Rachel and Warren Ellsworth; his father was a member of the HGO Studio young artists in training program in the 1970s and enjoyed a successful opera career. (Both Ellsworths are surgeons at Houston Methodist.) WHO: Lynn Wyatt, Margaret Alkek Williams, Elizabeth Grimm and Jack Roth, Donna Kaplan and Richard Lydecker, Caroline and Perryn Leech, Patrick Summers and Beau Miller, Isabel and Danny David, Y. Ping Sun and David Leebron, Ann and Jonathan Ayre, Tony Bradfield and Kevin Black, and Ishwaria and Vivek Subbiah. See more Shelby Hodge at papercitymag.com. HOUSTON GRAND OPERA LAUNCHES THE SEASON WITH A TRAGICALLY BRILLIANT OPENING NIGHT. Patrick Summers, Lynn Wyatt, Perryn Leech Danny & Isabel David Valerie & Tracy Dieterich Chairs Drs. Rachel & Warren Ellsworth Marshall Heins, Christina Stith Matt Brown, Saula Valente Kevin Black, Tony Bradfield Robert & Ngozi Onyejekwe David Leebron & Y. Ping Sun Drs. Ishwaria & Vivek Subbiah Ann & Jonathan Ayre