KiptonART Music and 21C Media Group Host Private Soirée with Opera Diva Joyce DiDonato

January 12, 2008, private New York residence

On Monday evening, KiptonART joined forces with 21C Media Group to celebrate the release of mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato’s debut album “Furore,” a medley of Handel arias.  At the TriBeCa home of Simon Yates and Kevin Roon, DiDonato, a Met Opera mainstay, captivated 100 guests with a special performance.
 


Yates and Roon’s Scandinavian-style loft—a purist’s dream—set the stage for an evening of music appreciation and scintillating conversation.  Leading caterer Sonnier & Castle sated guests with lingonberry-infused duck confit, peekytoe crab tartlets, and black-and-white cheesecake lolliops (å la davidburke & donatella), while sponsor Moët Hennessy kept the champagne flowing with a Ruinart cuvée.
 
An hour in, the lights dimmed, signaling company to gather in the great room.  Financiers and fashion marketeers sprawled out on ottomans to enjoy the future of opera personified.  Unlikely juxtapositions, such as “The Poisoned  Shirt” from Cavalli’s Ercole Amante and “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” highlighted DiDonato’s incandescent range and thespian capabilities.
 
After posing for photographs with DiDonato, Kipton Cronkite (KiptonART founder) caught up with Michele Heary, Managing Director of jeweler Asprey and co-collaborator of KiptonART Rising, a new artist series, which launched last month at Art Basel Miami.  Shortly thereafter, Cronkite made a beeline for Texas transplant Julia Moore—the fashion standout of the night—who had just come from a fitting, swaddled in a Valentino pencil skirt and Armani Privé stole. 


 
“We mounted this event barely a week ago—it was an opportunity that sort of just fell into our hands and we couldn’t say ‘no’ to,” said Cronkite. “Considering the stunning performance Joyce gave tonight, this gorgeous penthouse, and the remarkable interest in opera among a younger crowd, I’d say we’re a few degrees closer to the next phase of the series, which is to begin incorporating vocal talent.”
 
Notable guests included Kipton Cronkite, philanthropist Julia Moore, Armani Privé exec Donna Simonelli, Emma Snowdon-Jones, Michele Heary (Managing Director of Asprey), Alessandro Mattarini (President of Roberto Cavalli)