For Once, a ‘Rigoletto’ With a Happy Ending : Gala: At the conclusion of Giuseppe Verdi’s famous tragedy, guests dined sumptuously, danced until well after midnight and swapped memories of other favorite nights at the opera.

Judging from the good time everyone was having at the “Rigoletto” gala opening-night benefit, you might have thought Verdi’s opera had ended happily.

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The black-tie crowd, gathered post-performance in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s Grand Hall, seemed particularly ebullient, gobbling down a hearty meal--a generous-sized lobster and salmon seuillete, a large, overstuffed veal chop and an ultra-sweet blackberry cobbler and ice cream dessert--before working off all those calories on the dance floor to Bruce Campbell’s band music.

It was after midnight before the evening began to break up, and then there was an additional touch of sweetness as Placido Domingo tried to share the huge box of chocolates Perugina had sent him, offering them to all those kissing him farewell.

Domingo, artistic consultant to Los Angeles Music Center Opera, had been in the orchestra pit conducting the evening’s performance as his wife, Marta, staged the classic tragedy, but he acknowledged that he couldn’t afford to forget about the figure he cuts onstage when it comes to eating candy. “But you do lose weight when you conduct, so I suppose I can eat a few tonight,” he conceded.

Determined not to break up the party mood, LAMCO’s general director, Peter Hemmings, kept thank-you time short, introducing the artists and thanking major donors to what he termed “the self-help organization,” including Gordon Getty and Dorothy Forman.

“It was seeing ‘Rigoletto’ 35 years ago at the Met which made me fall in love with opera,” said Forman, whose family foundation underwrote this production. “I took my grandson, Christopher to see ‘Carmen’ when he was only 9, and now he’s in love with opera too.”

Marc Stern, who, with his wife, Eva, is a new sponsor, recalled how his first memories of opera came from the radio his father, a New Jersey farmer, used to listen to as he drove his tractor. “About 10 years ago we took my father to the Met for the first time, and afterward he said, ‘To think I could have died without experiencing that,’ ” said Stern, explaining his desire to participate in this city’s cultural scene.

Tara Colburn, who chaired the evening’s event, first experienced opera as a child at home in what is now Croatia. “It was ‘The Flying Dutchman’ and I got to sit in the orchestra pit as a friend of my mother’s was singing.”

Other opera lovers, hobnobbing between the yellow-and-white tables decorated with turrets of lilies, included Ed and Hannah Carter, Tamara Asseyev, Hank and Ginny Mancini, Patricia and Michael York and Terry and Dennis Stanfill.