According to LaFave's report, Frontiere stated: "I woke up this morning more nervous than I was Super Bowl morning. The Super Bowl was one day, but this is forever." Frontiere, of course, pledged more than $1 million to Sedona Cultural Park just when it was needed the most.

In Sedona Red Rock News, Philip Wright quoted Dan Schay, the park's president and executive director, thusly: "Georgia's initial donation of $1 million and her subsequent $100,000 challenge grant served as a catalyst, combining with the generous support of the Offield Family Foundation and other donors. It created an unstoppable momentum that directly led to the construction and opening of this park." Wright also reported that Frontiere, a classically trained opera singer, credits Glynn Ross, former general director of Arizona Opera, with piquing her interest in this project.

Apparently, Frontiere's nervousness on the night of May 26 paled in comparison to Schay's, however. With regard to the cultural park's grand opening, he told LaFave, "This took 20 years to accomplish, and there are people who aged 20 years in the last week just getting it open." And he told Sedona Red Rock News, "This will fuel me for the rest of my life."

As for the impact of this glorious evening, which featured The Phoenix Symphony, it truly was a historic occasion for this unique community. LaFave went farther with his assessment, citing the event as "a new chapter in the history of Arizona arts." Shelly Cohn, director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, called the grand opening "the realization of a dream that goes back more than 20 years, a dream of bringing Arizona arts and the landscape of Sedona together." And Joan Squires, president and CEO of The Phoenix Symphony, said it was no coincidence that her orchestra performed on opening night "because we have been excited about the cultural park since its earliest days."

The program conceived by Schay, Squires and company, a relaxed-but-sophisticated potpourri with something for everyone, was wonderful. The baptism of the Georgia Frontiere Performing Arts Pavilion was announced by the exciting trumpets and drums featured in Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" - and certainly, though the massive red-rock formations that surround Sedona Cultural Park made nary a sound, they augmented the orchestra's performance. Thus, it always will be at this massive outdoor facility.

What followed was an exceptionally entertaining lineup that featured dynamic Lorna Luft, who belted out Broadway favorites; legendary film star and Sedona resident Donald O'Connor, who delightfully reminds so many people of their youth; famed mime Robert Shields, a Sedona resident who arguably is the best in his business; and American tenor Vinson Cole, whose appearance was a surprise to Frontiere, Cole's opera-fan friend. Cole's strong, outdoor-enhanced rendition of "Be My Love," made famous by Mario Lanza, received loud and long applause.

After an intermission, The Phoenix Symphony offered a mesmerizing performance of Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op.95, "From the New World." And the synergism created by the magnetism of Dvorák's "New World," played for thousands of residents who share Sedona as their new home; the dream-come-true cultural park, beautifully nestled in rock-studded Oak Creek Canyon and framed by the gigantic Mogollon Rim; and an ideal, almost mystical, early-summer evening, was powerful.

Curiously, when this memorable gala - how appropriate, that it was Memorial Day weekend - was over, the audience didn't rush to the parking lots, as so often is the case. Groups of people stayed in the pavilion, anxious to visit about the concert, the pavilion, the site. They were star-struck by the entertainers, but also by the park, and they didn't want to stop celebrating the awesome début of this grand cultural facility.

In his review, LaFave wrote: "It will take more time and still more money, but Sedona Cultural Park is on its way to becoming a magnet for arts in the Southwest." And with regard to three monumental, wooden arches that mark the Georgia Frontiere Performing Arts Pavilion - mocking 6,000-foot Capitol Butte in the background - LaFave predicted that they will become as much a landmark as the "ship in the desert" look of The Santa Fe Opera's outdoor theater.

As for becoming a "magnet for arts," Schay already has secured endorsements from the most distinguished arts groups in this state, including Ballet Arizona, Arizona Opera, Arizona Theater Company, Flagstaff Symphony, and also The Phoenix Symphony, of course. Locally, Sedona Arts Festival and Sedona Jazz on the Rocks are involved closely with the further development of Sedona Cultural Park, and Sedona Arts Center and Chamber Music Sedona have moved toward the establishment of formal marketing and programming partnerships with Schay. Also, Shakespeare Sedona successfully produced "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in the performing arts pavilion, where Dry Creek Arts Fellowship presented Emmylou Harris. The Mike Utley Foundation will bring country-music star John Michael Montgomery to the park September 9, and when Jazz on the Rocks presents its annual weekend festival September 22-24, the all-day concert on Saturday will be staged at Sedona Cultural Park.

Recently, the park's Center for Education and the Arts successfully completed a project designed to bring high-quality arts programming into this area's schools, including those in Sedona and the Verde Valley. And Yavapai College, which created Sedona Center for Arts and Technology at the park, has established the Zaki Gordon Film Institute, which will complement the park's major off-site program, nationally acclaimed Sedona International Film Festival.

Future plans include the construction of a facility for indoor performances, as well as the development of an "arts village." Probably, Joan Squires alluded to the most obvious, near-future development of Sedona Cultural Park when she talked about "an ongoing festival." Schay added his endorsement by suggesting that the park will feature concerts in May and June, theater and outdoor cinema later in the summer, then Jazz on the Rocks and "other festivals back to back" during September.

The Phoenix Symphony has booked two weekends for summer concerts in 2001, according to the orchestra's public relations manager, Jodi Chermack, who referred to the beginning of "a summer tradition." Squires said, "After that, we'll see - we're taking one step at a time."

One at a time, maybe - but the first step was a giant one!