In the best of all possible worlds, the honoree at New York City Opera’s opening night gala would be a lifelong opera buff.

But Tuesday night, at the opening of Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide,” honoree Donny Deutsch admitted before a few hundred guests, “This is my first opera. You think I’m cultured, but in fact, I’m a philistine. And I was blown away.”

The words were music to the ears of City Opera’s chairwoman, Susan Baker, because exposing the company to new audiences is one of her core missions.

“More people need to see what’s going on here,” Mr. Deutsch said. “I’m going to spend a lot of time exposing this to a new generation.”

He even hinted at how he’d raise the cash for a big ad campaign: “I got a lot of hedge fund guys here, and once you get them involved, everything falls into place,” Mr. Deutsch joked.

The philistine – and charmer – left little room to doubt the sincerity of his instant conversion into an opera fan. “I’m thrilled to be a part of the family now. You got me for life!”

“It’s as though my prayer was answered,” Ms. Baker said. “I hope he’s a man of his word.”

I wasted no time in testing Mr. Deutsch’s candor, taking a seat next to him at dinner to ask him how he would envision a 30-second television spot for New York City Opera.

Mr. Deutsch’s eyes looked upward toward the vaulted ceiling of the New York State Theater. His arms rose from the table and spread apart, ready to gesticulate. “The spot would be… There’s a fresh energy in the city. Opera is young. Opera can bridge the old and the new.”

This sounded a bit vague, so I asked Mr. Deutsch what had surprised him about his first opera.

“The irreverence, the marvelous energy, the lightness – you wouldn’t usually associate these with opera,” he replied.

The president of New York City Opera, Mark Newhouse, who had sat down on the other side of Mr. Deutsch, chimed in.

“It’s good to have your first opera be a musical,” Mr. Newhouse said. “An opera is a musical in someone else’s language,” he said.

The conversation broke up when Peter Duchin started up his band. Couples flocked to the dance floor. Talent agent Wayne Kabak and Star Jones came by Mr. Deutsch’s table to say hello.

On the other side of the room, New York City Opera’s general manager, Paul Kellogg, was still marveling at Mr. Deutsch’s comments. “The most important thing that happened here is that Donny Deutsch said we blew him away, ” Mr. Kellogg said.

There was another important matter. “We were lucky to have benefit chairs with energy and enthusiasm who managed to raise $800,000,” Mr. Kellogg said, giving credit to Paul Beirne, Faith and Philip Geier, Jackie and Barry Gosin, Constance Milstein, Pamela Thomas-Graham and Lawrence Otis Graham, and Mr. Newhouse and his wife Lorry.

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At Absolute magazine’s launch party, the room was swaying. Literally. “It’s like we’re on a boat,” one guest remarked, with nods all around. Guess that’s one detail not advertised for the unoccupied 79th floor, 8,400-square-foot residence at the Time Warner Center’s One Central Park, where the event was held. Then again, maybe the vertigo was psychosomatic: Being in an apartment worth more than $10 million, with sweeping views of the city from all directions, can go to your head.

Although the oversize glossy is aimed at New York billionaires, few were in attendance. The crowd consisted mostly of media buyers for luxury goods and a well-dressed assortment of nightlife hounds.

Many toured the apartment – congregating in the master bathroom (one of seven) and various other spaces listed on the floor plan, such as the “Morning Kitchen” (a tiny corridor with a sink that became the prime spot for secretive smoking and kissing).

Instead of furniture, guests found products – Dior perfumes, Debauve & Gallais chocolates. If you wanted Macallan Scotch, the place to go was the Media Room. If you had hunger pains, you planted yourself in the kitchen, where Per Se’s private dining chef, Joshua Schwartz, prepared and served 2,000 appetizers (few of which made it into the other rooms). In the dining room, Per Se served popcorn with truffle butter and truffle salt.

Snapped: Patrick Gooney of the Melrose Hotel; Elizabeth Hulsebosch of Bantam Dell; Joan Parker of DeBeers; Aramis Zitu of club PM; Jumar Baraonda of the restaurant Baraonda; and Absolute magazine’s chief executive, Charles Garza, Publisher Ernie Renzulli, Editor in Chief Andrew Essex, and contributor Bettina Zilkha.