Photo Gallery Vienna's Opera Ball
Vienna's annual Opera Ball was held on Thursday evening. Guests filed into the Vienna State Opera for the annual evening of star-gazing, performance, and dancing.
Media coverage leading up to the event focused on Austrian building mogul Richard Lugner and his guest of honor, Dita von Teese. The ex-wife of goth-rocker Marilyn Manson is known for a routine that emulates 1940s burlesque shows -- including a bath in a giant glass of champagne.
Lugner's ex-wife, Christina Lugner, also attended the ball on Thursday, accompanied by an unidentified man. Lugner divorced her husband last year.
Other guests included Seiji Ozawa, a notable conductor and current director of the Vienna State Opera.
Celebrity attendees included US actress Teri Hatcher, who attended with Christian Baha, founder of the investment company Superfund.
Inside the opera house, Austrian President Heinz Fischer chatted with Bianca Jagger, ex-wife of Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger.
In addition to Von Teese's champagne bubble bath, attendees were treated to a program by the opera's ballet troupe. Tickets for the event, which sells out months ahead of time, cost up to 17,000 ($25,100).
Dancers entered the ballroom for the opening number.
The theme of the ballet's main peformance was soccer.
Ballerinas turned corner kicks into sashays and injuries into pirouettes.
The idea was to preview the 2008 European Football Championship that will take place this summer.
After the performance, guests got a chance to take to the dance floor themselves. But von Teese wasn't among them; she vanished from the opera house shortly after midnight. "Dita had enough," said one opera employee.
