The 85-year-old Salzburg Festival hosted its first American fund-raiser last week at the Louis Vuitton flagship on Fifth Avenue – quite a contrast to Salzburg’s baroque streets.

There was plenty of news to share of the festival, a laboratory for cutting-edge interpretations of classical music. Two new halls are under construction, and a celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birthday is planned for 2006, which includes the staging of all 22 of his operas.

With only 70 guests in the room, a performance by Deborah Voigt was especially stirring. She sang lieder by Strauss, Wagner, and Ben Moore. “She is in wonderful shape; she’s slimmed down, she looks like a young, fair-haired girl,” said the president of the festival, Helga Rabl-Stadler.

Ms. Rabl-Stadler hopes more Americans will discover the festival. “Salzburg has the advantage of combining music of the best quality with a wonderful landscape.” Visitors, who often rent homes on the surrounding alpine lakes, can take advantage of other recreational activities: “And the golf! You see all the singers golfing too; It’s the best sport for singers, because it’s not dangerous, and you get fresh air.”

The main draw is, of course, the music. Highlights of 2005’s summer season include the premiere of a new production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” with Anna Netrebko in the title role and Thomas Hampson singing the role of her lover’s father, Germont. The Kirov Opera, Orchestra, and Chorus will perform Tchaikovsky’s rarely heard “Mazeppa.”

Ms. Rabl-Stadler is on a world tour to raise $3.5 million. She has already raised $25 million from public and private sources, including a $4 million donation from Cynthia Polsky.

Ms. Rabl-Stadler said it was opera patron Alberto Vilar who encouraged her to fund-raise privately. He gave $3 million. “And he encouraged me to ask rich people who love culture for more. I would never have dared before. In Austria, you ask somebody for $1,000 but not for $100,000.”

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In other opera news, Renee Fleming celebrates her book “The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer” at a private party Wednesday hosted by Sid and Mercedes Bass, Lord Rothschild, Beverly Sills, and Sanford and Joan Weill. Meanwhile, soprano Dawn Upshaw is going back to school. Bard College announced yesterday her appointment as a professor. She will develop a vocal arts curriculum for Bard’s Conservatory of Music, which opens in the fall of 2005.

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What organization raised more than $20.4 million last week? The Wall Street division of the UJA-Federation of New York. The 1,300 assembled represented an impressive gathering of generous souls, notably the event’s honorees, Rick Sandler of Eminence Capital, and Michael Nikies, the treasurer of Bear, Stearns & Co. Others in the room: the United States ambassador to Israel, Daniel C. Kurtzer, who gave the keynote address; Senator Schumer; Jerry Levin; Morris Offit; Alan Greenberg; Glenn Dubin; and Susan Stern.

Last week, the Lawyers division raised more than $1 million. The 700 guests, including the chief executive of HarperCollins, Jane Friedman, and the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, David Stern, also did good by skipping their dinner. They sat down to empty tables, having donated their meals to the needy. The event honored the group general counsel of the News Corporation, Arthur Siskind.

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It’s the first night of Chanukah, and Mayor Giuliani, Mayor Bloomberg, and Governor Pataki are expected to attend the dedication ceremony for the Jewish Children’s Museum, which opens to the public in January. A television newsroom where children can record segments of the Chanukah story and a miniature kosher supermarket are a few of the original exhibits in the seven-story, 50,000-square-foot facility designed by Gwathmey, Siegel & Associates. The museum, owned by the Lubavitch group Tzivos Hashem, is located in Crown Heights and cost about $30 million. “It is our hope that if we can correct some of the misunderstandings that people – including Jews – have about other Jews and Jewish life, we can play an important role in shaping a more peaceful, tolerant society,” the executive director of the museum, Rabbi Yerachmiel Benjaminson, said.

Mr. Giuliani’s Chanukah celebration continues at the annual gala for the American Friends Rabin Medical Center, where he’s expected to light the first candle with Nava Barak and give a speech. Larry King is master of ceremonies for the event, which raises money for Israel’s largest hospital, located in Petah Tikvah.