Entertainment

An invitation to billionaire T. Boone Pickens' birthday party is akin to finding a Willy Wonka golden ticket. Once inside the door, the surprises just keep coming.

Just over 200 people got the coveted summons Tuesday night to Boone's 80th-birthday, black-tie extravaganza at the Dallas Country Club hosted by his wife, Madeleine.

Two years ago, she secretly gathered all his friends in California and brought in Nancy Reagan, Merv Griffin and Arnold Schwarzenegger to surprise Boone while Natalie Cole and Rod Stewart sang.

This year, Boone knew she was planning his party, but that was all. So when he walked into the Dallas Country Club on Tuesday evening, he was as surprised as everyone else.

The first clue that something big was cooking came on Monday when sentries secured all entries to the club's ballroom and limousines began delivering the stars for a closed-door rehearsal.

If Monday afternoon shoppers at Highland Park Village cocked an ear to the wind and heard superstar Andrea Bocelli harmonizing with British soprano Sarah Brightman, that wasn't Memorex.

Madeleine dispatched a Gulfstream to Italy to fetch Mr. Bocelli and his fiancee, Veronica Berti, and bring them to Dallas for Monday's rehearsal and Tuesday's party. Another plane went for Miss Brightman, the former wife of Andrew Lloyd Webber who originated some of his most famous roles, including Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera .

American Idol fave Katharine McPhee, who stirred up McPheever among her Idol fans, has toured and recorded with Mr. Bocelli. She opened the evening along with Belgian chanteuse Lara Fabian.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, former Secretary of Commerce Don Evans and his wife, Susie, were among the select luminaries who arrived to find the interior of the Dallas Country Club reinvented as a Hollywood supper club (think Ciro's, 1952). Every wall was completely blanketed with floor-to-ceiling photographs of Boone's beloved 65,000-acre Mesa Vista Ranch.

Opening the evening, comedian Dennis Miller looked out over the gold-rimmed crystal and the sea of flowers and noted: "Boone is one of the few people who can watch Giant and think it's a home movie. This place makes Caligula look like a minimalist."

Composer and producer David Foster led the band from behind his concert grand piano, playing to guests such as billionaires Annette and Harold Simmons, Houston financier Fayez Sarofim, Wall Street wizard Ace Greenberg, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Rangers and Stars owner Tom Hicks and Mayor Tom Leppert –in short, a group not easily impressed.

But after Ms. Brightman's virtuoso performance, when Madeleine led the blind Mr. Bocelli onstage, a sense of awe fell over the room.

After going through his songbook of classical, pop and opera favorites, Andrea generously invited Ms. Brightman, Miss McPhee and Miss Fabian back up to join him for the evening's finale.