Party Pages: Opera supporters dance to Nelly Furtado and The Arkells at this year’s Operanation gala

Operanation, the annual party to benefit the Canadian Opera Company, is always one of the year’s biggest fetes (not least in terms of space—the party spans three floors of the Four Seasons Centre). This year, the main draws were musical guests Nelly Furtado and The Arkells, both accompanied by singers from the Opera Company. Before the performance, we spoke with Gabrielle Miller, everyone’s favourite Corner Gas star, about hopping between Canada and the U.S.—the actress is now multinational, having just starred in Psycho Therapy in New York. (The Vancouver native also touched on West Coast versus Ontario rivalries, joking that “the only people who rag on Toronto are the ones who haven’t visited it yet.”)

Click through the photos of Operanation 2012 »

Though guests stood almost perfectly still for Furtado’s performance of “Maneater” (it takes a while for drinks to kick in, right?), by the time The Arkells did their rendition of Hall and Oates’ “You Make My Dreams,” the audience was ready to boogie. Almost everyone was shimmying up a storm once the DJ got started, including gallerist Daniel Faria, who busted a move to Stevie Wonder on the stairs. Said stairs proved to be the hotspot of the evening, where girls could rest their weary six-inch-heeled feet (many retired to them after their dancing, taking care to not expose anything under sequined dresses).