When Josh Groban walked onto the stage of the Hollywood Bowl on opening night, the high-decibel swoons in the audience evoked memories of those nights of long ago, when Frank Sinatra crooned to bobbysoxers from the bowl's ribbon microphone. Groban, 28, L.A.'s homegrown idol to teenagers everywhere, was one of two world-class artists inducted into this year's Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame at ceremonies held June 19. Super-diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was also honored at the 10th anniversary event, which drew 18,000 fans and raised nearly $1 million for the L.A. Philharmonic's Music Matters education programs. They were an unlikely combination. Te Kanawa, 62, had attained legendary status in the opera world a decade before Groban was even born. But when the pair teamed up on Cole Porter's heart-melting "True Love," the symbiosis was perfect.

For major benefactors, the doings got under way before sundown with a VIP reception in the bowl's patio restaurant, where the event co-chairs, Jonathan Weedman, Raymundo Baltazar, Sandy and Barry Pressman, and Barbara and Jay Rasulo, greeted benefactors.

Patina catered a pre-performance supper that was served in the box areas, where a troupe of percussionists/dancers dressed as waiters stunned the audience with a rambunctious demonstration of rhythmic beats played on pitchers, plates and pans.

The first-ever inductees, in 2000, country singer Garth Brooks and composer/conductor John Williams, introduced the program.

Video montages of the honorees' careers were shown on the bowl's four giant screens, along with performances by singers Trisha Yearwood, Frederica Von Stade, Roger Daltrey and Angelique Kidjo, the chorus of L.A. County High School for the Arts (Groban's alma mater) and the harpists and drummers from Moffet Elementary in Lennox. All were backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra under the direction of Thomas Wilkins.

A surprise visit by another dame from Down Under, Dame Edna Everage, topped off the program. Her Dameship rushed over after her show at the Ahmanson to pay tribute to her fellow Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. "Kiri is Maori," Edna said. "Some of them were cannibals, you know." And noting Groban's trendy 5 o'clock shadow, she said, "Little Josh, you should have had a shave ... I did."

The evening ended with Williams conducting his signature work, "Theme from Star Wars," to accompany the bowl's traditional coda, a spectacular volley of pyrotechnics erupting over the shell.

The opening night festivities were sponsored by Pasadena Showcase for the Arts, Gallo Family Vineyards and Goodyear Tire & Rubber.

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