Clearly this topic is all about me.
I'll answer my own post. I have installed iLife '11. After doing the install from the DVD, and
before opening any iLife applications, I repaired permissions. There were many repairs and most of them seemed to involve languages.
Then, again before opening any applications, I installed the iPhoto 9.0.1 Update, repaired permissions again and then opened iPhoto. The database was converted and iPhoto opened with no apparent problems.
Prior to the entire installation I backed up and also ran DiskWarrior.