Houston Grand Opera Closes PETER GRIMES, 11/12

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its 2010-11 season with Peter Grimes, British composer Benjamin Britten's masterful opera about the human struggle of the individual versus the masses against the backdrop of the raging sea.  Following HGO's acclaimed productions of Billy Budd (2008), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2009) and The Turn of the Screw (2010), Peter Grimes is the fourth opera in HGO's highly successful and innovative Benjamin Britten series. "Peter Grimes is an opera that delivers a punch like no other," explained HGO General Director Anthony Freud. "It's an opera that has a visceral power, an emotional impact and an immediacy that is truly overwhelming." HGO will present a series of Britten operas through the 2012-13 season, which marks the centennial of the composer's birth.

"This opera is so inviting and friendly for the audience even though the subject matter is so incendiary" explains HGO Music Director Patrick Summers, who will conduct Peter Grimes.  "There is an extraordinary energy in the music that accents the corruption of innocence and the turmoil caused by the judgment of society. I am excited to bring this amazing work to life for Houston."
Peter Grimes, last performed at HGO in 1984, returns to the Wortham Theater Center in a new production by Australian movie and stage director Neil Armfield (Tony Award nominee for Exit the King - Broadway 2009), who also directed HGO's three previous Britten operas.  This co-production with Opera Australia, West Australian Opera and Perth Festival, which recently won the Australian Helpmann Award for Best Opera, received enthusiastic accolades at its opening last October in Australia.  Sydney Morning Herald claimed that "a better Grimes would be hard to find...Neil Armfield's production is a triumph."  Opera magazine hailed it as "The most compelling piece of drama seen in Sydney all year-in any theater, bar none."

Celebrated American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, last seen at HGO as Lennie Small in Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men, returns to sing the title role. Griffey has garnered critical acclaim as Britten's troublEd Fisherman at Paris Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera.  "Singing with exemplary artistry and raw emotion," wrote The New York Times, "Mr. Griffey found his own way into the daunting role of Grimes... (a) triumph for a selfless artist who rose through the ranks of the Met." Soprano Katie Van Kooten (Helena in HGO's production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2009) sings the role of school teacher Ellen Orford, Grimes's only ally. British baritone Christopher Purves, fresh from his success as Falstaff at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in 2009, makes his U.S. operatic debut as Captain Balstrode. Contralto Meredith Arwady, who created the role of Myrtle Bagot in André Previn's Brief Encounter (2009), sings the role of Auntie. Patrick Carfizzi, who last appeared here as Papagano in Mozart's The Magic Flute in 2008, is the lawyer Swallow.  HGO Music Director Patrick Summers leads the cast with the the HGO Orchestra and Chorus.  (Richard Bado, HGO Chorus Master).  Sets are designed by Ralph Myers, costumes by Tess Schofield and lighting by Damien Cooper.  Choreography by Denni Sayers.

Performance Dates
Friday, October 29, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.  *
Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 06, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. 
 
Tickets maybe obtained online at www.houstongrandopera.org or by phone at 713-228-

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