Houston Grand Opera Presents Previn's BRIEF ENCOUNTER 5/1-8

Houston Grand Opera closes the 2008-09 season with its 39 th world premiere, AndréPrevin's Brief Encounter, at the Wortham Theater Center's Brown Theater, May 1 - May 8, 2009.

Brief Encounter is German-born American pianist, conductor and composer André Previn'ssecond opera. His first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, which won the Grand Prix du Disques recording award, had its premiere in San Francisco in 1998 to much acclaim and continues to beperformed internationally.

The winner of four Academy Awards (Best original musical score: Gigi,Porgy and Bess, Irma la douce and My Fair Lady) and ten Grammy Awards, Mr. Previn has also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from Gramophone Magazine, the London SymphonyOrchestra and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "André Previn is one of the great iconicmusical figures of our time" says HGO General Director and CEO Anthony Freud.

"He has transcended any genre of music that he has chosen to compose in; thus the opportunity to commissionan opera from him is irresistibly exciting.

"Brief Encounter is an opera in two acts, based on the play Still Life and the screen play to the1945 David Lean film Brief Encounter, both by Noël Coward. "It's the film itself-a tale of doomed love-which I thought was so perfect and so beautifully written, directed and acted that it had to be anopera," states Previn. John Caird, who holds two Tony Awards for his direction of Les Miserables and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, is both the librettist and director for Brief Encounter.

"Noël Coward, as a writer, had a deeply empathetic understanding of relationships,"explains Caird. "In Brief Encounter, he has written a story of what it is like to fall in love in acompletely unexpected way, out of the blue, not expecting it to happen and that makes the source verysuitable for operatic adaptation."

An honest and compassionate look at emotional infidelity, Brief Encounter stars sopranoElizabeth Futral and baritone Nathan Gunn as Laura and Alec, the couple torn between love andloyalty. Veteran baritone Kim Jospehson sings the role of Laura's bewildered husband. HGO MusicDirector Patrick Summers conducts. Bunny Christie is the set and costume designer and PaulPyant is the lighting designer.Brief Encounter will be performed in English with English supertitles. Houston Grand Opera debut Related Events: The Films of André PrevinMarch 29, 2009The Fortune Cookie - The first pairing of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau occurs in this Billy Wilder comedyabout a man who convinces his brother-in-law to fake an injury in order to win a lawsuit.

André Previn composed the score to the Oscar-winning film (Matthau for Best Supporting Actor), and, like director Wilder, escaped persecution from Germany with his family as a young boy. Please call 713-639-7300 for more information.

Sunday Jazz Series at Discovery Green March 29, 2009Discovery Green Park at 3:00 p.m.HGO Studio Artists sing music of André Previn at the Sunday Jazz Series at Discovery Green 713-228-6737 for more information.

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