Previn: Brief Encounter
Audio CD / 2009
The lengthy list of André Previn’s talents includes composition. Brief Encounter, his second opera, is a compassionate, exquisitely touching study of emotional infidelity. This release was recorded live at the opera’s world premiere in 2009.
Based on the screenplay by Noël Coward (that became a memorable film directed by David Lean and starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson), Brief Encounter stars Elizabeth Futral and Nathan Gunn as lovers whose innate morality makes their rapturous gratitude for one another excruciating, since they are already wed to others. Kim Josephson is moving as Laura’s bewildered husband; Patrick Summers conducts with his customary intelligence.
“Nathan Gunn’s Alec, full of ardor.” (LA Times)