Previn: Brief Encounter – review

Futral/Gunn/Houston Grand Opera Orchestra/Summers(DG, 2CDs)First A Streetcar Named Desire, now Brief Encounter: André Previn seems to be developing a habit of turning iconic works into operas, and diluting their impact in the process. This, it has to be said, is the better piece of the two. In contrast to Streetcar, where the music often feels redundant against the text, it boasts a carefully crafted libretto by John Caird that distils Noël Coward's screenplay for David Lean's film, but lea...

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