Bravissimo Dinner Concert The Grand Finale of the Opera in the Heights 2006-2007 Season

HOUSTON, TX - Opera in the Heights and The Houston Club are pleased to present the Bravissimo Dinner Concert, the grand finale of the Opera in the Heights 2006-2007 season.

The gala celebration will be held on Friday, June 1, 2007 at The Houston Club, 811 Rusk Street, Houston, Texas 77002. Festivities begin at 6:30 with a wine and canapés reception and a chance to bid on silent auction items and visit with Opera in the Heights singers.

Special guest of the evening is one of Houston’s favorite radio personalities, Elaine Kennedy, with KUHF 88.7 FM, Houston Public Radio. Kennedy hosts the station’s Morning Concert and produces Pulling Strings, a program that explores the world of picked, plucked and strummed instruments from around the world. Her musical interests started at age five with piano lessons and later included studies in clarinet, oboe and voice. She will introduce the Opera in the Heights Adopt an Opera program. And who better to make the announcement than Kennedy, who, while playing in the sandbox as a kid, used to hum the Triumphal March from Verdi’s Aida!

Dinner begins at 7:15, with Houston Club renowned executive chef, Carlos De La Cruz, and longtime executive sous chef, Luz Botello, choreographing a delicious three-course dinner.

After dinner, Maestro William Weibel, Opera in the Heights artistic director, will present a program of operatic favorites. Beautiful arias and duets from the works of Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet and others will be sung by Opera in the Heights performers, accompanied by Keith Chapman, assistant artistic director of Opera in the Heights.

Singers for the evening include Peter Kim, Brad Ludwin, Angela Mortellaro. Veronica Olvera, Dawn Padula, Steve Rushing, Eileen Schlesinger-Benvegnu, Hyang Sook Shin, Nicole Sikora and Dana Zenobi.

The Bravissimo Dinner Concert is a fundraiser for Opera in the Heights, whose mission is to provide a stage for emerging opera performers and to bring affordable opera to the Greater Houston Area.

Tickets: $100 per person. Dress: business attire. Parking: area garages; valet parking available for $5.00. To purchase tickets, call Opera in the Heights, 713-861-5303.


OPERA IN THE HEIGHTS is a nonprofit, professional, regional opera company serving the Greater Houston area with high quality opera and concert performances in an intimate setting, at an affordable price. Each season, the company presents four fully staged and costumed productions of traditional operas, performed in the original language with English surtitles and accompanied by orchestra. It operates under the guidance of a Board of Directors and Artistic Director William Weibel. Opera in the Heights is funded in part by grants from Texas Commission on the Arts and from the City of Houston through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County.

- 30 -