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By Matthew Westphal
20 Jun 2006
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| Anthony Freud |
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| photo by Roger Donovan/Welsh National Opera |
The new general director of Houston Grand Opera, Anthony Freud, was designated an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on June 17, Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday.
Recipients of the honor for outstanding achievement, among the highest available to U.K. and Commonwealth citizens, are named twice a year by Buckingham Palace upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister.
No date has been set for the investiture, but Freud told The Houston Chronicle that "my HGO duties permitting, I would be very keen to go to receive the medal from the Queen."
Freud, who is just completing his first year in Houston, was honored "for services to Music" — specifically, for his work as general director of Welsh National Opera from 1994-2005. Under his stewardship, WNO became not only Great Britain's most awarded opera company — with two Olivier Awards and four Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, among others — but also its hippest. And no, with the WNO, "hip opera company" was not an oxymoron.
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