The 'Placido Domingo 40th Anniversary Gala Concert' to Air Exclusively on HDNet Sunday, June 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET

The 'Placido Domingo 40th Anniversary Gala Concert' to Air Exclusively on HDNet Sunday, June 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET

Network to present special concert event in full 1080i HD and 5.1 surround sound

DALLAS, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Broad General Director Placido Domingo will take the LA Opera into homes throughout the United States as HDNet presents The Placido Domingo 40th Anniversary Gala Concert on Sunday, June 1 at 8:00pm (eastern daylight time) with an encore presentation at 11:00pm ET to accommodate West Coast prime time. The concert celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the superstar tenor's first professional appearances in Los Angeles and features arias and duets sung by Mr. Domingo and the internationally acclaimed soprano Patricia Racette. The concert is led by LA Opera Music Director James Conlon, conducting the LA Opera Orchestra.

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"Opera is an art form for everyone, and HDNet is helping us to capture this experience for music lovers throughout the United States," said Mr. Domingo. "Long before television existed, opera was the popular form of entertainment bringing theatre to the masses, so it's exciting and ironic that we now can use television to bring opera music back to the public."

"This is an exciting new development for LA Opera and an important continuation of our commitment to bringing opera to all audiences," said LA Opera's Chairman and CEO, Marc I. Stern. "The special HDNet presentation, combined with this season's Great Performances telecast of our production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, our recent DVD releases of both Mahagonny and our production of La Traviata, as well as the coming second season of our 'LA Opera on Air' broadcasts locally on KUSC and nationally and internationally on WFMT and XM Satellite Radio, truly enable the Company to reach out to a large and enthusiastic audience around the world."

"The Placido Domingo 40th Anniversary Gala is a perfect addition to the outstanding programming that HDNet has to offer," added Mark Cuban, President and Co-Founder of HDNet. "Plus, our presentation of this concert in full 1080i high definition and 5.1 surround sound will let our viewers feel as if they are actually in the audience instead of in their own homes."

**For advance review copies of Placido Domingo 40th Anniversary Gala Concert please contact: Colette Carey at ccarey@hd.net or 303-542-5576

About HDNet

HDNet (http://www.hd.net/) provides viewers with the best in original comedy, drama, news, sports and music programming.

HDNet is your exclusive, high definition home for popular, critically acclaimed original programming, including television's only HD news feature programs "HDNet World Report," "Dan Rather Reports" featuring legendary journalist Dan Rather and "NASA on HDNet" (presenting live shuttle launches through 2010). HDNet presents championship sports coverage featuring the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, the NASCAR Camping World Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup re-broadcasts, boxing and premiere Mixed Martial Arts from "HDNet Fights;" behind-the-scenes sports news with "Inside the NHL" and "Inside MMA;" groundbreaking music programming with the HDNet Concert Series featuring leading artists and bands including Coldplay, Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas and more; entertaining and irreverent lifestyle programming including "Deadline!," "Art Mann Presents," and "Get Out!" HDNet is also the exclusive high definition home to the critically acclaimed and award winning programs such as the Emmy Award winning "Arrested Development," "The Black Donnellys," "Star Trek: Enterprise," "Dead Like Me," "Smallville" and the hit BBC series "Torchwood."

HDNet Movies features a wide selection of major studio theatrical releases -- all uncut, unedited, and appearing in their original aspect ratio so that HDNet Movies viewers get the best possible home theater experience.

Only HDNet Movies' exclusive "Sneak Previews" bring feature films to viewers before they premiere in theaters! Some of the HDNet Movies "Sneak Previews" have included the Academy Award nominated "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," Toronto Film Festival nominee "The War Within," and "Bubble," the first of six movies by acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh and produced exclusively for HDNet Films. Other featured films include "Cashback," written and produced by Sean Ellis, "Broken English," from Zoe Cassavetes, starring Gena Rowlands, Parker Posey, Drea de Matteo and Griffin Dunne, the critically acclaimed "Redacted" directed by Brian De Palma, and most recently, "Flawless," starring Michael Caine and Demi Moore. Upcoming "Sneak Previews" include "Quid Pro Quo," starring Nick Stahl and Vera Farmiga, and "Finding Amanda" starring Matthew Broderick and Brittany Snow, "Red" starring Brian Cox, "Special" starring Michael Rapaport, "Great Buck Howard" starring: Colin Hanks, John Malkovich and Tom Hanks, "Harlem Aria" starring Damon Wayans and "Humboldt County" starring Fairuza Balk, Peter Bogdanovich & Frances Conroy.

Launched in 2001 by Mark Cuban and General Manager Philip Garvin, the HDNet networks are available on AT&T, Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and more than 40 NCTC cable affiliate companies. For more information visit http://www.hd.net/.

About the LA Opera

Currently celebrating its 22nd season, Los Angeles Opera has become, under the leadership of Placido Domingo, the nation's fourth largest opera company and a renowned producer of works from the classical and contemporary repertoires. The coming 2008/09 season will be one of the most ambitious and exciting seasons in LA Opera history, with seven new productions, the U.S. premiere of Howard Shore's The Fly, the return of several of the Company's landmark productions and the history-making launch of a new production of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, a first for Los Angeles.

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Source: HDNet

CONTACT: Colette Carey of HDNet, +1-303-542-5576, ccarey@hd.net

Web site:

http://www.hd.net/

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