Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the Russian baritone known for his velvety voice, dashing looks and shock of flowing white hair, died Wednesday at a hospice near his home in London, a few years after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was 55. Called \u201cthe Elvis of opera\u201d and the \u201cSiberian Express\u201d by some, Hvorostovsky announced in June 2015 that he had been diagnosed with the tumor. He returned to New York\u2019s Metropolitan Opera three months later to sing the Count di Luna in Verdi\u2019s \u201cIl Trovatore\u201d and was greeted with a loud and lengthy ovation that caused him to break character. Musicians in the orchestra threw white roses during the curtain calls. Despite his illness, he sang in Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cEugene Onegin\u201d at London\u2019s Royal Opera that December, in Verdi\u2019s \u201cSimon Boccanegra\u201d and \u201cUn Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball)\u201d at the Vienna State Opera the following spring and gave his final four staged opera performances as Giorgio Germont in Verdi\u2019s \u201cLa Traviata\u201d in Vienna, the last on Nov. 29 last year. He announced the following month that balance issues had caused him to cancel future opera appearances. \u201cDima was a truly exceptional artist \u2014 a great recitalist as well as a great opera singer, which is rare,\u201d said soprano Renee Fleming, who teamed with Hvorostovsky for a memorable run of \u201cOnegin\u201d among their many performances. \u201cHis timbre, musicality, musicianship, technique, and especially his capacity for endless phrases, were second to none. I have no doubt that he would have sung beautifully for another 20 years or more, had he not been taken from us. I can\u2019t hear Eugene Onegin, Valentin in Faust or Simon Boccanegra without longing to hear Dmitri. He brought an innate nobility and intense commitment to every role.\u201d Hvorostovsky made a dramatic unscheduled appearance at the Met last May for a gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the company's move to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Walking stiffly, looking thin and with his cheekbones more pronounced, Hvorostovsky received a standing ovation and lit into Rigoletto\u2019s second-act aria \u201cCortigiani, vil razza dannata (Courtiers, vile cursed kind).\u201d Some in the audience had tears in their eyes, and many pulled cellphones from their glittering handbags to snap photos as he walked through the lobby during intermission. His last public concerts were on June 22 and June 23 at the Grafenegg Festival in Austria. In September, he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland by Russia President Vladimir Putin for contributions to the nation\u2019s art and culture. \u201cWords cannot express my anguish that one of the greatest voices of our time has been silenced,\u201d tenor Placido Domingo said. \u201cDmitri\u2019s incomparably beautiful voice and peerless artistry touched the souls of millions of music lovers. His passing will be mourned by his countless admirers around the world and by those of us who were fortunate to know him.\u201d The Met dedicated Friday\u2019s performance of Verdi\u2019s Requiem to Hvorostovsky. \u201cOne of opera\u2019s all-time greats, truly an artist for the ages,\u201d Met General Manager Peter Gelb said. \u201cIn addition to his astounding vocal gifts, he had an electrifying stage presence and a charisma that won over both his adoring audiences and his devoted colleagues.\u201d The Vienna State Opera scheduled a minute of silence before Wednesday's performance of Strauss\u2019 \u201cSalome.\u201d \u201cI especially admire the wonderful way in which he carried himself during this terrible illness,\u201d Vienna State Opera Director Dominique Meyer said. \u201cDima leaves a great void behind. He will stay in our memories as an exceptional artist who always gave a hundred percent.\u201d Hvorostovsky was born on Oct. 16, 1962, and grew up in Krasnoyarsk, in central Siberia. He started piano lessons when he was 7, only for his first piano teacher to tell him he was untalented. At Krasnoyarsk Pedagogical School and Krasnoyarsk High School of Arts, he thrived in music, boxing and soccer. \u201cApart from this, I was the worst pupil in school,\u201d he said with a straight face. He became a soloist at the Krasnoyarsk Opera in 1986, won the Russian Glinka National Competition, then attracted attention by winning vocal contests at Toulouse, France, in 1988 and then Cardiff in 1989 \u2014 where he beat out Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel for the top prize. With long hair that turned prematurely silver before he was 35 and then polar bear white, he was instantly recognizable. Hvorostovky's public musical persona started with a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll band, when he was a teen-age rebel under communism. \u201cAh! Freedom! So what could I do?\u201d he remembered in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. \u201cI had a few options \u2014 to become a street fighter, or I could become a hero in front of my girlfriends.\u201d He made his Royal Opera debut in 1992 as Riccardo in Bellini's \u201cI Puritani\u201d and his Met debut in 1995 as Prince Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cPique Dame (The Queen of Spades).\u201d He was lauded around the world for definitive performances as Onegin and also celebrated for the title role in Mozart\u2019s \u201cDon Giovanni,\u201d Valentin in Gounod\u2019s \u201cFaust,\u201d Belcore in Donizetti's \u201cL\u2019Elisir d\u2019Amore.\u201d He is survived by his wife Florence Hvorostovsky, their son, Maxim, and daughter, Nina, and twins Alexandra and Daniel from his first marriage, to Svetlana Hvorostovsky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the Russian baritone known for his velvety voice, dashing looks and shock of flowing white hair, died Wednesday at a hospice near his home in London, a few years after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was 55. Called \u201cthe Elvis of opera\u201d and the \u201cSiberian Express\u201d by some, Hvorostovsky announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}