Remembering a Beloved Singer

 

He was not the one who introduced me to opera, but he was the one through whom I became enamored of the genre.  In February of 2007 my mother and I were coming home from the Tack Sale in Arlington, Wisconsin.  She decided to turn on the opera, and the broadcast that day was Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.  Dmitri Hvorostovsky sang the title role alongside soprano Renee Flemming as Tatyana.  It was the first time I had ever heard of a Russian opera, and the first time I'd heard of this baritone.  

I quickly became an avid fan of Dima and could not get enough of his suave seductive voice.  His white hair added to his appeal.  I started watching YouTube videos that featured his performances, and bought CDs and DVDs of  his pefromances

My first time seeing him live (sort of) was the Live in HD encore of Verdi's opera Ernani.  His performance of King Don Carlo was flawless.  His red brocade costume helped considerably.  A month later my sister and I saw him as M. Germont in the simulcasted performance on April 14th of La Traviata.  My sister does not like opera like I do, but she loved Dima's talent; she praised his breath control above everything else.
        I saw the simulcast of Un Ballo in Maschera twice (on the day and the encore).  I think Dima's performance of Renato Anckarström's Act 3 aria was the highlight of his performance there.  He communicated very well the grief of a betrayed husband who wonders why his wife would cheat on him with his best friend.  Although in that aria Renato  is more angry at his friend for breaking their bond of trust.  

And I always looked forward to hearing Dima over the radio.  My most favorite of all the radio broadcasts that the Met has ever done was the broadcast of Verdi's Don Carlo on my birthday in April of 2015.  Dima sang the role of Rodrigo in that performance.  Fun fact, he sang Rodrigo's Act 3 aria when he won at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 1989. 

I loved his performance in October of 2015 of the role of Count di Luna in Il Trovatore.  That had to be the best operatic performance I had ever seen him in ever.  By then he had been diagnosed with the brain tumor.  I think most of the Met audience knew of it as well, because they gave him a massive ovation the minute he first stepped out onto the stage.  At the curtain call, the orchestra showered him with white roses.

When I heard he would doing a recital at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, my mother and I got tickets to go see him.  Seeing him live on the stage as opposed to just in simulcasts was a very unique experience for me. To heard broadcasts, recordings, or watch videos of a performer you like so much is one thing.  To see them live live as opposed to recordings is another thing.  I will never forget Dima singing the Russian folk song"Farewell happiness".  It was just him singing without accompaniment into the auditorium.  The memory of it still gives me goosebumps to this day.  


Dmitri Hvorostovksy will always be my most favorite singer of all time. 

Never Seen That One Before

I would normally go into a long spiel about the performance, but these bits stuck out the most to me, so I figuredI'd discuss them here. 

Has anyone else seen a performance of Carmen that showed the Act 1 Cat fight?  Or had Don Jose's superior officers rip the insignia off his shoulders after he lets Carmen go?  Or even had Carmen pull the knife in Act 4 halfway through climactic scene?  Neither did I until last night when I saw Madison Opera's production last night. 

I've seen Carmen a thousand times before, on video and on screen.  But seeing it live onstage is a whole new ballgame.  You're in the same room as the man who's angrily demanding that the harlot who seduced him come with him or else.  So the intensity is twice what it would be on video or in the cinema (It gave my poor boyfriend the shock of his life).  

Good performance all around (I could not find fault with the singers at all), but some of the choices the director made were a trifle odd.  Having Carmen pull the knife first changes the dynamics of the entire scene.  I think it meant Carmen was saying that she'd fight Don Jose if she had to, but it gives him an excuse for killing her other than jealousy.  Maybe it was for dramatic purposes that they showed Carmen and Manuelita beating each other up.  Still, there's already the chorus of factory girls giving the report to the soldiers, so it probably Coals to Newcastle to show the two women duking it out onstage.  
       Ripping the insignia off wasn't what I was expecting, but it made sense in context.  Don Jose let Carmen escape and has failed in his duties, and as a result gets a demotion (and a prison term to boot).  Of course why he would get an instant demotion is something that I would like to know.