Just in: International opera singer is killed in Ukraine fighting

Ukrainian media are reporting the death of Vasily Slipak, 42, a baritone who returned from a flourishing career in Paris to fight in a volunteers’ brigade against Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass.

‘Vasily Slipak, Ukrainian opera singer, who left the French Opera in order to protect Ukraine, was killed in the East of Ukraine,’ reports an official source.

He was, as you can hear, a fine singer.

A graduate of Lviv state Conservatory, Vasily won a competition at Clermont and decided to settle in France, where he received many engagements. But the outbreak of revolution and war in his home country drew him to vlunteer, in his late 30s, for a fighting unit on the frontline.

UPDATE: First tribute from Zoryana Kushpler at Vienna Opera: Сьогодні в АТО загинув мій однокурсник, талановита людина-Василь Сліпак… Серце стиснулося від цієї жахливої звістки. Багато хто дізнався про Василя, коли він вже був в АТО, а я його знала ось таким веселим, талановитим, єнергійним молодим, дуже гарним собою хлопцем.
Спочивай з Богом, Васильку…. Мої най щиріші співчуття родині