Met names replacements for absent Hvorostovsky
mainDmitri Hvorostovsky has withdrawn from all opera engagements ‘for the foreseeable future’.
Mariusz Kwiecien and Peter Mattei will sing Onegin at the Met in spring 2017.
Kwiecien will sing on March 30, April 3 and 7 and Mattei on April 12, 15, 18, and 22 matinee.
This news is so very very tragic I wept. As a Met Opera subscriber as well as a Carnegie Hall one,
I’ve delighted in this baritone’s roles since his debut so long ago (especially delighted to hear @
Carnegie his first recital when he sang a Siberian folk song without music, still echoes in my heart.
His interview at the Rose Theater at LC does too as he “shared” his life especially the early years
growing up when encouraged by his grandmother to sing just “anything” to entertain (very isolated
in North Russia, that Siberian encore at Carnegie is a testament to the harsh climate, music consoles
all! His development of the complex anti-hero (caddish, bored, unprincipled, cold, yet honorable,
a betrayal of the inner man yet to be? whom is “hoisted by his own petard” as a just punishment–Mr.
Hvorostovsky personifies Pushkin’s unforgettable insight into the human condition!) We who have
been very fortunate indeed owe a great deal to this beloved singer from Siberia. I can only mourn
along with his family his decline at this moment in time. My thanks to you for giving me such pleasure
over the years, Mr. Hvorostovsky.
As an encore I heard this for the first time in Sept 2016 and it brought tears to my eyes. The same one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNLvKu0YQvs (a young Dmitri sings here…)
Yes, the encore you heard was the same one, heartbreaking, sung unaccompanied
intensifying the incredible feeling of being alone ? despair no hope of spring
forthcoming! The warmth of song “comforting” your abandonment, incredible Siberian
folk song. Complete silence as if audience feeling that despair too yet comforted too
by warmth of the human voice “wrapping” and “hugging” the self.
The Met Opera and its audience are very fortunate, in light of Mr. Hvorostovsky’s tragic notification, to have “replacements” of so high a caliber available on relatively short notice.
Very sad. I, too was most privileged to have seen and heard him live many times. I DO hope he can recover. The world needs more singers and people like him.