Dec. 01, 2002 

Vocal variety

More than a decade has passed since Dmitri Hvorostovsky won the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, an honor that launched his internationalcareer. It might have been yesterday, the way this Siberian-born singertalks about the nervousness that grips him before performances and his driveto improve.

By Elaine Guregian

The Beacon Journal

Still, when the baritone visits Akron on Wednesday to perform in the TuesdayMusical series, he should feel at home. He's bringing Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff songs that he has sung for years. When he did the Akron programat Carnegie Hall last year he got a glowing review.Hvorostovsky will perform with pianist Yelina Kurdina, whom he got to knowthrough her work as a vocal coach and assistant conductor at theMetropolitan Opera. Their program of art songs is in a Romantic vein, withtexts by such poets as Alexander Pushkin.Hvorostovsky's E.J. Thomas Hall appearance closely follows dates with theNew York Philharmonic. After Akron, the baritone will return to New York tosing Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera during December and inJanuary 2003.In February and March, he'll head to Chicago to sing his first Renato inVerdi's Un ballo en Maschera (A Masked Ball)at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Hehas been waiting to sing this role (``for centuries!'' he said with feeling)and has taken precautions to keep his voice healthy for it. Verdi and Mozartmake very different demands on a singer, and that's exactly why he wants toalternate between them, Hvorostovsky (pronounced Voro-STOFF-ski) said in arecent conversation from New York City. ``There is a danger with (singing) the Verdi and (other) dramatic repertoireto lose the sustenance of my voice. I have to be really, really careful andbe carefully planning my schedule (now booked into 2008) and my repertoireas well. So this is why after doing much of Verdi, as I have been recentlydoing, couple of last years, I'm back into Mozart's repertoire,'' he said.Hvorostovsky has recently sung such Verdian roles as Francesco, a villainouscharacter in the Verdi opera I Masnadieri. ``I've been using my own voice tomake the character nasty,'' he said, ripping into the word ``nasty'' foremphasis.But he draws the line at roles that ask him to ``bark'' with his voice. Heprefers more lyrical parts. ``Some voices are very good at barking, some arenot. I have to use my natural gift, which is cantabile, cantilena, which issinging beautifully,'' he said.It's funny how the singer can get away with praising his own voice and not sound a bit as if he were bragging. (Of course, if you have listened to his recordings, you know he's right.)Good looks have made this baritone the subject of panting headlines. Ellemagazine drooled about his ``sleepy-eyed animality,'' dubbing him ``theElvis of opera.''Polite and friendly in conversation, Hvorostovsky has an appealingearnestness. He speaks seriously of how he gave up smoking years ago andrecently gave up drinking, too, to protect his voice. The Soviet-trainedsinger shows himself to be well-educated in singers of the past, such asPavel Lisitsian, an Armenian baritone born in 1911 who sang at the Metropolitan Opera. He's heard recordings, and thinks Lisitsian had ``one ofthe most, most fabulous, beautiful voices in our time,'' Hvorostovsky said.``Many years ago, he went to one of my concerts in Moscow. Of course, I wasin a state of shock, because he's a walking legend. He came to my dressingroom, he shook my hand and he kissed me! He congratulated me and he left andI almost fainted,'' the singer said.Although Hvorostovsky lives in London and spends about half his time in NewYork City, he keeps close connections with his Russian roots through recording projects. He has recorded a disc of songs that were popular in the Soviet Union from the 1940s through the 1970s. In April, he'll sing songsfrom the new disc at a concert at the Kremlin in Moscow.Hvorostovsky said he expects to be pretty nervous for the Kremlin date,since he'll be in the unfamiliar situation of using a microphone in anenormous hall. And the songs tend to have lots of verses, which can presenta problem. ``When I'm nervous I forget the words,'' he confessed.For these and other challenges, the singer is grateful for the support ofhis second wife, Florence, who travels with him. When Hvorostovsky's twinsfrom his first marriage are old enough, he'd like to travel with them, too.For now, he's happy that because they live in London, they are able to cometo his rehearsals when he sings there.They were around in October, when Hvorostovsky's 40th birthday coincidedwith a performance he was giving of I Masdanieri at London's Covent Garden.After singing at the Royal Opera House, he invited his colleagues to joinhim and his family for a party at one of the restaurants there. Turning 40didn't bother him, Hvorostovsky said.``All my life, I've been too soon. I was born when I was seven months. Iwent to school a year earlier than everybody else. I did a lot of things inmy life too soon. So my understanding of a 40-year bench (mark), I hadreached it long, long ago. It was just a day.''For him, maybe. In this singer's remarkable life, the word ordinary meanssomething different than for the rest of us.