Coverboy: Dmitri Hvorostovsky

Dmitri Hvorostovsky: Feb 2012 Opera News & June 2011 BBC Music

We're really loving the trend of putting barihunks on the cover of leading music magazines. We've recently seen Luca Pisaroni, Mariusz Kwiecien, Nathan Gunn, Simon Keenlyside, Greer Grimsley and Christopher Maltman all grace the covers of major periodicals. Opera News has certainly been leading the way and not just with baritones, as hunky tenors Jonas Kaufmann and Roberto Alagna, as well as San Francisco Opera conductor Nicola Luisotti.

We particularly enjoyed the recent article on Dmitri Hvorostovsky by Ousamma Zahr. Unlike many puff pieces in music magazines, Zahr covered the "Siberian Hunky's" successes, as well as his challenges, including a recent vocal crisis. Both Zahr and the singer also deftly handled the issue of Hvorostovsky's good looks. In an age of press agents, media hypes and fan sites, it always seems disingenuous when singers deny any awareness about their sex appeal. It's refreshing when a singer like Hvorostovsky completely owns it. Here's are some excerpts from the article:

With his great looks and magnetic presence, Hvorostovsky seems tailor-made for the Live in HD craze...Long before Nathan Gunn, Erwin Schrott and Mariusz Kwiecien were baring their chests for their art and their audiences, Hvorostovsky was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People," back in 1991.

Hvorostovsky flexing his muscles on Facebook

Hvorostovsky...is pragmatic on the subject of sex appeal. "In a way, it's part of my package - the way I look, that's the way I sound, actually. You can draw the parallel," he says. "I was working against it in the beginning, I was opposing the media approach of me as a sex symbol - red-hot, Siberian express and blahdy-blahdy-blah. I said, "Look and listen at what I'm performing! What am I singing about? And it really was a little distracting to begin with, because I was young and ambitious. Then soon I realized that you just have to get along."

It's worth noting that the one time Hvorostovsky went shirtless on the Met stage in 2007, it wasn't in Don Giovanni or some other predictable barihunk vehicle but in that jewel of a crown of a Russian opera, Eugene Onegin. [Read the remainder of the article at Opera News].

Verdi figures prominently in Hvorostovsky's 2012 schedule. He begins the year singing Don Carlo in Ernani at the Met, the title role of Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna State Opera and then Germont père in La traviata at the Met.

Hvorostovsky sings "Gran' Dio!... Oh, de'verd'anni miei" from Verdi's Ernani:

Hvorostovsky's performance of Ernani will be broadcast on the radio as well as part of a Live in HD broadcast on Saturday, February 25 at 1 PM EST/10 AM PST.