The death of Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky was announced a couple of hours ago. It’s no secret that he had been suffering from brain cancer for some time but, still, 55 is far too young. I’ll remember him for one of the oddest recitals I’ve ever been to. Not that his performance was odd, rather it was excellent, but because his “fan club”, which appeared to be made up of Russian women of a certain age, were the noisiest people I have ever seen in Koerner Hall, on or off stage.
I’ll also remember him for the recording of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin which may well be the very best to come out of the Met HD series. He had an interesting and not unproblematic life. You can read all about it in Anthony Tommasini’s thoughtful obituary in the New York Times.
A packed out Koerner Hall just saw something half way between an art song recital and a revivalist meeting. To say that Mr. Hvorostovsky has a fan club would be a gross understatement. He was greeted by cheers, every song got prolonged applause (alas for those of us who prefer some continuity in a set), there were more flowers than at Princess Di’s funeral and about the only thing missing was that, mercifully, no underwear got thrown on stage. Oh, and, despite the requests to the contrary, the whole show was “artfully” lit by the constant flashes from phone cameras. He also sang some songs. In fact it was a nicely chosen mixture of Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Tchaikovsky and Strauss. Full details are 
The program for Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s February 21 recital at Koerner Hall has been released. It is:
operaramblings 