Russian is one of the most difficult languages to sing: too many noisy consonants! Nevertheless, some of the most beautiful vocal music has been written with Russian lyrics. Dmitri Hvorostovsky, however, has always felt especially comfortable with Italian music, and is most famous for his wide array of Verdi roles – from Giorgio Germont to Simon Boccanegra and Rigoletto. Yet he constantly returns to the music of his native country in concert performances and operas as well as in the recording studio. His performances and recordings of Russian songs, covering almost the entire history of Russian music from Glinka to Sviridov and Shostakovich, are legendary – as are his roles in Eugene Onegin and Queen of Spades, which he has sung sensationally on the world’s most prominent opera stages.
As he observed in his 2008 interview for The New York Times, “The older I become, the closer I feel to Russia” – and that includes Russian operatic repertoire. Unfortunately, Russian operas are still underrepresented on the international stage, limited to just a few of the better-known titles, although the situation has been changing – albeit slowly. But Hvorostovsky has a plan. In another quote, from the 2012 Opera News magazine’s feature article “Elements of Style,” he remarked, “I think in a few years’ time I will start doing some bulkier Russian roles, because there’s a demand for that. And with my experience and authority, in a certain way, I’ll be able – and allowed – to do certain Russian roles and become an expert in that.”
This studio recording, made in Moscow over five consecutive days in October of 2015, brings this plan closer to reality. With this group of scenes and arias from five operas by Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Rubinstein, Hvorostovsky returns to his Russian roots and the traditions with which he grew up, while reprising some of his favorite parts, trying new ones, and introducing a diverse group of complicated, colorful, and relatively unfamiliar characters to international audiences. Some of these roles, such as Tomsky or Mazeppa, he has never performed on stage; other numbers he has either never recorded before or recorded long ago.
According to Constantine Orbelian, a longtime friend, collaborator, and the conductor of this project, the entire recording process for this album was smooth, fast, and inspired: “It was a remarkable outburst of creative energy, and it brought out an entirely new vocal palette in Dmitri’s already outstanding singing.”
The internationally acclaimed young soprano Asmik Grigorian, the latest recipient of the prestigious International Opera Award as Young Female Singer of 2016, has previously appeared with Hvorostovsky in concerts and contributed to this recording as Natasha Rostova in Prokofiev’s epic War and Peace and as Princess Tamara in Rubinstein’s The Demon. There is a special bond here: Dmitri has known Asmik since her early childhood, as Asmik’s father, the recently deceased great tenor Gegam Grigorian, was Dmitri’s close friend and colleague. They performed together on stage in such operas as The Queen of Spades and War and Peace. Especially memorable was the Metropolitan Opera’s 2002 production of War and Peace, featuring Grigorian as Pierre Bezukhov and Hvorostovsky as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, one of the main characters in Leo Tolstoy’s novel, on which the оpera was based.
—Maya Pritsker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEh7DjrOPD4
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