Delos Diary

A few months ago we published a tongue-in-cheek rewrite of Verdi's Traviata libretto. In our version, the elder, Giorgio Germont, is picked by the fragile but practical Violetta as a choice target after she loses hope that the young but callow Alfredo Germont will ever amount to much.
This bit of fancy was intended as a tribute to the Metropolitan Opera revival of the opera in which Renée Fleming's nenesis was none other than Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the unrivalled Russian baritone, whose beautiful voice is almost equalled by his impressive physical presence. He also happens to have several recordings on Delos.
Last Saturday afternoon, the Met reassembled its stellar cast for the live broadcast of the opera. It truly lived up to its earlier reviews. Fleming was stunning, Hvorostovsky sang magnificently and, to his credit, Ramon Vargas, the Alfredo, sounded not callow but young and vulnerable. His tenor voice is one of the most beautiful around.
At the conclusion, all choked up with tears barely held back, we decided to give Alfredo another chance. In all of Paris there must be another Violetta Valery to capture his youthful roving eye… and heart.
Meanwhile père Giorgio Germont (Dmitri Hvorostovsky) must get back to the family estate and perhaps change the somber black suit he's forced to wear through the entire opera, while all around him others have multiple costume changes.
Delos will soon release a new CD showing another facet of Dmitri Hvorostovsky's formidable vocal talent, a collection of songs and romances by Russian composer Georgi Sviridov with words by Alexandr Blok and Alexandr Pushkin. The lead-off vocal poem, "Petersburg," nine songs to words by Blok, is a stunning tour-de-force of Russian drama. The other six entries, words by Pushkin, also explore a wide range of emotions and are fully realized by the ever-surprising Hvorostovsky, whose breadth of repertoire never ceases to amaze.