Dmitri Hvorostovsky

The charismatic Siberian baritone who won critical acclaim and devoted fans around the world for his burnished voice, uncanny breath control and rueful expressivity, died on Wednesday in London. He was 55.

There "have been many beautiful voices," the soprano Renee Fleming said, "but in my opinion none more beautiful than Dmitri's."

In recent years, Mr. Hvorostovsky felt an increasing attachment to his homeland. IN his interview with The New Yorker, he recalled a concert he gave at 22 with fellow singers and instrumentalists in a bread factory in central Siberia in below-freezing weather. The audience, wearing fur hats and warm boots, was overcome.

Those tears, Mr. Hvorostovsky said, "were more precious to me than all the applause I could ever get again."

NYT November 23, 2017