Delos artist Dmitri Hvorostovsky has been bringing in rave reviews at London’s Royal Opera House at Covent Garden as Valentin in Faust: Gounod’s most popular opera. But luckily, it won’t only be those able to make it to Covent Garden that get to experience what The Guardian has hailed as a “simply outstanding” performance from Dmitri. Faust will also be transmitted live in HD to Carmike Theaters across the U.S. on October 11, as part of the Opera in Cinema series held by Emerging Pictures. Visit the Emerging Pictures website for information about locations and showtimes. The run of Faust ends at Covent Garden on October 10, but if you can make it to a theater, it will definitely be worth your while.
It’s not just The Guardian that has been raving about Dmitri’s performance of Valentin. The Independent praised the “resolutely long lines of his showstopping aria,” and The Arts Desk observed that, “In Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s eminently eligible Valentin, we got some of the most gloriously silken sounds of the night. His passionate rendition of ‘O sainte medaille’ was rapturously received and had us wondering whether Mephistopheles and Faust hadn’t perhaps met their match in this dashing Christian soldier.” And MusicalCriticism.com reported that “his aria, ‘Avant de quitter ces lieux,’ was dispatched with swaggering confidence, while his death scene was unusually powerful.” And you can hear Dmitri’s glowing and irrepressibly macho recorded rendition of ‘Avant de quitter ces lieux,’ Valentin’s most famous aria, on Delos 3365.