As we noted in the Classical Music Agenda this week, Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky gave a nearly sold-out recital last night in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society. It was an event that the music critic of the Washington Times predicted would be fueled as much by the singer’s star power as vocal talent. Judging by the sighing of the majority of female patrons around this DCist, that was certainly true. “He’s so cute,” was the most common appreciation we overheard at intermission, with perhaps a comment about Hvorostovsky’s singing appended.

The first half consisted of excerpts from Russian operas, both famous and obscure. The opening selection, the celebrated Procession of the Nobles from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mlada, featured members of Washington’s own Cathedral Choral Society in the exalted cries of “Slava! Slava!” (Glory! Glory!), which are obligatory in any concert of Russian music. The group travels with Hvorostovsky to New York, to give the same program at Lincoln Center next week. They sang well, as usual, although their eyes were glued rather forcefully to the pages that contained the mass of complex Russian vowels and consonants they were supposed to sing. When Hvorostovsky took the stage, which he did quite forcefully after this introduction, it was with that pouty Russian gloom shown in the image to the right, as if he were assessing the audience’s applause level. When it appeared to pass his standards, he broke into a broad smile, hand clasped over his heart, a gesture that sent much of the audience into a swoon.