Siberian tiger

Dmitri Hvorostovsky strutted out on to the Carnegie Hall stage in a long silhouette of a black coat with sparkly satin lapels, shimmering white mane of hair down to his collar, and a gleaming white grill which he flashed at the capacity crowd.  The aptly named Siberian tiger of the opera world sang for almost two hours Monday night – Faure, Taneyev, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and concluded his encores with an impossibly soulful rendition of the Russian folk song Farewell, Happiness which he sang a capella.  Most of the evening he planted himself squarely in front of the audience to sing, but occasionally slightly leaned into the curve of Ivari Ilja's piano — such as during his passionate Pace non trovo (I find no peace) by Liszt.  For a couple of hours, the peace was ours, and the singing was heavenly.