Ceremony takes place for Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Moscow with family and friends [VIDEO]

A ceremony in Moscow gave an opportunity to friends, family and admirers of Dmitri Hvorostovsky to say farewell to the greatly admired singer, who died of brain cancer last week. The ceremony was held yesterday, 27 November, in the Pyotr Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.

Hvorostovsky's wife Florence and their two children, together with his parents Aleksandr and Lyudmila, received condolences from Valentina Matviyenko, the chairwoman of the Russian parliament's upper chamber; Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov; Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets; Bolshoi Theater Director General Vladimir Urin; violinist Vladimir Spivakov; and music composer and producer Igor Krutoy, among many others.

Hvorostovsky stated in his will that he wished to be cremated and that he wanted half his ashes to be buried at Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery, where many important Russian figures have been laid to rest, and that the other half should be sent to the cemetery in Krasnoyarsk, his hometown in Siberia.

He died on 22 November near his London home. He was just 55 and had spent more than two years fighting the cancer. After initial treatments, he returned to the stage, and on 22 June this year he appeared for the last time when he sang at the Midsummer Night's Gala at Austria's Grafenegg Festival.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.