NEW YORK, December 23. /TASS/. Famous Russian operatic baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky will be unable to appear in four performances at the Metropolitan Opera next February as he will be taking a course of treatment, the Metropolitan press service told TASS.

Specifically, the press service said Hvorostovsky will not appear as Count Di Luna in Verdi’s Il Trovatore on February 3, 6, 9, and 13 as he will be taking booster treatment for cerebral tumor.

The directorate has replaced him with Juan Jesus Rodriquez who will debut at the Met.

Hvorostovsky announced in June the cancellation of all theatrical performances and concerts until the end of the summer because of the necessity of a course of treatment for the recently diagnosed brain cancer. His official website said neither the disease as such nor treatment had exerted any impact on his voice.

At the end of September, he did a grand appearance as Di Luna at the Met. The spectators praised him with roaring applause and ‘Bravo’ shouts after each episode.

Hvorostovsky was born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, on October 16, 1962. He finished a local junior teacher’s college and graduated from the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Arts, after which he was a soloist at the Krasnoyarsk Opera.

International recognition reached him after his victory in an international operatic competition in Cardiff in 1989. His stage career features a record of performances at Convent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Mariinsky, and other most prestigious opera houses of the world .

Hvorostovsky has recorded more than forty disks.