MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. Media reports alleging that world-acclaimed Russian opera singer Dmitri Khvoroskovsky has been taken to hospital are not true, Khvorostovsky’s friend, lawyer Pavel Astakhov told TASS on Sunday.

Earlier, the mass media said that Khvorostovsky had been taken in a hospital in Moscow. Astakhov, Russia’s former children’s ombsudsman, was said to have been accompanying the singer.

"No, he was not hospitalized," Astakhov told TASS but refused to give more details about Khvorostovsky’s health.

"Here he is sitting next to me, laughing," Astakhov added.

In the summer of 2015, Hvorostovsky was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Despite getting medical treatment, he continued performing, in particular, he went on a North America tour and performed the Songs of the Wartime program at the Green theatre at the VDNH complex in Moscow.

However, in late September 2016, the singer had to withdraw from his engagements in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna State Opera while in December 2016, he cancelled his planned debut performances of Verdi’s Don Carlos at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater.