Khokhlov, Pavel

Born July 21 (Aug. 2), 1854, in the village of Ust’e, in what is now Bednodem’ianovsk Raion, Penza Oblast; died Sept. 20, 1919, in Moscow. Russian singer (baritone).

Khokhlov graduated from the law faculty of Moscow University in 1878. He took singing lessons under A. D. Aleksandrova-Kochetova. From 1879 to 1900 he was a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater, and in 1881 and during the 1887–88 season he sang at the Mariinskii Theater in St. Petersburg. He gave concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities in Russia.

An outstanding representative of the Russian vocal school, Khokhlov possessed a voice of velvety timbre. His impressive physical appearance and noble bearing contributed to the expressiveness of his interpretations. Lyrical parts were Khokhlov’s forte, his most consummate characterizations being the title roles in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Rubinstein’s The Demon. His other parts included Valentine in Gounod’s Faust, Germont and Renato in Verdi’s La Traviata and Un bailo in maschera, Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Eletskii in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, and the title role in Borodin’s Prince Igor. Tchaikovsky and many Russian music critics expressed high praise for Khokhlov’s talent as a singer.