Opera star Dmitri Hvorostovsky told to pay more to ex-wife

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jul/23/dmitri-hvorostovsky-divorce-payment

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The world-renowned Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, once dubbed "the Elvis of opera", has been ordered to pay his former wife a bigger share of his yearly £1.8 million earnings.

A panel of appeal court judges ruled that Svetlana Hvorostovsky, who gave up her ballet career to follow her former husband around the world's opera houses, should receive an extra £25,000 a year, increasing her "undoubtedly low" previous total annual payment of £170,000 to £195,000.

Giving the ruling, Lord Justice Thorpe said while Svetlana, 50, had not worked since abandoning her career for the marriage, the career of her former husband, 47, who won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1989, had gone "from strength to strength".

"Whilst in 2001 he was grossing about £552,000, he currently grosses about £1.86 million per annum, an achievement which appears secure for the immediately foreseeable future," he said.

Last year Svetlana was awarded annual payments of £120,000 for herself and £12,500 each for their twin children, plus school fees.

Lord Justice Thorpe said that even £285,000 of gross earnings before tax would be "comparatively little" for the first family given the husband's current earnings.

Svetlana's periodical payments were ordered to be increased to £140,000 a year and her children's to £15,000 a year each.

The couple met when Dmitri was working in the State Theatre in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and Svetlana was in the Corps de Ballet in the same area. They married in 1989 and moved to London in 1994 where their twin boys were born in 1996.

Three years later the relationship broke down and – in divorce proceedings in 2001 – they agreed a settlement that gave the matrimonial home in Islington, north London, worth more than £1m, to Svetlana. At the time, that was 80% of their assets.

Lord Justice Thorpe said: "Eight years on from the crafting of this scheme the wife continues to live in the final matrimonial home.

"She has neglected its maintenance and expert surveyors eventually agree that it could be put into good order at a cost of £86,000."

The judge added: "Plainly, she has a responsibility to the husband to operate a prudent economy. Plainly, she must maintain her home in good order. She must anticipate the future fall in the husband's fee income."

At a previous hearing Jonathan Cohen QC, representing Svetlana, said his client had given up her career for her husband, had moved from her country of origin to England where she did not know the language, and had been unable to work since.

But Lord Justice Thorpe said in the ruling today that the reality was she had given up her career only shortly before its natural close. "The suggestion that she was in exile in some foreign land seems to me to be far-fetched." The single factor of greatest significance leading to the allowing of the appeal was the husband's "greatly increased income", he said.

• This article was amended on 17 August 2009. The original gave Dmitri Hvorostovsky's age as 50. This has been corrected.