Singer Dmitri Nabokov, translator of works by novelist father, dies

Dmitri Nabokov semi-professional race-car driver, off-shore speedboat pilot, professional operatic bass, and translator of his father Vladimir Nabokov’s works died Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012, in Vevey, Switzerland, of complications from a lung infection. He was 77.

Mr. Nabokov, whose principal home was in Montreux, Switzerland, was for many years a seasonal Palm Beach resident.

“He was one of the most gentle gentlemen you’d ever want to meet in your life,” said Palm Beach resident Sandy Pallot Klein, who shared a passion for cigarette boat racing with Mr. Nabokov.

Mr. Nabokov was born May 10, 1934, in Berlin. In 1940, Vladimir Nabokov fled Europe and settled in the United States with his Jewish wife, Vera, and their only child, 6-year-old Dmitri.

Dmitri Nabokov grew up in the Boston area and in Ithaca, N.Y., as his father taught and wrote his famous books, including Lolita andPale Fire.

He studied literature at Harvard University, graduating in 1955. Disregarding his parents’ urging that he pursue a law career, Mr. Nabokov studied singing at Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass.

After serving in the United States Army, he settled in Italy in 1959, where he resumed his opera studies and raced cars semi-professionally. His many love affairs earned him the nickname “Lolito” in the Italian press.

After he and Luciano Pavarotti captured first prizes in their divisions in the Reggio Emilia International Opera Competition in Italy, the singers made their professional debuts together in 1961 in La Bohème at the Reggio Emilia opera house. The two remained friends.

Mr. Nabokov’s operatic career included performing in Palm Beach Opera productions of Don Giovanni and Lucia di Lammermoor.

Through the opera, he met his good friend Ariane Comstock, whose former husband was the company’s artistic director and conductor. “He was like the brother I never had for almost 30 years,” she said.

With his 6-foot-5-inch frame and booming bass voice, Mr. Nabokov “was a tremendously powerful personality,” she said.

In 1980, Mr. Nabokov fractured his neck and suffered third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body when he crashed his competition-model Ferrari into a guard rail in Switzerland. He nearly died, and spent more than 10 months in the hospital. Although he didn’t give up fast vehicles or singing, he devoted his later life to preserving his father’s literary legacy.

During his lifetime, he translated and edited many of his father’s works, including six novels, scores of poems, letters and more than 40 short stories. He was fluent in English, Russian, Italian and French.

Although he liked to work on his translations in Palm Beach, they are not what many of his Palm Beach friends think of first when they remember him.

“We talked mostly about cars, women, helicopters and boats,” said Hubert Phipps, a Palm Beach resident and helicopter pilot.

Mr. Nabokov’s longtime friend Judy Schrafft of Palm Beach described him as “a charming, very European fellow and absolutely brilliant.”

But her most vivid memories of him concern fast cars and boats — especially a white-knuckle ride in his Ferrari through the Alps and a high-speed boat ride off Sardinia on her birthday. “He loved speed,” she said.