Career
Nabokov translated many of his father's works, including novels, stories, plays, poems, lectures, and letters, into several languages. One of his first translations, from Russian to English, was Invitation to a Beheading, under his father's supervision. In 1986, Dmitri published his translation of a novella previously unknown to the public. The Enchanter (Volshebnik), written in Russian in 1939, was deemed "a dead scrap" by Vladimir Nabokov and thought to have been destroyed. The novella has some similarities to Lolita; consequently (though Dmitri did not agree with this assessment) it has been described as the Ur-Lolita ("The Original Lolita"), a precursor to Nabokov's best-known work.
He also collaborated with his father on a translation of Mikhail Lermontov's novel, A Hero of Our Time.
In 1961 Nabokov made his operatic début by winning the Reggio Emilia International Opera Competition, basso division, singing the role of Colline in La bohème (which was also the début of his fellow cast member Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo; Pavarotti won the tenor competition). Among the highlights from his operatic career are performances at the Gran Teatre del Liceu with the soprano Montserrat Caballé and the tenor Giacomo Aragall.
In 1980, Nabokov, also a semi-professional racecar driver, was driving a competition-model Ferrari 308 GTB when he crashed in Chexbres on an autoroute linking Montreux and Lausanne. He not only suffered third-degree burns over 40% of his body, but fractured his neck. Nabokov has said that he temporarily died: " enticed by a bright light at the far end of the classic tunnel, but restrain myself at the last instant when I think of those who care for me and of important things I must still do." The injuries suffered in the crash effectively ended his operatic career.
As executor of his father's literary estate, Nabokov wrestled for 30 years over whether to publish his father's final manuscript, The Original of Laura. It was published by Knopf on November 16, 2009.
In celebration of Vladimir Nabokov's centenary in 1999, Dmitri appeared as his father in Terry Quinn's Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya, a dramatic reading based on the personal letters between Nabokov and literary and social critic Edmund Wilson. Performances took place in New York, Paris, Mainz, and Ithaca.
Several of Dmitri Nabokov's other publications were written under a pen name that he never revealed.
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