Audrius Rubežius

Tichon – a son downtrodden by his mother and a husband of Kát’a who loves her but nonetheless fails to protect and save her – is one of Audrius Rubežius’s most striking roles. The spare and murky sets of VCO’s Kát’a Kabanová helped set off his thespian talent and a taste for 20th-century operatic repertoire. All who have witnessed the tenor’s remarkable performances as the Dancing Master in Manon Lescaut or the huckster Pirelli in Sweeney Todd would picture him as an apt choice for snappy, flamboyant characters. That being said, it is all the more startling to watch him capture Tichon’s subdued physicality and withheld emotions, which added a hint of inward drama to this otherwise wussy character. Tichon’s spectacles provided yet another indispensable detail that helped the soloist empathise with his character (as most Hollywood actors do). While working with Audrius, you often get the impression that the stranger the character, the more engrossing and challenging it becomes to him.