Vladas Česas
Born 16 January 1916 in Rudaki (Central Lithuania), he studied voice in Kaunas, where he also made his debut in 1944. The same year, he got a contract at the Vilnius opera, where he was to stay for the rest of his career, through 1975. Between 1969 and 1991, he taught at the Vilnius conservatory. He died in Vilnius on 8 October 2008. He is sorely underrecorded. His most important role by far was Duca, and there doesn't seem to be any snippet from that role, neither on record nor in any radio archive. Other important roles were Alfredo, Almaviva, Faust (Gounod), Lenskij, Jontek, Belmonte, the Simpleton and Gérald. At the time the above recording was made for Lithuanian TV, he was already 52 years old, and you certainly wouldn't guess. |
