The bass and the baritone eye each other up. "He's wearing make-up . . ." "But he's much taller." ". . . and he's better looking than me anyway." Boy, boys. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to try to put the stars of two different operas into the same photograph. Or the same interview, come to that.
Such interesting contrasts, we observe helpfully: light and shade, the soulfulness of Boris Godunov, the effervescence of The Barber of Seville. Clearly, the programmers of Opera Ireland's new season were thinking along the same lines, assuming that if they softened their audience with a comforting dollop of Rossini, they could slip in a draught of Russian doom. It's an admirable move, to give Mussorgsky's demanding work its first performance in Ireland; it testifies to Opera Ireland's gradual development from a musical society (DGOS) to a confident opera company that aims to expand the traditionally conservative tastes of its audiences.
Watching a rehearsal of the Coronation Scene is a reminder of the stark grandeur of Boris Godunov, based on Pushkin's epic poem about the early 17th-century Tsar who was tormented with guilt for his murder of a rival to the throne. It darkens in tone progressively through its four acts until the austere finale where, in words that could almost be plucked at random from any chapter of Russian history, the Simpleton has the last word: "weep, people; soon the enemy shall come, soon the gloom shall fall, woe to our land; weep Russian folk, weep hungry folk!"
Having struggled with the score - attempting to give maximum emphasis to the cadences of the Russian text and to avoid ornamentation - Mussorgsky lapsed into a cycle of drinking and depression after the chilly critical reception given to the (heavily revised) opera's first performance in 1874.
For Gidon Saks, the Israel-born, Toronto-trained, bass-baritone who sings the title role, this is one of the great dramatic roles. "I find the part emotionally draining, because I can connect with Boris very deeply. Of course I haven't ruled a country, I don't have a child, I haven't committed murder, but we have all done things that we are ashamed of, things we'd rather not talk about. This is the human condition - and I must communicate this to the audience.
"I don't try to make Boris sympathetic, but I want to show his profound sense of humour as well as his cynicism, and his potential for cruelty. He's sarcastic and witty, and he's trying to have a loving relationship with his son, but he has the dead boy on his conscience - it's unresolvable. I need to show the audience the essence of this man in a graphic way, without being didactic."
Saks has performed Boris in London with the English National Opera - but never before in Russian. "I will have to use my body as the English translation. I want to play it out, but the danger for me is of becoming over-emotional. In the ENO production I really broke down on stage in the hallucination scene and the rest of the cast didn't quite know how to take this." He grins wickedly at the memory.
He tactfully avoids comparing the two productions, but praises the Opera Ireland chorus, four times smaller than the ENO chorus for Boris. "It's wonderful to see the talent of these young Irish singers - I wish they were better served, with opportunities to train here, and a proper opera house."
The comic role of Figaro in The Barber of Seville presents a different set of challenges, as the 29-year-old Cork-born baritone, Sam McElroy, admits. Isn't the prospect of the entire Dublin audience humming along with Largo al factotum a bit daunting? "It's scary as hell. Everyone knows these arias backwards. The recording industry feeds musical perfection to people's ears, with all the Rossinian ornamentation and decoration. They'll all be holding their breath to see if you adhere to the traditions - `is he going to hold the last G, and get all the falsetto in' - you're up against history. And also, I'm conscious that I'm on home territory. I really want it to be a coup de force."
McElroy represented Ireland earlier this year at the Cardiff Singer of the Year competition, and his real passion is lieder. It quickly becomes apparent that he'd swap Figaro or Don Giovanni any day for a chance to sing Die Winterreise. "To be reciting the poetry of Heine or Goethe is much more enriching for me. It's the literary content that interests me, the synthesis between music and literature. I love the musical idiom that you find within lieder: it's perfect for the voice. To me it's totally pure; it requires a different vocal colour." Meanwhile, those crescendi await. "Wish me luck."
The Opera Ireland winter season begins in the Gaiety theatre, on Saturday Nov 20th with The Barber of Seville, followed by Boris Godunov on Sunday Nov 21st