An unforgettable ‘Siegfried’ at the Royal Opera
She’s still there — the naked 80-year old Erda who is a calling card for Barrie Kosky’s otherwise excellent production of Wagner’s Ring. This production is now revealing its third instalment in the opera Siegfried and, as Kosky says, “It’s all about Erda dreaming our story.” In the final act he has her observe events unfold from within the vast tree we saw in the second instalment, Die Walküre. This tree replaces the mountain crag on which Brünnhilde has been put to sleep by Wotan, and is now set in a meadow of wildflowers, with Brünnhilde to be found lying among them, though only visible to the audience when she finally rises from Siegfried’s awakening kiss and dances around in joy.
In this third opera of the cycle there are two actresses portraying Erda, with the younger one appearing in Act II as the Woodbird, just as Siegfried is thinking of his mother. She guides him to the lair of Fafner the dragon, now seen as an old man dressed entirely in gold, walking unsteadily with two gold sticks. It’s a snowy and uneven looking terrain on stage, making it appear hard for the aged-looking performers to keep their feet, but new life is emerging. In Act III, from under a voluminous skirt, Erda births out her younger self. Here, as the director explains, is a woman who can now face down Wotan himself.
What Kosky has cleverly managed to do with his production is to stage the first act in such a way as to reveal a dramatic tension that is present in the music but so often lacking in other stagings. The home that Siegfried shares with the scheming Mime is a rickety hut in between two tree branches, accessed by a long wooden staircase, though the re-forging of the sword is carried out at ground level. It all works very well indeed, and this is arguably the best presentation of the first act I have ever encountered.
It was all helped by excellent music direction under the baton of the Royal Opera’s conductor laureate, Sir Antonio Pappano, returning to the orchestra pit after his earlier stint as music director for over twenty years (from 2002 to 2024). And the cast is terrific. Andreas Schager — who began his career singing operetta and Mozart — is regarded by Kosky “as the only Siegfried on the planet at the moment who embodies all of [the qualities necessary for the role]”. Schager was perfect, combining vocal strength and bolshiness at the start with fine lyricism later on. You cannot do better. The idea that Siegfried learns from nature and animals comes naturally to Schager, as he was brought up on a farm.
The Wanderer, a mysterious alias for Siegfried’s grandfather Wotan (though Siegfried never knows it), was superbly sung by Christopher Maltman. He and Kosky both agreed that the Wanderer is very close to the one in Schubert’s Winterreise, and has “the same qualities as Oedipus or Orestes have in the sense that they are aware of what’s gone on before, and they are grappling with ‘how the hell do I get out of this’”. Caught in the midst of this conundrum is Brünnhilde, beautifully sung by Swedish soprano Elisabet Strid. As Erda, Wiebke Lehmkuhl gave a well grounded portrayal despite feeling unwell, and Sarah Dufresne sang a fine Woodbird from the wings, while the actress representing her mouthed the words on stage (not ideal in my view). Solomon Howard sang strongly as Fafner the Dragon, Peter Hoare was simply wonderful as the wretched Mime, utterly convincing, with Christopher Purvis a darkly voiced Alberich, still scheming to recover the ring he once made and was cheated out of by Wotan.
Overall this was a gripping Siegfried in which nothing seemed to go on too long, as it can in other productions. We were privileged to have Antonio Pappano in the orchestra pit, and his conducting was perfectly paced. He is at the top of his game, and at the end was joined by the entire orchestra on stage to well-deserved cheers.
M.A.Ronan, 17 Feb 2026
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