Andreas Schager: "Siegfried wants to have fun, kill the dragon"

Andreas Schager bursts through the door, crosses the room in a single stride and engulfs my hand in a firm clasp. “Sorry I’m sweaty,” he grins. “I’ve been forging Nothung!” It’s a midweek lunchtime in a cluttered back office at London’s Royal Opera House, but hammering out a magical sword is all in a morning’s work for the world’s most in-demand Wagnerian leading man.

Currently in rehearsals for Siegfried — the third panel of Covent Garden’s new staging of the Ring Cycle — Schager plans to spend the afternoon slaying a dragon and rescuing his beloved from an enchanted fire (after a spot of lunch, that is). At 54, Schager is an anomaly in the opera world, where most Wagner careers build slowly.

As veteran agent Boris Orlob puts it: “You see Wagner singers coming from miles away, it’s a gradual process.

United Kingdom, London

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