Last Updated on March 18, 2026
Barry Kosky continues his Ring Cycle at the RBO with a Five-Star Siegfried
5.0 out of 5.0 starsIn Siegfried, the third part of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner shifts the focus away from the troubled world of the gods towards the energy of youth on earth. This is storytelling through opera, where the theatre is crucial and the music sublime.
Directed here by Barrie Kosky for the Royal Ballet and Opera, the landscape of Siegfried feels unsettled. A grumbling, foreboding prelude rises from the pit, threaded with leitmotifs that those who have seen Parts One and Two may recognise. As the curtain lifts, it reveals a black space punctuated by a naked woman on a swing. Gradually, subtle lighting and clouds of dry ice reveal a blackened tree topped by a tree house that wobbles precariously under the presence of Mime.
Peter Hoare’s Mime hammers away in an attempt to mend Nothung, the perfect sword, for his young charge. His aim is to claim a hoard of gold and the all-powerful ring currently guarded by a dragon. Rather than confronting the dragon himself, however, he has other plans.
The authority of the old order is beginning to crumble, yet the future has not fully taken shape. The young Siegfried embodies that uncertainty. Kosky’s Siegfried is impulsive and almost naïve, discovering his strength for the first time rather than presenting himself as a ready-made hero.
Andreas Schager, making his Royal Opera House debut, delivers a brilliant performance. He begins by taunting Mime with Kosky’s answer to Wagner’s bear on a rope, the bloodied head of a teddy bear. Siegfried is delighted to learn that his parents were Sieglinde and Siegmund, and even more excited by the prospect of wielding his father’s sword, which Mime is trying to mend. He soon runs off into the forest, leaving Mime alone.
But Wotan, disguised as the Wanderer, appears. Christopher Maltman brings charismatic authority to the role. Through their exchange, we learn for the first time in this opera that Siegfried is the ‘fearless hero’.
When Siegfried returns, he quickly loses patience with Mime’s attempts to forge the sword. Instead, he decides to do it himself. With the help of two Heath Robinson-esque machines, complete with flashing lights and clouds of steam, he launches into the forging song, ‘Nothung! Nothung! Neidliches Schwert’. Meanwhile, Mime is brewing a drugged drink, planning to use it once he has persuaded Siegfried to kill the dragon.
When Siegfried finally succeeds in forging Nothung, there are indeed fireworks as he brandishes the sword wildly, singing with thrilling power. Vocally and visually, it makes for an explosive close to the first act.
The eighty minutes of Act One seem to race by. Musically, with Antonio Pappano in the pit and a stellar line-up of horns tucked into an extension of the orchestra to stage left, the orchestra could scarcely have sounded better. Andreas Schager, seemingly a teenager despite his fifty-two years, bounded across the stage. He proved the perfect heldentenor, combining immense power with surprising lyrical warmth. Peter Hoare and Christopher Maltman were well matched vocally, and all three delivered committed performances throughout.
Act Two opens to an almost tranquil snow scene, with Alberich (Christopher Purves) keeping watch over the dragon Fafner’s lair, hoping to regain the Ring. While at one level Siegfried has a simple plot, forge the sword, kill the dragon, get the girl, the opera carries deeper messages about fate and power. Purves’s dark, declamatory baritone provides an effective contrast to Maltman’s more mellifluous tone, hinting at the power struggle still to come in Götterdämmerung.
This production, though, remains firmly centred on Siegfried, who arrives with a nervous Mime determined to defeat Fafner, a giant disguised as a dragon. Fafner easily claims the prize for the most striking costume in the opera, appearing in a stunning spiky gold suit with a skull mask. Solomon Howard’s rich, grainy voice evokes a suitably menacing beast, even if one ultimately defeated by the fearless Siegfried.
Offstage, the bell-like vocals of Sarah Dufresne provide a charming Woodbird, persuading Siegfried to search for the Ring and the Tarnhelm. She also warns him of Mime’s treacherous plans. Having claimed his prize, Siegfried quickly dispatches Mime before learning more from the Woodbird about love in the form of the sleeping Brünnhilde.
Act III begins with a troubled Wotan waking Erda to seek her counsel. The significance of the omnipresent naked woman on stage is now revealed. She is a voiceless Erda. Now garbed in a vast purple crinoline, the singing Erda (Wiebke Lehmkuhl) emerges from her skirts, a powerful figure with a velvety, resonant contralto voice. Unable to help Wotan, she is dismissed as he declares his hope that Siegfried and Brünnhilde, through love, will redeem the world from the Ring’s curse.
When Siegfried and Wotan finally meet, the encounter is brief but decisive. Even after learning that Wotan is his grandfather, the younger man refuses to yield. He shatters Wotan’s spear, the ancient symbol of divine authority, and the god is left to accept that his power on earth has come to an end.
Siegfried’s journey continues as he presses on to find Brünnhilde (Elisabet Strid). When he finally reaches her, after some confusion and hesitation, he quickly falls in love. Brünnhilde is more cautious. Awakening from her sleep to be with Siegfried, she must relinquish immortality and accept a human life. A powerful, dramatic soprano, if not quite a match for Schager’s immense heldentenor, Strid captures both the vulnerability and the grandeur of the moment beautifully, her voice soaring as Brünnhilde gradually yields to love.
This Siegfried is brilliant storytelling. If, as I was, you are daunted by the idea of nearly six hours of opera, albeit with two long intervals (the first of 30 minutes, the second a full hour, so perfect for grabbing some food), then you can relax in the knowledge that you will be gripped by the story from start to finish. More than that, the orchestra under the baton of the much-loved Antonio Pappano perform brilliantly, with almost deafening brass and stunning woodwind solos, complemented by a glorious string section. Sets from Rufus Didwiszus are apparently simple yet full of subtle details, and costumes from Victoria Behr have just a whisper of irony. Was it a chance that Barrie Kosky himself appeared on stage for the final curtain call wearing what looked like a ‘newer’ version of Mime’s crocheted waistcoat? Drama apart, it’s a production that leaves the audience asking what happens next. We’ll just have to wait and see…
Siegfried runs at the RBO from 17th March to 6th April 2026
Tickets are currently available from £59
Siegfried
Royal Ballet and Opera
Royal Opera House
Bow Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 9DD
Check our previews for more Opera in London in 2026
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