Barrie Kosky's Ring cycle reached its third opera, with Antonio Pappano conducting and Andreas Schager as Wagner's hero who has never learned fear.
The Royal Opera staged Wagner’s Siegfried at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden from Tuesday 17 March to Monday 6 April 2026. It was the third of the four music dramas in Barrie Kosky’s new Ring cycle.
Wagner drafted the libretto in 1852 and began the music in 1856. He finished the score in 1871, and the opera premiered at Bayreuth on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete Ring.
He first conceived it as a comic foil to the tragedy that became Götterdämmerung. Its hero is a young man raised by the dwarf Mime who has never learned fear. He reforges his father’s sword Nothung and goes looking for the dragon Fafner.
Kosky’s staging followed his Das Rheingold in 2023 and Die Walküre in 2025. Rufus Didwiszus designed the sets, Victoria Behr the costumes and Alessandro Carletti the lighting.
Antonio Pappano conducted the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Andreas Schager sang the title role, with Elisabet Strid as Brünnhilde, Christopher Maltman as the Wanderer and Peter Hoare as Mime.
Christopher Purves sang Alberich, Wiebke Lehmkuhl sang Erda, Sarah Dufresne sang the Woodbird and Soloman Howard sang Fafner.