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Bieito’s Siegfried, a New Genre: Comic Horror! Paris
Opéra Bastille
01/17/2026 - & January 21, 25, 28*, 31, 2026
Richard Wagner : Siegfried
Andreas Schager (Siegfried), Gerhard Siegel (Mime), Derek Welton (Der Wanderer), Brian Mulligan (Alberich), Mika Kares (Fafner), Marie‑Nicole Lemieux (Erda), Tamara Wilson (Brünnhilde), Ilanah Lobel-Torres (Waldvogel), Juliette Morel (Gisela)
Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris, Pablo Heras‑Casado (conductor )
Calixto Bieito (stage director), Rebecca Ringst (sets), Ingo Krügler (costumes), Michael Bauer (lighting), Sarah Derendinger (videography), Bettina Auer (dramaturgy)
T. Wilson, A. Schager (© Herwig Prammer/Opéra national de Paris)
Why would a stage director unappreciated by the public or critics continue to be hired by opera companies? Not a single production by Calixto Bieito has appealed to me, though some earlier ones were tolerable. But recent ones have been offensive, notably his Zelmira, at Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) last August, and his Tristan und Isolde in Vienna in 2023, both of which I would pay to have extracted from memory. Not residing in the French capital, I was spared the first two installments of his Ring in the City of Light. As my trip to Paris coincided with a performance of Siegfried, a work I adore, to the extent this would be my fourth production in a mere eight months, I yielded to the temptation – despite Bieito’s involvement. I even convinced myself that this being the Ring, the most colossal operatic endeavour ever, even Mr. Bieito may rise to the occasion. Within minutes, I realized my mistake, but I stayed in my seat, thanks to its excellent cast.
Though sex and violence are Bieito’s cherished devices, it would have been a long shot for Siegfried to have a thing with the dwarf Mime or with Fafner the dragon. So a related engine was found: the young hero is obsessed with knowing his parentage, especially his mother’s side. This is not a whimsical idea, given that Siegfried can see how different he is from Mime.
Rebecca Ringst’ forest sets in Acts I and II were appealing; trees that grew upside down and sideways evoked the façade of the now defunct department store Galeries Lafayette in Berlin. Such a bizarre image reflects the upheaval in the state of the world. Faceless humanoids inhabit the surrealistic forest; they resemble the protagonist in James Whale’s The Invisible Man (1933). One in particular is intriguing, a heavily pregnant faceless female, likely Siegfried’s imagination of his mother.
Siegfried is truly detestable in this production. The restless boy brings the door of an automobile home and stomps upon it repeatedly. A bespectacled Mime is a drug addict, self‑injecting and fussing neurotically with papers in a briefcase. German character tenor Gerhard Siegel’s portrayal of Mime was possibly the production’s best acting. For the first time, one had more sympathy for Mime than Siegfried, or more to the point, one had more antipathy for Siegfried than Mime.
Austrian Heldentenor Andreas Schager is the leading Siegfried of our time, recently admired in this role in Vienna; as Parsifal and Tristan in Bayreuth; and for his Midas in the Strauss rarity, Die Liebe der Danae, in Munich. This phenomenal tenor never seems to tire; he sounded as fresh in the opera’s final scene as in Act I.
Australian bass-baritone Derek Welton was a strange Wanderer. Supposedly, Wotan is weakened but wiser at this stage, yet Welton portrays him as an insolent thug, a military veteran or more likely a mercenary. Other than appearance, Walton’s voice sounded too healthy and booming to have been the debilitated Wanderer.
American baritone Brian Mulligan was a truly detestable Alberich, fidgety and anxious as he waited by Fafner’s cave. Mulligan’s voice was appropriately dry to convey his conniving malevolence. To further exaggerate his nature, he snatches the heavily pregnant humanoid seen in Act I and delivers her baby. He then grabs the newborn in a thermal bag and abandons the dead mother. Clearly, the poor infant will grow into Hagen in Götterdämmerung.
Admired as Heinrich der Vogler in Bayreuth’s production of Lohengrin, Finnish bass Mika Kares was a vocally appropriate Fafner. Strangely enough, he gave a warm avuncular vocal quality to the terrifying dragon. The contraption used to portray him consisted of two parts, a mildly scary crane truck, its front lights serving as the dragon’s eyes, and a fantastical creature that wore a Mickey Mouse mask. Miraculously, Bieito created a first in Siegfried; a comical Fafner.
The scene with Erda in Act III is usually a solemn one reflecting the goddess’s concern for the fate of humanity. But this director thought differently; Erda and the Wanderer’s reunion is presented as a bucolic lunch in the forest. Canadian contralto Marie‑Nicole Lemieux, admired recently as Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri in Paris and Carmen (both in concert versions) in Montréal, was not an appropriate choice as Erda. Her timbre and low notes weren’t the right ones for the role. The lunch started pleasantly enough, but soon devolved into a domestic quarrel, with Erda hurling the contents of her pot on the Wanderer’s head. She remained throughout the Wanderer’s scene with the insolent Siegfried, laughing at his humiliation. Another first was born: a traditionally solemn scene became comedic.
Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado is Spain’s leading Wagnerian. After his successful Ring Cycle in Madrid, he conducted Parsifal at Bayreuth last summer. In the present performance, Heras‑Casado was rather cautious, especially in Act I’s sword‑forging scene, which lacked energy both musically and scenically. Despite the unappealing visuals, he beautifully navigated a sensual love duet in the final Act, where the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris sounded truly glorious.
Alas, the opera’s final scene, Brünnhilde’s awakening, which is usually the most appealing one, was truly dreadful. Instead of laying on top of a cliff protected by a sacred fire, Brünnhilde was frozen inside a block of ice. Underneath, Siegfried broke another block with an axe, while the sleeping Brünnhilde stood behind a screen inside yet another block. Her hands were in the same position as the trapped child in Spielberg’s horror film, Poltergeist (1982).
It’s hard to fathom why costumes are not adjusted to suit the singers. The terrific American dramatic soprano Tamara Wilson is one of today’s best Wagnerian sopranos. She’s also a large woman, yet Ingo Krügler’s space age costume for the sleeping Brünnhilde, ideal for an athletic twenty year old, was inappropriate. No matter how immersed in the drama and the music, the image of the portly woman in the tight‑fitting space suit remained distracting till the last note. Despite Wilson and Schager’s excellent singing, as with most Bieito’s productions, this was the worst Siegfried I’ve ever seen. Fortunately, I expect to see more productions this summer. It’s sad these great singers were not served by a better production. I look forward to erasing this dreadful Siegfried from memory.
Ossama el Naggar
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