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). But for now the tenor has a moment to catch his breath.
At 54, Schager is an anomaly in the opera world. Most careers – particularly ones singing Wagner, whose scores are longer and whose roles are bigger and more demanding than any other – are built over decades. As veteran agent Boris Orlob puts it: “You see Wagner singers coming from miles away, it’s a gradual process. You take the stairs, not the elevator.”
