On the stage of the Opéra Bastille, this Friday, October 31, a man in a waterproof suit and protective mask staggered, exhausted, in front of a towering metal mesh decoration. Siegmund has just entered the house of his enemy, Hunding, without knowing that his wife, Sieglinde, is his own sister. Introduction to Valkyriessecond part of Ring by Wagner directed by Calixto Bieito, released in January with Rhine Gold, recently completed under the direction of Pablo Heras-Casado.
“Wes Herd die auch sei, hier muss ich rasten” (“Whoever rules this hearth, I must rest here”), muttered Stanislas de Barbeyrac as he curled up. The tenor was the first French Siegmund of international stature since the 1960s, almost seven decades after René Verdière (1899-1981) and Charles Fronval (1903-1982), who sang it in French at the Palais Garnier.
“I just passed my forties, confided in the singer who was born in Annecy, April 1984. This is the right time for me. Especially Siegmund who played a big role in taking Wagner seriously”he noticed. The musician performed the role in May at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, in a production by Barrie Kosky, under the direction of Antonio Pappano, whom he had met some time before. That was after Max came in Der Freischutzby Weber, at the Barbican Center in November 2019.
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