Siegfried identifies as a hero largely in terms of his physique. But do we still relate to that today?
Personally, I love his physis. It helps me immerse myself in the role. Sometimes when I’m doing Siegfried I get so carried away I forget I’m in an opera. Not sure why his masculine strength should be seen as dated. Society needs more strong men and women, not fewer.

What things about Siegfried do you find attractive?
I like the way he views the world. Siegfried sees the run of events as an adventure to be tackled. He’s not going to be intimidated by supposed authority figures. And I’m really taken by his rebelliousness.

It’s sometimes said that SIEGFRIED is the least entertaining work in the RING cycle. What would you say to that?
Excuse me? I’ve only ever heard the exact opposite. Act 1 has the most scintillating music that Wagner ever wrote. And anyone seeing a performance of SIEGFRIED for the first time will be surprised at how much comedy it contains. It’s one of the aspects that Stefan Herheim is highlighting in his production. His Siegfried is a hero you can chuckle about.

SIEGFRIED is meant to be the archetypal heroic epic. Does Siegfried do it for us today, though?
By today’s standards, he’d be an anti-hero. He’s uneducated, he’s not from the area, he even ends up betraying a confidence. In his own innocent way, however, he is perceptive. He’s alive to things going on around him, can analyse people and draw the right conclusions. He’s clever and undaunted – perfectly suited to heroism.

How do you go about immersing yourself in the character?
I look for things I can grab hold of and work with. So ok, I didn’t grow up in a forest or spend most of my time talking to animals, but I come from a pretty remote rural area of the States, working class community, very distant from the world of opera. As a child, I was much more in touch with horses and nature than music. So I have that in common with Siegfried.

What got you from there to where you are now?
No one in the family was interested in music until my grandmother suddenly took it in her head that one of her grandchildren should learn a musical instrument. So I studied the trumpet and then piano and much later on I auditioned at high school for a part in H.M.S. PINAFORE, the operetta, and found out I could sing. When my parents saw me perform for the first time, it was kind of hard for them to take it on board. Seeing me up on stage just didn’t fit the image they had of me. They’d never heard me singing at home.