The Wanderer Speaks: Michael Volle on OMM’s Siegfried | The Flying Inkpot
When German baritone Michael Volle steps onto the Esplanade Concert Hall stage this September as the Wanderer in Wagner’s Siegfried, it will be his first time in Singapore and his first time working with the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM).
OMM’s ambitious journey to bring the entire Ring Cycle to Singapore auidences began in January 2020 with Die Walküre, followed by Das Rheingold in July 2023 (Ed: the OMM performed the Ring operas out of their traditional sequence, staging Die Walküre before Das Rheingold – a deliberate programming choice, as Die Walküre, with some of Wagner’s most beloved music, is widely considered the most accessible entry point into the Ring Cycle). Now, six years after that historic first instalment, the OMM arrives at Siegfried – the 3rd opera in the Ring.
Volle’s career spans the world’s great stages, from Bayreuth to La Scala, the Vienna State Opera to the Metropolitan Opera. Among the most celebrated Wagner baritones of his generation, he has sung Wotan and the Wanderer across the Ring Cycle many times over. Aileen Tang caught up with him ahead of his Singapore debut.
The Flying Inkpot: This is your first visit to Singapore! What do you know about the Orchestra of the Music Makers and their Ring Cycle project, and what drew you to being part of it?
Michael Volle: It will be a total new encounter and experience in an absolute unknown part of the world. I‘m looking forward very much to meeting all the colleagues in Singapore.
TFI: You made your Bayreuth debut in 2007 as Beckmesser before returning as Hans Sachs in Barrie Kosky’s celebrated 2017 production of Die Meistersinger. What does Bayreuth teach a Wagner singer that other houses simply can’t?
MV: The Opera House, the Festspielhaus, is absolute unique. Because of the structure of the orchestra pit, you have to find your approach to the special sound conditions – which you will learn pretty fast because the atmosphere is magic there. (Ed: The orchestra pit at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus is under the stage and entirely hidden from view of the audience; Richard Wagner called the design a “mystic gulf”.)
TFI: Many great Wagner singers have left the Lied recital behind as their careers grew. You’ve clearly resisted that and are equally at home on both stages. What does the Lied recital give you that the opera stage can’t?
MV: You can’t compare one discipline of singing to another – opera, concert, Lied. But in my opinion, Lied is the most difficult one. You are absolutely pure and naked on stage, only accompanied by the piano. You can’t hide behind costumes and action, and every little vocal problem will be heard. It is like therapy to your chords, to control your state of vocal condition, and it endlessly enriches your soul with beauty and joy
TFI: The Wanderer is one of Wagner’s most enigmatic figures. How do you inhabit that kind of tragic omniscience on stage, and how has your understanding of him shifted over the years?
MV: It is such an interesting third step on the Ring journey. He’s getting older, maybe a bit wiser and more relaxed, being confronted with the fate of everything. Maybe he already knows what will come and happen to the gods, and he’s finally accepting his part of the story – having no further impact on anything.
TFI: Wagner asks enormous things of a singer — physically, emotionally, intellectually. How do you prepare for an evening as long as Siegfried?
MV: It’s a wonderful result of long-term singing to get more and more experienced and used to all the demanding skills of singing Wagner. And doing it again and again makes it somehow easier to stand all the challenges but to be challenged again each night.
TFI: Singapore audiences may be encountering the Ring Cycle live for the very first time. What would you say to someone walking into Siegfried with fresh ears?
MV: Stay open-minded and don’t get tired during the very long run of this special masterpiece. You will discover endless treasures of sound and emotion in this unique cosmos.
Tickets for Siegfried are available from Sistic:
https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/wagner0926
WAGNER’S SIEGFRIED
Saturday, 5 September 2026
4pm
Esplanade Concert Hall
Orchestra of the Music Makers
Lü Shao-Chia, conductor
Tan Shou Chen, director
Vincent Wolfsteiner (Siegfried)
Dan Karlström (Mime)
Michael Volle (Wanderer)
Anna Harvey (Erda)
Joachim Goltz (Alberich)
Lukasz Konieczny (Fafner)
Victoria Songwei Li (Woodbird)
Stéphanie Müther (Brunnhilde)
Note:
4.00 – 5.30pm: Act 1
5.30 – 5.50pm: Break
5.50 – 7.10pm: Act 2
7.10 – 8.30pm: Break
8.30 – 10.00pm: Act 3
