Geoff Brown at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester [Times Online, 15 November 2006]

“I’ve got an Act III next year in concert — in Manchester, I think,” Ben Heppner told a website interviewer in 2005. It was indeed Manchester, and there stood probably the world’s greatest high-flying tenor, taking one more step in his slow ascent of Wagner’s prize “heldentenor” role, Siegfried. Previously Heppner had sung only chunks from The Ring. Ahead in 2008 lies his Siegfried stage debut with Simon Rattle at Aix-en-Provence, with Götterdämmerung to follow in 2009. All perfect Wagnerites are aquiver.