On the Road: Richard Laing goes on a European tour in the company of a celebrated tenor

Review of Someone Who Knows No Fear: Backstage with Wagner-Tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, directed Bscher (Gramola 20007, 1 DVD).

November 2026, Volume 20, Number 3, 90–91.

The first image in Astrid Bscher’s second documentary about Klaus Florian Vogt has the illustrious singer standing on a window ledge, looking out over the city like a blond Batman, though here the rooftops are those of magnificent Munich rather than gloomy Gotham. And indeed the film paints the tenor as a kind of superhero, flying a plane (‘it’s not actually that complicated’), chatting to the German Chancellor, riding a Harley-Davidson, dashing from city to city and making each European stage his own. But we do gain insight into the development of this singular performer, whose classic origin story has him starting as a young hornist in the pit of the Hamburg State Opera who dreams of striding alone across the stage rather than sitting anonymously underneath it. And we get a feel for the joys and the frustrations of the fulfilling but strangely rootless lifestyle Vogt today enjoys.