How do opera singers prepare for a role debut? Tenor Rolando Villazón shows us

How do opera singers prepare for a role debut? The French-Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón shows us, as we follow him preparing to sing Wagner on stage, as Loge in Das Rheingold.

"I love characters that have a journey and that have different masks, that have different faces, that have different postures," Villazón says.

The tenor is on fire. For the first time, he's going to perform Wagner on stage.

A new role, a new challenge, delving into character and learning a new part. A process that requires dedication, hard work, but also a lot of fun.

Months of preparation await the versatile singer, ahead of his Wagner debut in the famous opera Rheingold in Berlin.

"When you enter into the skin and soul of a new character, there are different stages," he says. "At the beginning, it's the unknown. So you don't have it in your voice. You don't have it in your system. You're discovering everything."

Mostly known for his Italian and French repertoire, the tenor is about to dive deep into Germanic myth - performing as Loge, the scheming god of fire.

"When I first saw Loge, I fell in love with that role," he says. "And I said I wish one day I will be given the opportunity to sing this role, because it has never been the obvious role for me, for the language, for the type of tenor. And I really, really wanted to do it. So I'm very excited now to be in the middle of this adventure of fire."

At the Berlin State Opera, director Dmitri Tcherniakov and singers come together for the first stage and piano rehearsal. A pivotal step. The orchestra pit is empty. For now, just one piano replaces all the musicians.

"It doesn't matter if you don't play all the notes that you see," says rehearsal pianist Elias Corrinth. "you only indicate most of them. It