A French orchestra has per se more transparency and clarity than a German orchestra. The winds are more flexible and smoother. But also the strings, since they are not played as intensively, provide an opportunity for the singers not to constantly have to force [their voices].

Nevertheless, one shouldn’t work with a French orchestra on French but rather German qualities. They don’t lose their French qualities as a result. That was our collaborative work; it developed increasingly into the orchestra’s DNA.

How has your perspective on the “Ring” changed over the years?

A lot has changed because I was in Bayreuth in the meantime. One learns there to conduct Wagner differently than one otherwise would — above all, the “Ring” and “Parsifal.” That lies with the acoustics. The proportions between the woodwinds and horns — which are usually too loud in the pit — and the strings are ideally balanced. One gets a very different feeling for the relief of the score.

The other thing is the sense of tempo. Most conductors, myself included, tend to bathe themselves in the sound. In Bayreuth, one notices that it doesn’t carry if a tempo is too slow.

To what extent do you adapt to a given director?

A conductor and director have to work with mutual respect. It should always be music theater — music stands in the foreground — and nevertheless it should be good theater.

I have never worked with Calixto Bieito, but after seeing [his production of Aribert Reimann’s] “Lear” at Garnier, it was clear to me and Stéphane Lissner [director of the Paris Opera] that this is an exciting aesthetic. He is not someone who presents a finished concept that rather brings evocations that result in an overall picture.