Siegfried is an innocent young man who grew up in isolation and has never felt fear. When he comes across the sleeping Brünnhilde and discovers his feelings for a woman he experiences a panic attack. To love a woman is a task he finds daunting and he calls for his mother -twice!! But she is not only a woman she is the ‘Feminine’ in himself and in the whole work.

Siegfried ( S Jerusalem)
Act III: “Selige Oede auf sonniger Hoh’!” & “Das ist kein Mann!”
Richard Wagner. Met 1990, Conductor James Levine