When the world famous Metropolitan Opera Stage Director, Herbert Graf chose to do Wagner’s Ring in Geneva, Switzerland he wanted Claude for Siegfried. He had heard about the fight in the auditorium after Claude’s Siegfried in Götterdämmerung with Lorin Maazel in Berlin, he wanted to hear Claude’s Siegfried for himself so he came to France to hear Claude’s young Siegfried and later introduced himself in Claude’s dressing room after the performance saying: “In my 35 years of staging at the Metropolitan Opera, I have never seen or heard a better Siegfried than you. All of them saved their voices in the second act to hold their own with a fresh Brunnhilde, you didn’t, and finished with a very strong third act! There is no one singing Siegfried today that can touch you! I want to engage you for my Ring Cycle for next year.”