Born in Norway, the baritone Bjørn Waag first studied singing, conducting, musicology and philosophy. From 1979 to 1981 he was cultural editor of the Morgenbladet, the oldest daily newspaper in Norway. In the latter year he participated in the masterclasses of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin and Ernst Haefliger in Munich and had his first engagement at Trier from 1984 to 1987, when he was invited to join the Bremen Opera. In 1997 he joined the National Theatre in Mannheim. His repertoire of some ninety rôles covers most of those for his voice, from Papageno to Faninal, Beckmesser and Alberich.