Seattle Opera’s first malevolent lord of the Nibelungs was British baritone Malcolm Rivers, who sang the role (in both German and English) from 1975 to 1983 (but not 1981). According to Glynn Ross, Rivers was “an indispensable core of our early years of the Festival.... Malcolm’s curse was a marvelous collaboration between him and conductor Henry Holt. So electrifying was the effect that an experienced audience in the fourth or fifth year actually broke the unwritten no-applause rule. I have not seen or heard anything to equal that since.”
With his fellow Brit Paul Crook as an unforgettable Mime (1975-1979), Rivers reigned over the Seattle stage with a theatrical zest that was honed during his early years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He moved to a full-time operatic career with Benjamin Britten’s English Opera group at Aldeburgh, where he worked extensively with Britten for many seasons. Later, with English National Opera and other major theaters, he sang roles ranging from Alberich to Escamillo and Beckmesser.
Nor has he neglected the lighter side: Rivers has starred with the D’Oyly Carte Company at the Savoy, and in the West End musicals Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, and Sweeney Todd, among several others.
“I was lucky,” Rivers told one interviewer. “I had learned all my basic stagecraft in England, and here was George London [director of Seattle’s first Ring] stage-directing the Ring in Seattle. You couldn’t get anyone better in the world.”
Rivers’ post-Seattle career has extended to teaching as well as performing: he became chairman of The Wagner Society in England, and artistic director of The Mastersingers Company, founded in 1998 to develop and teach young professional singers in the Wagnerian repertoire. And in this respect he has come full circle: two of his Mastersingers—Miriam Murphy and James Rutherford—became joint winners of Seattle Opera’s first International Wagner Competition in 2006.
In 1976, KUOW broadcast the English-language RING performance. Here’s Malcolm Rivers singing Alberich’s curse, from “Das Rheingold:”
Am I now free?
truly free?
I greet you then
in my freedom: mark my words!
Since a curse gained it for me,
my curse lies on this ring!
Though its gold
brought riches to me,
let now it bring
but death, death to its lord!
Its wealth shall yield
pleasure to none;
may no fortunate owner
enjoy its gleam.
Care shall consume
the man who commands it,
and mortal envy
consume those who don’t--
striving vainly
to win that prize.
But he who obtains it
shall find no joy!
It will bring no gain to its lord;
only death is brought by its gleam!
To death he is fated,
doomed by the curse on the ring:
and while he lives,
fears will fill all his days.
Who owns the ring
to the ring is a slave,
till the gold returns
to this hand from which you have torn it!
So, anguished
and sore distressed,
the Nibelung blesses his ring!
You have it now;
guard it with care!
From my curse you can’t escape!
Andrew Porter, translation. Henry Holt conducted the Seattle Opera orchestra. Photo (Malcolm Rivers in rehearsal) by Chris Bennion.