13895 Wagner News 174 - Wagner Society of England

Siegfried and one Götterdämmerung. All of this was in 1985 (when I also assisted on
Tristan in Brussels with Gwyneth Jones) in the middle of which I got married to Carmen
in her hometown on the Rhine! Carmen assisted with the CBTO Jonathan Dove Ring and
is now assistant director to Alan Privett for this Ring. We are really delighted to have the
deep experience of Malcolm Rivers for Götterdämmerung. He and Stuart Pendred will
make a real father and son pair with Stuart singing his first Hagen.
Let’s go back in time. Tell us about your early days.
I attended Stowe School for nearly four years and then four terms at the Royal College of
Music. I had been awarded a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford at 16, but Dr Sidney
Watson, who became my tutor, suggested RCM for a year before going on to Oxford. I
studied clarinet and piano, and also opera, but my main experience was meeting Elsa
Mayer-Lismann and getting involved in her Workshop with the likes of Anne Evans and
Kathy Pring. Elsa knew I had a deep musical longing and knowledge and she helped bring
all this out. I was able to go to all the Covent Garden performances at that time. I well
remember the Solti and Downes Ring cycles, my first Don Giovanni with Krips and
Gobbi; Klemperer conducting Lohengrin and Kempe, the first Wagnerian conductor I
heard live.
You then went freelance before a long career with Welsh National Opera.
Yes, after College I worked extensively in London between 1967 and 1970 assisting with
many productions. In the 1970 ENO Ring I was a voluntary assistant on the Walküre to
Reggie Goodall ( who was a huge influence on me. I later considered myself to be Reggie’s
“rhythmic conscience”!) I also visited Germany for auditions and worked in Wuppertal for
three years; then Bayreuth for two seasons on Tannhäuser and other operas. This was
followed by a period in Hamburg until 1974. I auditioned for Welsh National Opera where
I was on the music staff full time from 1976 to 2011, recently turning 65 in one mega week
when I also conducted my first Meistersinger at Glyndebourne! I had earlier worked
extensively with Vladimir Jurowski on five pieces, including the Tristan and I was
delighted to conduct the one performance which I was offered.
Rightly or wrongly, many of us see you first and foremost as a Wagner conductor.
I think I have a feel for the ebb and flow and an understanding of Wagner. There are some
dangerous corners, but feel I have learnt how to navigate around them rather like a canoe
in dangerous waters. Last night in Siegfried I did not play safe, but with an acute sense of
tempo I know what I want to go for. Usually it works! For Siegfried I only had ten days
for orchestra rehearsals with little time in between for assimilation. (I am particularly
proud of the strings this year. They have some very difficult music to play in Siegfried
and are quite marvellous. The standard achieved by the whole orchestra has been growing
each year.
Are there in this opera any scenes where you feel, “Wow – I am pleased we got
through that alright?”
Yes, there is one horrible little scene, which takes more work than any other. This is where
Alberich and Mime are squabbling in Act II. The opening is the devil: you have the bass
clarinet on the beat, the second clarinet just off the beat and the bassoon with an upbeat,
so each of them starts with a similar type of motif on a different semi-quaver. I am always
glad when we have got past those few bars and the strings take over. It is one of those
scenes where you just have to be patient. A problem with Siegfried is that if you have two
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