Opera Scotland

Donald McIntyre Suggest updates

Sir Donald McIntyre.

Born Auckland, 22 October 1934.

Died Munich, 13 November 2025.

New Zealand bass-baritone.

Sir Donald McIntyre studied initially at Teacher Training College before a New Zealand Government bursary allowed him to train in London at the Guildhall School of Music. For his debut in 1959 he sang Zaccaria Nabucco with Welsh National Opera, and performed other Verdi bass roles at Sadler’s Wells.  He performed regularly with them in the years 1960-67, in London and on tour, singing a mixed repertory including Mozart and Verdi.  Major roles included Gremin Eugene Onegin and the title role in Attila.  He also sang his first Wagnerian characters, including Biterolf Tannhäuser and the Dutchman.

In 1967 he first appeared at Covent Garden, and returned there in a multitude of roles including Beethoven (Pizarro),  Weber (Ottokar Der Freischütz),  Musorgsky (Shaklovity Khovanschchina),  Bizet (Escamillo),  Strauss (Jokanaan, Orest,  Barak),  and Debussy (Golaud).  His major Wagner roles at the house, trained by Reginald Goodall, were  Wotan,  Dutchman,  Kothner,  Kurwenal,  Klingsor,  Amfortas and  Telramund.  With the Royal Opera he also created Heyst in Victory (Bennett 1970), which was taken on tour to Berlin, and sang Prospero in the British premiere of Berio's Un re in ascolta (1989).

He first went to Bayreuth in 1967 and returned every season for many years thereafter, singing  Telramund,  Klingsor,  Dutchman,  Amfortas,  Kurwenal and  Wotan.  He made guest appearances at other major houses which included  Milan,  Hamburg,  New York Met,  Chicago, and  Zurich.  He was one of the leading Wagner bass-baritones of his generation, making many recordings, including  Klingsor and  Wotan conducted by Pierre Boulez live at Bayreuth.  In later years he also sang some of the Wagner bass roles including  Gurnemanz and  Pogner (with Welsh National).

With Scottish Opera he appeared as Varlaam and the Commendatore (both in 1965), returning as  Méphistophélès,  Hunding,  Pizarro,  Wotan (his first assumption of the role in Die Walküre), and  Macbeth. 

He was knighted in 1992.