The terrifying sight of Graham Clark as the dwarf Mime, deranged by power lust, staring at the audience with penetrating, unblinking eyes and wearing the dress that belonged to Siegfried’s mother, Sieglinde, is an abiding image of Richard Jones’s controversial 1995 Royal Opera production of Wagner’s Ring.
The characters of Mime and the fire god, Loge, were two of Clark’s best known roles, but the 122 performances he gave at the Bayreuth festival over 16 seasons also included David in Die Meistersinger, the Steersman in Der Fliegende Holländer and both Melot and the Young Sailor in Tristan und Isolde. In all, Clark, who has died aged 81, had 413 performances and recordings to his credit including 276 performances of Loge and Mime.
