Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE (born 17 November 1925, died 14 July 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was a noted authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Family:
Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras was born of Australian parents, Alan and Catherine Mackerras, in Schenectady, New York. His father, an electrical engineer, was doing postgraduate work in Schenectady with General Electric. The family moved to Sydney when Charles was aged two. He was the eldest of their seven children, including five brothers, the others being Malcolm, Colin, Alastair and Neil and two sisters, Joan and Elisabeth. They are descendants of the pioneer Australian musician Isaac Nathan.
Mackerras attended Sydney Grammar School and The King's School in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney. He studied oboe, piano and composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and eventually became principal oboist of the Sydney Symphony. He settled in England in 1946. He won a British Council Scholarship in 1947, enabling him to study conducting with Václav Talich at the Prague Academy of Music.
In 1947, Mackerras married Judy Wilkins, a clarinettist. They have two daughters, Fiona (who died in September 2007 and Catherine. He is the uncle of the Australian conductor Alexander Briger (Australian World Orchestra) and the British-born conductor Drostan Hall (Camerata Chicago, USA).
Early career:
Returning to England from Prague in 1948, Mackerras began his life-long association with Sadler's Wells Opera, now English National Opera, conducting, among others, Janáček, Handel, Gluck, Bach, and Donizetti. In the 1950s, well before the "authenticity" movement had come to general notice, Mackerras focussed on the study and practical realization of period performance techniques, culminating in his landmark 1959 recording of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks using the original wind band instrumentation. In his 1965 performance of The Marriage of Figaro, he added the ornamentation in a historically informed style.
Mackerras also strongly championed the music of Janáček outside of Czechoslovakia, where Mackerras himself has judged his work with Janáček as his single most important legacy to music. In 1951 he conducted the British premiere of Káťa Kabanová. He was also a noted authority on Mozart's operas and those of Sir Arthur Sullivan. His Sullivan ballet arrangement Pineapple Poll (1951, just after the expiration of copyright on Sullivan's music), based on one of Gilbert's Bab Ballads, continues to be a popular light music favourite in English speaking countries. Mackerras also arranged music by Giuseppe Verdi for the ballet The Lady and the Fool. He also arranged a suite from John Ireland's score for the 1946 film The Overlanders, after Ireland's death in 1962.
He became principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra from 1954 to 1956. In 1963 he made his debut at London's Covent Garden conducting Shostakovich's Katerina Izmailova. He directed the Hamburg State Opera from 1965 to 1969 and the English National Opera from 1970 to 1977. In 1972 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York conducting Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. Mackerras worked closely with Benjamin Britten for a time, but after he had joked about Britten's relationships with young boys, they severed their relationship. The events are described in John Bridcut's Britten's Children.
He conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the opening concert of the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1973. Birgit Nilsson sang in the all-Wagner program.
Later career:
Mackerras was a guest conductor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado during the 1975 D'Oyly Carte Centenary season at the Savoy. He later joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Trust and later its Board of Trustees. In 1982 he was the first Australian national appointed chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony, a post he held until 1985.
In 1980 he became the first non-Briton to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Last Night of the Proms.
Mackerras directed the Welsh National Opera from 1987 to 1992, where his Janáček productions won particular praise. One of the highlights of the 1991 season was the reopening of the Estates Theatre in Prague, scene of the original premiere of Mozart's Don Giovanni, in which Mackerras conducted a new production of that opera to mark the bicentenary of Mozart's death. As Conductor Emeritus of Welsh National Opera, his successes have included Tristan und Isolde, The Yeomen of the Guard, and La clemenza di Tito (all of which productions were brought to London). He was the principal guest conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) from 1992 to 1995, and now holds the title of Conductor Laureate with the SCO. He was principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1993 to 1996. During the same period, he was al
