Opera Scotland

Alick Maclean Suggest updates

Alexander Morarven Maclean.

Born Windsor, 20 July 1872.

Died London, 18 May 1936.

English composer and conductor.

Alick Maclean was born and educated at Eton College, where his father was employed as Director of Music. Like several British composers of the period (most notably Dame Ethel Smyth) he found German opera managements more receptive to his work than British ones. Just as Maître Seiler struggled when played on the same bill as Tosca, his earlier one-acter, Petruccio, though premiered at Covent Garden, had been paired with the stupendously successful Cavalleria Rusticana. He did gain an established reputation, however, and on 15 February 1909, his choral composition The Annunciation, was premiered at London's Queen's Hall, in a concert in which the LSO, conducted by Hans Richter, also played Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with some notable soloists. It was played at Sheffield several years later.

As a conductor he worked regularly in London and elsewhere in the UK, but spent much of his career based in Yorkshire, as conductor of Scarborough's Spa Orchestra (1912-35).

Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:

01   Crichton (c1892 unperf) (Ross)

02   Quentin Durward (1892; Newcastle 1920) (Ross)

03   Petruccio (London 1895) (Ross)

04   Die Liebegeige (Mainz 1906) (Ross)

05   Maître Seiler (London 1909) (Ross)

06   Die Waldidylle (Mainz 1913) (Ross)

Data largely from Wikipedia.