Mackerras, (Alan) Charles (MacLaurin) (1925– )

Australian conductor. He has helped to make the music of the Czech composer Leoš Janáček more widely known. He was conductor of the Hamburg Opera 1966–69 and of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra 1976–79. He was music director of the Sadler's Wells Opera (now English National Opera) 1970–77 and the Welsh National Opera 1987–92.

Born in the USA, he was taken to Sydney at the age of two. He studied at Sydney Conservatory and became first oboe of Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He went to England in 1946 and studied with Václav Talich in Prague 1947–48. On his return to England he was engaged by Sadler's Wells Opera and has since conducted throughout the world. He conducted the first British performance of Janáček's Káta Kabanová at Sadler's Wells in 1951, and helped to initiate ‘authentic’ styles of interpretation with a highly ornamented Figaro in 1965. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in 1972 with Orfeo ed Euridice, and his Glyndebourne debut in 1990 with Falstaff. He was knighted in 1979.