Alexander "Alick" Morvaren Maclean (20 July 1872 – 18 May 1936) was an English composer and

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

. Maclean's father Charles Maclean was Director of Music at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

. The younger Maclean was born there and later went to the school. He became interested in opera and wrote an 'English'

verismo In opera, , from , meaning 'true', was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini. ''Verismo'' as an operatic ge ...

work called ''Petruccio''. This was presented in a double-bill with ''

Cavalleria rusticana ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; ) is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 Cavalleria rusticana (short story), short story of the same name and subsequent ...

'' at the Royal Opera in London, on 29 June 1895. As an opera composer he enjoyed more success in Germany than in England, and two of his later works were staged in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

. The

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

for all his works was Sheridan Ross. From 1912 to 1935 he conducted the Spa Orchestra at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

. He died in London in 1936.

Stage works

* ''Crichton'' (unperformed, c. 1892) * ''Quentin Durward'' (London, 1894) * ''Petruccio'' (London, 1895) * ''Die Liebegeige'' (Mainz, 1906) * ''Maître Seiler'' (London, 1909) * ''Die Waldidylle'' (Mainz, 1913)

Recordings

Maclean recorded for

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice is an entertainment trademark featuring a dog named Nipper, curiously peering into the horn of a wind-up gramophone. Painted by Francis Barraud in 1898, the image has since become a global symbol used across consumer elect ...

and Columbia, especially with the New Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra.

References

*Banfield, Stephen (1992), 'Maclean, Alick' in ''The

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'', ed. Stanley Sadie (London)

External links

British Pathé newsreel of Maclean at Scarborough in 1932, accessed 29 October 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Alick English opera composers English male opera composers English classical composers 1872 births 1936 deaths