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Dennis Michael Marks (2 July 1948 – 2 April 2015), was head of music at
BBC Television in the 1980s and from 1993 to 1997 was general director of
English National Opera
English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...
. He was also a maker of television documentaries, broadcaster and author.
Early career
Marks was born to Jewish parents; his father was the son of immigrants from
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
[Goodwin (1993)] Brought up in
Harrow, London,
[Rozner (1999)] Marks was educated at
Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
Haberdashers' Boys' School (also known as Haberdashers', Habs, or Habs Boys), until September 2021 known as Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, is a Independent school (United Kingdom), public school for pupils age 4 to 18 in Elstree, Hertfo ...
and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
.
[Anon (2015)] Originally he hoped for a career in the theatre and was a member of the
National Youth Theatre. Obtaining a job, originally as a researcher, at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, he became a director and producer of television arts programmes.
While making a programme in 1972 about
Shandy Hall
Shandy Hall is a writer's house museum in the former home of the Rev. Laurence Sterne in Coxwold, North Yorkshire, England. Sterne lived there from 1760 to 1768 as perpetual curate of Coxwold. He is remembered for his novels ''The Life and Op ...
(home of the writer
Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768), was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric who wrote the novels ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' and '' A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy'', publishe ...
), he met the writer
Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce '' Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy''. His novels, such as '' Towards the End of the M ...
and the two became lifelong friends.
Leaving the BBC to work as an independent producer, Marks was invited back by
Alan Yentob
Alan Yentob (born 11 March 1947) is a BBC presenter and retired British television executive. He stepped down as Creative Director in December 2015, and was chairman of the board of trustees of the charity Kids Company from 2003 until its colla ...
and eventually became Head of Music Programmes at the BBC. During this time he became involved in opera, including directing television versions of
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten ...
's ''
New Year
New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system to ...
'' and
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Mark-Anthony Turnage CBE (born 10 June 1960) is a British composer of classical music.
Biography
Turnage was born in Corringham, Essex. He began composing at age nine and at fourteen began studying at the junior section of the Royal College of ...
's ''
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''.
At the ENO
In 1993 Marks succeeded
Peter Jonas as General Director of English National Opera (ENO). He inherited financial problems (the company already had a deficit of over £3 million) and a roster of new productions which initially drew low audiences and poor critical reception, including a controversial production of
Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and re ...
's ''
Life with an Idiot
''Life with an Idiot'' () is an opera by the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke to a Russian libretto by Viktor Erofeyev. Written as an allegory of oppression under the Soviet Union, the opera was first performed at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam, o ...
''.
[Lister (1995)] However, Marks wrote, "At ENO I was surprised and delighted to discover that the elusive force known as 'word of mouth' can overcome even the most savage press reactions. More than one show panned by the press still played to full houses and put two fingers up to its detractors." Although audiences increased, particularly for a well-received production of ''
Carmen'',
and revenues improved, Marks found himself increasingly at odds with the ENO board of directors, especially over his proposals to move the company's home from the expensive and elderly
London Coliseum
The London Coliseum (also known as the Coliseum Theatre) is a theatre in St Martin's Lane, Westminster, built as one of London's largest and most luxurious "family" variety theatres. Opened on 24 December 1904 as the London Coliseum Theatre ...
theatre to a new build out of the central London area. These disagreements, and lack of cogent funding proposals from the
Arts Council, led to his resignation in 1997.
[Lister (1997)]
Later career
After leaving the ENO, Marks devoted himself to writing, broadcasting and travelling. In 2004 he scripted and directed a filmed version, with the tenor
Ian Bostridge
Ian Charles Bostridge CBE (born 25 December 1964) is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera and lieder singer.
Early life and education
Bostridge was born in London, the son of Leslie Bostridge and Lillian (née Clark). ...
and the soprano Ruby Philogene, of
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European f ...
's
song cycle
A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online''
The songs are either for solo voice ...
, ''
The Diary of One Who Disappeared
''Zápisník zmizelého'', or ''(The) Diary of One Who Disappeared'', is a half-hour Czech-language quasi-operatic song cycle for tenor, alto, three other women's voices and piano completed in 1919 by Leoš Janáček. Of its 22 sections, 18 are ...
'', and was a lead presenter of an entire day dedicated to Janáček on
BBC Radio 3. In 2011 he published a book about the writer
Joseph Roth
Moses Joseph Roth (2 September 1894 – 27 May 1939) was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga '' Radetzky March'' (1932), about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his novel of Jewish life '' Job'' ...
. In a 2013 radio programme for
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
, ''Little Moscow in Israel'', Marks examined the effects of the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel.
Although already seriously ill, Marks was in the audience for the new ENO production of
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's ''
The Mastersingers'' shortly before his death.
"Dennis Marks 1948–2015"
ENO website. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
Notes
Sources
* Anon, (2015). "Dennis Marks, BBC head of music – obituary", ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'', 4 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
* Gilbert, Susie (2011). ''Opera for Everybody: The Story of English National Opera''. London: Faber & Faber. .
* Goodwin, Noël (1993). "New faces 3: Dennis Marks", in ''Opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
'', February 1993. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
* Lister, David (1995). "English National Opera: something had to give", ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'', 11 November 1995. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
* Lister, David (1997). "Arts: Opera drama as director of ENO leaves post", ''The Independent'', 20 September 1997. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
* Marks, Dennis (n.d.). "I Know What I Like", dennismarks.net blog. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
* Marks, Dennis (2011). ''Wandering Jew: The Search for Joseph Roth''. London: Notting Hill Editions. .
* Rozner, Gina (1999). "How we met: Dennis Marks & Michael Frayn", ''The Independent'', 26 December 1999. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marks, Dennis
1948 births
2015 deaths
People from the London Borough of Harrow
People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
British television directors
BBC executives
British broadcasters
British opera managers
Jewish British writers
National Youth Theatre members