John Dexter


John Dexter was an English theatre, opera and film director.

Theatre

Born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, Dexter left school at the age of fourteen to serve in the British Army during the Second World War. Following the war, he began working as a stage actor before turning to producing and directing shows for repertory companies. In 1957, he was appointed Associate Director of the English Stage Company.
Dexter's first great success was his production of Roots, in 1959, which brought Dame Joan Plowright to prominence. He went on to direct Toys in the Attic and Saint Joan. In 1964, he was named Associate Director of the National Theatre of Great Britain, and he produced The Royal Hunt of the Sun.
That year, he also directed Othello, with Sir Laurence Olivier, Dame Maggie Smith and Frank Finlay. It was considered a tremendous success. RCA recorded an audio version, and, the following year, Stuart Burge made a film of the production for BHE Films.
Dexter continued with Hamlet, Equus, The Party, Phaedra Britannica, The Merchant, As You Like It, Life of Galileo, The Glass Menagerie and Julius Caesar. His final great success was M. Butterfly, on Broadway, and the following year, he staged Die Dreigroschenoper there, which was to be his final production.

Cinema

Dexter's debut feature-film was The Virgin Soldiers. His second film was The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker ; his third was I Want What I Want.
For Granada Television, Dexter directed Twelfth Night, with Sir Alec Guinness and Sir Ralph Richardson in 1969.

Opera

Dexter made his operatic debut at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in 1966, with Benvenuto Cellini, with Nicolai Gedda, and, in 1983, he staged a double-bill of Le rossignol and L'enfant et les sortilèges for the company. At the Hamburg State Opera, he staged Les vêpres siciliennes, From the House of the Dead, Billy Budd, Boris Godunov and Un ballo in maschera. For Sadler's Wells, he produced The Devils of Loudun in 1973.
At the Metropolitan Opera, Dexter mounted new productions of Les vêpres siciliennes, Aïda, Le prophète, Dialogues des Carmélites, Lulu, Rigoletto, Billy Budd, The Bartered Bride, Don Pasquale, Don Carlos, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and the triple-bills of "Parade" and "Stravinsky".
For the Paris Opéra, he staged Les vêpres siciliennes and La forza del destino.
In Zurich, he produced Nabucco in 1986.

Life

John Dexter died in London during heart surgery; he had also been afflicted with poliomyelitis and diabetes. His acerbic and witty autobiography, The Honourable Beast, was published posthumously, in which he wrote of his "Fury for perfection...."

Broadway productions