The Flying Dutchman

Artist's biography

Name:

David Myerscough-Jones

Lived:

1934 - 2010

Qualifications:

He grew up in Southport, Lancashire, the only child of parents who encouraged a love of classical music. While studying at the Central School of Art and Design in London, he visited the Bayreuth festival in Germany, absorbing Wieland Wagner's minimalist opera productions. His own first professional designs at Leatherhead, in 1957, were notably stark and ruffled the repertory theatre, which was unaccustomed to such modernity. "Not battleship grey again!" the director lamented.

Confident in his aesthetic, he moved on to the Citizens theatre in Glasgow (1958-60) and the Mermaid in London (1960-65). Exuberant shows such as Alfie and Lock Up Your Daughters transferred from the Mermaid to the West End. In 1963 he married a design assistant, Ursula (known as Pelo); they had met at the Queen's theatre in Hornchurch.

Devoted to opera, Myerscough-Jones was a natural for the new BBC music department. Peter Grimes (1969) was an early triumph, filmed in Britten's theatre at Snape Maltings in Suffolk.