Early years Caplat was born in
Herne Bay, Kent, the only child of Armand Charles Victor Roger Caplat, a French-born architect, and his wife, Norah Bessie,
née Hingston. He was educated locally. When he was fifteen he saw a touring production of
Twelfth Night by the
Ben Greet company which made him stage-struck, and in 1933 he was accepted as a student at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. Their daughter Simone married the historian
David Sekers, son of the industrialist
Nicholas Sekers. After Caplat was released from the navy in 1945 a relative put him in touch with
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, which was resuming productions after a wartime gap. The company needed an assistant to its manager,
Rudolf Bing. The latter was impressed with Caplat, as were the proprietors of the company,
John and
Audrey Christie, and he took up post at Glyndebourne in October 1945. Caplat arranged overseas performances of Glyndebourne productions:
La Cenerentola in Berlin (1954),
Falstaff and
Le Comte Ory in Paris (1958);
Don Giovanni and
Il matrimonio segreto in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1967) and ''
L'Ormindo'' in Munich (1969). Operas receiving their UK professional premieres in Caplat's time included
Idomeneo (1951), ''
The Rake's Progress (1953), La voix humaine (1960) and Intermezzo (1974). Caplat encouraged the conductor Raymond Leppard to revive neglected early operas, and Glyndebourne gave the first British productions of L'incoronazione di Poppea (1962) L'Ormindo
(1967), La Calisto (1970) and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria'' (1972). Caplat was particularly interested in good stage design, hitherto a weakness at Glyndebourne. He brought in leading British designers, including
Hugh Casson,
Leslie Hurry,
Osbert Lancaster,
Oliver Messel and
John Piper. Later designers during Caplat's tenure included
John Bury,
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle,
Erté and
David Hockney. In his sixties, Caplat began handing over responsibility to his deputy, Brian Dickie, who succeeded him in 1981.
The Financial Times commented, "When Moran Caplat left Glyndebourne at 65 he was one of the longest-serving opera administrators in Europe. Moreover he handed over one of Europe's most successful houses." Caplat died in
Tunbridge Wells at the age of 86. ==References==