 Downes conducted at least 950 performances of 49 operas at Covent Garden, including Ring Cycles in 1967, 1968 and1971.Elsewhere, he became the Australian Opera's Music Director in 1970, conducting the first operatic performance in the Sydney Opera House in 1973, the Australian premiere of "War and Peace" by Sergei Prokofiev.He was Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Orchestra until 1983.