This is the week that...

... Elizabeth Harwood was born (27th May 1938)

English Opera Group production of Acis and Galatea at

the Aldeburgh Festival, 1966. Elizabeth as Galatea (Ref: EH/7/1/1)

                          Elizabeth Harwood, 1964 (Ref: EH/7/2/1)                     Elizabeth Harwood (Ref: EH/7/2/1)

Elizabeth Harwood was born on 27 May 1938, and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music between 1956 and 1960. Her first opera appearance away from College was for the Buxton Opera Group in 1957 as Michaela in Passion Flower, an adaptation of Carmen.

 She enjoyed over two decades as an operatic singer, working with conductors such as Colin Davis and Herbert von Karajan. It was under von Karajan that she became the first English soprano to perform at the Salzburg Festival in The Marriage of Figaro, a role which she would reprise in many subsequent festivals. Elizabeth's last operatic performance was for The Buxton Festival in La Colombe, 1983.   

Elizabeth married Julian A.C. Royle in 1966 and they had one son, Nicholas. The family lived at Fryerning, Ingatestone, Essex, where a plaque is dedicated to Elizabeth Harwood in the parish church following her death on June 22 1990.