Elizabeth Harwood

Elizabeth Harwood was born in Barton Seagrave, Northamptonshire, in May 1938 and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music. She made her début with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1960 as Sister Constance in Poulenc’s *Dialogues des Carmélites* and joined Sadler’s Wells Opera as a principal soprano in 1961.

Her central repertoire was the Mozart and bel canto lyric soprano roles — Pamina, Susanna, the Countess, Donna Anna; Bellini’s Giulietta; Rossini’s Fiorilla in *Il turco in Italia*. She sang regularly at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival (where she was a Karajan favourite for the lighter Mozart parts), and was particularly notable in Strauss’s *Der Rosenkavalier* (Sophie) and *Arabella*. She moved into more dramatic roles in her later career, including the Marschallin and Verdi’s Violetta and Mimì in *La bohème*. Her studio recordings included the Karajan *Die Fledermaus* (where she sang Rosalinde), Bellini’s *La sonnambula* and Donizetti’s *La fille du régiment*.

Harwood retired in 1989 due to ill health and died in Ingatestone, Essex, in June 1990 at fifty-two. Music Preserved’s archive includes a range of her work at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden.