Lord Harewood

George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, was born in London in February 1923, the elder son of the 6th Earl of Harewood and Princess Mary, Princess Royal — the only daughter of King George V. He was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge (after wartime service in the Grenadier Guards, including imprisonment in the Italian and German prisoner-of-war camps), and emerged in the late 1940s as one of the central figures of British post-war operatic life.

His career across sixty years made him the most influential opera administrator and broadcaster in Britain. He founded *Opera* magazine in 1950 and served as its first editor until 1953. He was director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in two periods (1951–53 and 1969–72), managing director of the English National Opera from 1972 to 1985 and chairman of its board until 1995, founding managing director of English National Opera North (later Opera North) from 1978 to 1981, and artistic director of the Edinburgh, Adelaide and Leeds Festivals. He served as Governor of the BBC (1985–87) and President of the British Board of Film Classification (1985–96). He edited the standard reference work *Kobbé’s Complete Opera Book* across three editions from 1954 onwards, and his BBC broadcasts on opera and recorded commentaries — particularly the Royal Opera House intervals on Radio 3 across decades — established him as the central British operatic broadcaster of his generation. His autobiography *The Tongs and the Bones* appeared in 1981.

Harewood died at Harewood House in July 2011. Music Preserved’s archive includes a range of his BBC broadcast and operatic commentary work.