I think I first encountered Elizabeth Harwood, one of my favorite lyric-coloratura sopranos, on the Angel-EMI recording of Händel's Messiah, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. I remember seeing her on a couple of BBC opera broadcasts on PBS in the 1970s, La Traviata and Tales of Hoffmann, in which she sang all four women's roles. For the english Opera Group she played Galatea in Händel's Acis and Galatea in 1968 at the Montreal Expo, so I was surprised to read in Britten's letters that he was not thrilled to have her record Tytania in his recording of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She also recorded the lead role of The Merry Widow for Herbert von Karajan. She died too young from cancer.
