Rosenthal, Harold (David)
Rosenthal, Harold (David)
Rosenthal, Harold (David) , English music editor and critic; b. London, Sept. 30, 1917; d. there, March 19, 1987. He received his B.A. degree from Univ. Coll., London, in 1940. In 1950 he launched, with the Earl of Harewood, the magazine Opera and was its ed. (1953–86). He was archivist of the Royal Opera House in London (1950–56). Rosenthal contributed to many European and American music journals, and also wrote numerous biographical entries on singers for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980). In 1983 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. His publications, all publ. in London, included Sopranos of Today (1956), Two Centuries of Opera at Covent Garden (1958), ed. with J. Warrack, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (1964; 2nd ed., rev., 1979), and Covent Garden: A Short History (1967). He ed. The Opera Bedside Book (1965) and The Mapleson Memoirs (1966); also wrote an autobiography, My Mad World of Opera (1982).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire