Contributors to the magazine, past and present, include William Ashbrook, Martin Bernheimer, Julian Budden, Rodolfo Celletti, Alan Blyth, Elizabeth Forbes, and J.B. Steane among many others.

Based in London, the magazine was founded in 1950 by George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood.

In 1965 Victor Gollancz Limited published a wide-ranging collection of articles which had appeared in the magazine during the first 15 years, with alongside those by regular Opera contributors, articles by Benjamin Britten, Sylvia Fisher, Magda Olivero, Helga Pilarczyk, Dennis Arundell, Osbert Lancaster, Joan Cross, Gottfried Schmiedel and Erwin Stein.

[5] From 2013, the separate issue was dropped in favour of a festivals focus in the April edition, due to the ready availability of listings on-line.

[6] In recent years, the last page has been a lighter feature, such as 'I can't live without... golf' by Barbara Bonney (August 1999), 'My First Opera – Don Giovanni' by Osmo Vänskä (February 2004), and Roger Parker on why he would like to come back as Pasha Selim (December 2007).