Sir George Power, 7th Baronet

Sir George Power, 7th Baronet (24 December 1846 – 17 October 1928) was an operatic tenor known for his performances in early Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, most famously creating the roles in London of Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance (1880).

He later became a noted voice teacher and continued to perform. On the death of his elder brother, in 1903, he became the seventh baronet of Kilfane.

Power was born in Dublin, the fourth son of Sir John Power of Kilfane, Kilkenny, and Frances Elizabeth, née Wade. He was educated at Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Dublin, and studied voice in Milan and Florence, 1873–76.

In 1876, Power first appeared on stage at the Teatro Manoel in Malta, singing Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. He made his London stage debut in 1877 at Her Majesty's Theatre playing the tenor role in Thomas Haynes Bayly's English version of Adolphe Adam's opera The Swiss Cottage.

Power joined Richard D'Oyly Carte's Comedy-Opera Company in February 1878 at the Opera Comique in London, succeeding George Bentham in the role of Alexis in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Sorcerer. From March to April 1878 Power played the Defendant in Trial by Jury when that companion piece was added to the bill at the Opera Comique. He created the role of Ralph Rackstraw in the next Gilbert and Sullivan opera, H.M.S. Pinafore, playing the character from May 1878 to February 1880. The Daily News wrote that Power "displayed a light tenor voice of very agreeable quality, and acted the part of the sentimental lover well", although The Times found his intonation "a little uncertain".

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