Schlesinger also directed "Timon of Athens" (1965) for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the musical "I and Albert" (1972) at London's Piccadilly Theatre. From 1973, he was an associate director of the Royal National Theatre, where he produced George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House" (1975). He also directed several operas, beginning with "Les contes d'Hoffmann" (1980) and "Der Rosenkavalier" (1984), both at Covent Garden. Schlesinger also directed a party political broadcast for the Conservative Party in the general election of 1992, which featured Prime Minister John Major returning to Brixton in south London, where he had spent his teenage years, which highlighted his humble background, atypical for a Conservative politician. Schlesinger admitted to having voted for all three main political parties in the UK at one time or another.