Dresner, Zita

Zita Dresner was born in New York City and grew up there. Her life-long love of opera was sparked by hearing Joan Sutherland singing an aria from Lucia di Lammermoor on the radio in 1960. She corresponded for a time with Anne Roughley, Richard Bonynge's aunt and Sutherland's secretary, and met Sutherland backstage several times during the early 1960s. Dresner moved to Washington DC to attend graduate school in 1964, and went on to become a professor of English at the University of the District of Columbia.