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Native New Yorker Iris Bass grew up listening to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Since falling in love with live performance while in her late teens -- a NYCO production of Le Coq d'Or -- she has attended hundreds of operas in the United States and abroad. She is the author of the quiz book, WHAT'S YOUR OPERA I.Q.? which contains questions about over 700 operas, operettas, and plays; and is presently at work on another quiz book specifically concerning operetta. From 1984 through 1994, she served as Editor of Sightlines, the journal of Opera Glass, a not-for-profit audience organization she co-founded; and as lecturer for OG on a variety of operatic topics. During that period, she also appeared as guest on WKCR-FM's "Opera Fanatic" show, playing unusual recordings from her personal collection. In early 2000 her reputation for being an ardent fan of French opera led her to being interviewed at length on video for a film telecast in France in late October of that year. Her eclectic musical tastes have a particular slant toward 19th-century French works, Rossini, and stratospheric voices, as well as operas sung in translation (Lucia di Lammermoor in Hungarian, anyone?). A former book designer who holds a B.A. in mathematics, Iris now works as an editorial freelancer in New York City. She shares a Brooklyn brownstone apartment with approximately 6,000 books and definitely five cats. Other passions include Victorian arts and literature (she is <a href="http://www.bellaonline.com/society_and_culture/historical_culture/victorian_culture">Victorian Culture</a> host at BellaOnline.com), cookery, needlework, and traveling to London whenever she can. |
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