By ML Ball
Photos: Courtesy of Diane Ryan
By her own admission, Diane Ryan doesn’t take no for an answer. Fortunately, this stubbornness has led to hundreds of school-children in Ulster County being introduced to the wonder and magnificence of opera. And it all started with hand-me-down opera glasses.
In the 1800s, Margaret Frances O’Mara McGuiness emigrated to America from her native Ireland. At some point, she bought a pair of mother-of-pearl-encrusted opera glasses “to be a fine lady and attend the opera,” Ryan explained. “Unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to go due to poor health.”
