A highly respected, experienced, and influential author and critic in the world of opera, Karyl Charna Lynn is very knowledgeable in every aspect of this greatest of art forms. The path to being an author and critic was circuitous. Growing up in Sands Point, N.Y. (The East Egg in Great Gatsby) she went to her first opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York at age eight—all five hours of Tristan und Isolde. She refused to go to another opera until required while studying at Phillips Academy (Andover, MA) and promptly fell asleep! As an undergraduate chemistry major at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) her best grades were in History of the Opera and Symphony, prompting a subscription to the Philadelphia Orchestra. After two years, she wanted to see more than men in tails playing instruments, and began attending opera at the Met. After graduating, she enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Biochemistry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons (NY) but found herself spending more time at the Met than in the lab. Moving to Washington DC earning an MA in film/broadcast journalist at American University, she worked as producer/correspondent for ZDF-German Television in DC, producing  science, medical, cultural reports. She also produced documentary films, winning an award for An Amish Portrait.

Since 1989 she has worked full-time as opera critic/author, publishing six books and hundreds of features, reviews, profiles, commentaries, interviews, and news pieces on opera, averaging 40 operas in 20 cities and half dozen countries each year, primarily for Opera Now magazine (London, UK) and her website www.theoperacritic.net. She has published six books on opera houses, companies, their history/architecture, social history, including one book published in Italian. Listed in numerous editions of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in American Women, she has been a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington D.C. since 1992 and speaks English, Italian and German.