Dorothy Raedler was born February 24, 1917, in New York City. She attended Hunter College. In addition to her Gilbert and Sullivan companies, she directed non-G&S operas in various venues, including several at New York City Opera, Baltimore Civic Opera Company and elsewhere from the 1960s. "The New York Times" wrote: "Plácido Domingo, a new tenor, was Pinkerton. ... Dorothy Raedler's direction and Franco Patane's authoritative conducting were major factors in a presentation that offered nothing but pleasure." Raedler also directed Gilbert and Sullivan productions for City Opera and for the City Center Gilbert & Sullivan Company, which had casts including such Metropolitan Opera singers as Nico Castel, Muriel Costa-Greenspon, Robert Hale, Ellen Shade, and Frank Poretta, Sr., as well as Broadway actors Nancy Dussault, Barbara Meister, Ruth Kobart, and Raymond Allen.