Photo: Nick Gurney
Orpha Phelan
Representation: General Management
Orpha Phelan was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland. She read economics at University College Galway before moving to London where she graduated with an MA in Arts Criticism from City University.
Orpha has directed opera nationally and internationally for over ten years. She directed I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Opera North in 2008, starring Sarah Connolly and Marie Arnet in the roles of Romeo and Giulietta. The production was then staged with a new cast for Opera Australia at The Sydney Opera House in 2009 under the baton of Richard Bonynge. Engagements in the 2010/2011 season included Les Contes d’Hoffmann for Malmö Opera, and this season she will direct a new production of Jenufa for Malmö Opera and create a semi-staged version of Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream at the Barbican.
Orpha has worked on several productions at The Royal Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera North and Wexford Opera and has directed workshops for Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Aldeburgh and Almeida Opera. She has directed Iolanta and Gianni Schicchi for Royal Academy Opera, Le Nozze di Figaro for Graz Opera and Wagner Forum Graz (Ring Award), Albert’s Lost Night for Aldeburgh, Noye’s Fludde for Noah’s Company at All Hallows, London, Le Nozze di Figaro for Opera North at Hampton Court Palace, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Dido and Aeneas and Le Nozze di Figaro for City Opera, Die Fledermaus at the Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury, L’Elisir d’Amore for New Sussex Opera and Eugene Onegin for Opera South East. Orpha also directed Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse for the Dartington International Summer School in 2008.
Awards include the Audience Prize, Ring Award 2005, for her concept of Le Nozze di Figaro with Graz Oper, Austria and Wagner Forum Graz; second prize in the European Opera Directors’ Award 2003 for her concept of Hans Heiling for Strasbourg Opera in association with Opera Europa; a culture fellowship to Japan where, as a guest of the Japanese government, she studied traditional Japanese noh theatre with noh masters for seven months in 2003-04.
Orpha continues to study noh in Japan and the USA, following her introduction to the genre when she directed Sumidagawa, the noh play on which Benjamin Britten based his Curlew River, for The Britten Festival in 2001. She enjoys bringing noh to western audiences through workshops throughout the UK and Europe and has recently collaborated with Hideki Noda on his contemporary noh play The Diver at The Soho Theatre, London.
Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.
Email: Ruth Connelly
