Orpha has worked for opera companies such as the Royal Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera North and Welsh National Opera. Recent awards include the Audience Prize, Ring Award 2005, for her concept of Le Nozze di Figaro with Graz Oper, Austria and Wagner Forum Graz.


A lover of Japanese theatre, Orpha also holds workshops in noh theatre in the UK and throughout Europe. She has recently collaborated with Hideki Noda on his contemporary noh play The Diver for The Soho Theatre, London and The Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo.


Orpha was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland. She studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, read economics at University College Galway and was awarded an MA in Arts Criticism from City University, London.


Full biography

Photo: Nick Gurney

Orpha Phelan has directed opera nationally and internationally for over ten years. She has recently returned to the UK from the Sydney Opera House, where she directed Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Opera Australia, under the baton of Richard Bonynge. She directed this production for Opera North last year, to huge critical acclaim, starring Sarah Connolly and Marie Arnet in the roles of Romeo and Giulietta.

Read reviews of I Capuleti e i Montecchi

Read Orpha’s interview in Stage Whispers about Capuleti in Sydney