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.
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, The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North at Hampton Court Palace, The Coronation of Poppea, Dido and Aeneas and The Marriage of 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.
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; 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 and The Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo.
Photo: Nick Gurney
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