Recent Reviews
DON PASQUALE
Irish National Opera 2022
★★★★★ Bringing laughter from 19th century Italy to 21st century Donegal: before the premiere, Donizetti knew success would depend on factors beyond his brilliant score and the funny libretto. And it is these same factors that INO nails in 2022. All of them click. Director Orpha Phelan opens a direct channel to laughter by updating the story to the present day.
The Irish Times
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
Phelan is a storyteller with a gift for comedy, a director with a light touch whose eye for comedic detail extends well beyond main characters.
The Irish Times
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
Each of the leads is crisply defined...The ending, when four of the characters come together as a Greek chorus to reflect on Icarus’s fall, is beautifully handled... The performances are all strong...
The Guardian
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
The staging and production values here were fabulous and totally irresistible… Rossini had a gift for comic confusion and director Orpha Phelan captured that aspect outstandingly well… overall, a triumph – and an important one for INO.
The Sunday Business Post
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
Orpha Phelan is simply fantastic - she integrates the essence of text, angle and cinematography in authentic theatre and visual magnificence.
Opera Online (France)
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
A challenging, provocative and highly rewarding evening. This is a director-designer duo whose careers will be fascinating to follow.
The Independent
read more
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
A captivating, convincing, virtuosic staging. A production with the same warmth as Adès' music.
Berlingske
read more
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
Orpha Phelan's attentive, top notch production brings this tremendous work into focus.
The Observer
read more
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
Pitch perfect. A brilliant female opera director.
Opera Magazine, Sweden
read more
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
It’s a thoroughly entertaining but also strongly thought-provoking staging, and shouldn’t be missed.
Opera Britannia
An intelligent and sensitive production
The Irish Times
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
Lively, stylish and entertaining. The Tales of Hoffmann must be considered gaming year's biggest bet at the Malmö Opera. Viewed from any angle it is of international class. Orpha Phelan’s result is outstanding: it is lively, elegant, entertaining.
Skanska Dagbladet
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
Absolutely one of the most complete stagings I’ve ever seen in an opera.
Skanska Dagbladet
Orpha Phelan’s production packs a strong emotional punch.
Opera Now
LALLA - ROUKH
Wexford Festival Opera 2022
At the Grand in Leeds, Orpha Phelan directs an expectedly hard-hitting and contemporary account of Bellini’s Romeo and Juliet opera, I Capuleti e i Montecchi and takes an audacious theatrical tilt at Bellini....
The Sunday Times