Irish stage director Orpha Phelan's award-winning productions include Bernstein's A Quiet Place at Opera Zuid in Maastricht which was awarded the prestigious Place de l'Opera prize of Best Opera 2018 in The Netherlands. For two years running she was the recipient of Denmark's most prestigious arts prize, the Reumert Award for Best Opera Production 2016 (Powder Her Face at the Royal Danish Opera) and Best Opera Production 2017 (Dead Man Walking, also for The Royal Danish Opera). Her production of La Cenerentola with Irish National Opera was shortlisted for the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards Best Production of 2020.
Recently she directed the world premiere of Raising Icarus by Michael Zev Gordon for the Barber Institute in Birmingham, Felicien David's rarity Lalla-Roukh at the Wexford Festival, which received four nominations in The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2022, including Best Opera and Best Director, and Don Pasquale for Irish National Opera.
This season, Orpha will return to Irish National Opera to direct La boheme before taking the production to Opera de Montpellier, and further projects include productions at Wexford and Malmö Opera.
Orpha has enjoyed tremendous successes in Sweden at Malmö Opera with Fiddler on the Roof, La Bohème (released by Naxos on DVD), Les Contes d’Hoffman and Jenůfa (released by Arthaus Musik on DVD). Notable projects include her highly acclaimed production of Billy Budd for Opera North and Fidelio for Longborough Festival Opera. She made her French debut in 2018/19 at Opera National de Lorraine with Wuthering Heights. Engagements that could sadly not take place in 2020 include directing a concert performance of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana & Leoncavallo's Zingari for Scottish Opera as well as Dead Man Walking at Den Norske Opera.
Orpha's production of Così Fan Tutte with Opera Theatre Company in 2012/13 marked her first production in her native Ireland. Orpha has also directed l’Orfeo at The Barbican, a collaboration with Richard Egarr and The Academy of Ancient Music. Her staging of the UK premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream, also at The Barbican, marked her first collaboration with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She has directed I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Opera North and Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House, under the baton of Richard Bonynge.
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 was awarded the Audience Prize (Ring Award 2005), for her concept of Le Nozze di Figaro with Graz Oper, Austria and Wagner Forum Graz; she was also a winner in the European Opera Directors’ Award 2003 for her concept of Hans Heiling for Strasbourg Opera in association with Opera Europa.
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La bohème
INO, November 2023
For Irish National Opera (INO), in its co-production with Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, Orpha Phelan, as director, gets all the antics right. She maintains a nice understatement in the good-humoured banter between the poet Rodolfo - the tenor Merūnas Vitulskis - and his three artist flatmates as they make light of their cold, hungry existence and outmanoeuvre their landlord.
Michael Dungan, The Irish Times ****
How to have something new to say in one of the most celebrated operas of all time? This was the challenge facing director Orpha Phelan in Irish National Opera’s new production of La bohème. By setting the opera in Paris in the 1920s, assembling a stellar cast of singers and with no little help from the realistic sets, costumes and the super responsive orchestra, she succeeded in creating an emotionally-charged, masterful production of this classic tear-jerker. … Phelan’s conception of the work is faithful, yet inventive, stressing both the amusing and tragic elements as they come.
Andrew Larkin, bachtrack.com *****
Phelan takes us not to the 19th century, but rather to the interwar years in the French capital. La Bohème sweeps us along on a wave of emotion. Irish National Opera have created a worthy production of Puccini’s great work.
Alan O'Riordan, Irish Examiner ****
In Irish National Opera’s production of La Bohème, finally taking to the stage in all its spectacular splendour, magic informs every moment of Orpha Phelan’s breathtaking direction. … under Phelan’s exceptional direction, even the silence sings. … A production defined, in no small measure, by Phelan. Opera presents additional challenges to directing for theatre, leaving many directors leaning into staid tableaus and looking out of their depth. What makes INO’s La Bohème so thrilling is the sweep and richness of movement married to the stirring quality of its singing, both housed in the most gorgeous staging. Phelan’s refreshingly exciting compositions a whirlwind of expressive energy that leave you struggling to tear your eyes away to read the surtitles. Even though you know how it all ends, Phelan has you hoping against hope it might yet be otherwise whilst teasing out oft forgotten themes. … A tragic tale that’s an absolute joy, Phelan delivers a tour-de-force.
Chris O'Rourke, the artsreview.com *****
I want to be immediately up front about this. Irish National Opera’s latest production of Puccini’s La Bohème at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre should be seen by everybody who has an interest in opera in Ireland. Or maybe, more correctly, those who have not seen any opera at all in Ireland. It is by far the best production of Puccini’s masterpiece I have ever witnessed at home, or even on video, film or television. … As well as being incredibly beautiful visually, it had that real hallmark of a special production – it radiated confidence from start to finish. On an opening night, that is really something special to behold. And, despite such a sad tale, even joyous. … The production values were immensely impressive and so directly Orpha Phelan and her team deserve credit. ...This was a night to remember for the full house audience.
Dick O'Riordan, Business Post
The director Orpha Phelan and designer Nicky Shaw moved the period forward to Paris in the 1920s, another bohemian decade, with considerable success. … Overall Phelan’s production was imaginative and apt
Ian Fox, Opera Magazine
Don Pasquale, Irish National Opera
An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny
Director Orpha Phelan opens a direct channel by updating the story to the present day.
Michael Dungan, The Irish Times*****
Donizetti’s comic story of love, cruelty, conceit and age is transported to the modern day in director Orpha Phelan’s canny staging, designed by Nicky Shaw.
Dun Laoghaire, Irish Examiner
Phelan’s Successful direction has the audience smiling, laughing & cheering out loud
Phelan’s staging displayed a clear vision, overall coherence, attention to detail and a tendency towards bold decision-making.
(...) director Orpha Phelan, whose masterful handling of the work ensured that the comedic potential of Angelo Anelli’s 1810 libretto, reworked by Giovanni Ruffini and Donizetti for its 1843 Paris premiere, was fully developed. (...) She also directed Wexford Festival Opera’s successful presentation of "Lalla-Roukh,” which again showed off her talent for comedy to good effect.
Alan Neilson, Operawire
Félicien David 'Lalla-Roukh'
Wexford Festival Opera 2022 (October 2022)
Top quality, endlessly entertaining… Triumphant all-singing, all dancing production of Félicien David’s forgotten comic opera… Director Orpha Phelan and designer Madeleine Boyd come up with colourful and appealing, eclectic visuals that nod to the Irish origins of the story… a top-quality, endlessly entertaining mix that sends the audience out into the night on an unmistakeable high.
George Hall, The Stage *****
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. Her work can be full of activity without ever seeming either fussy or too busy.
Michael Dervan, The Irish Times ****
Phelan had inventive fun with it and so did we.
Roy Westbrook, bachtrack.com
A forgotten gem… Orpha Phelan has taken down a long-forgotten book from a dusty shelf and found a story which transfixes, taking us into other-worlds – 1860s Paris and fantastic lands – through the prism of today.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Director Orpha Phelan opens all the story-books and brings a profusion of fairytale and mythical characters to life, with sorceresses, banshees, the children of Lir, and anyone else you can think of into the chorus line, along with a company of dancers constantly assembling and re-assembling themselves. It is like a premature Christmas treat – part-pantomime, part-ballet, part-opera, Lalla-Roukh is an infectiously charming variety show that takes us back to the theatrical entertainments of old.
GoldenPlec ****
Orpha Phelan (...) had a visitation from “the mother of invention”. Mother invented the narrator device and supplied sundry other strokes of genius.
Gerald Malone, Reaction
Orpha Phelan's phantasmagorical staging
Hugh Canning, Opera Magazine
Blue Electric (Tom Smail), Playground Theatre
(October 2020)
…in the very capable hands of Orpha Phelan who succeeded in ensuring that the ‘plot’ was always clear, as well as drawing us into the lives of the protagonists.
John Groves, London Theatre 1
Dialogues des Carmélites, Royal Northern College of Music
(December 2019)
The RNCM adopts the worthy policy of engaging professional guests for their creative team. The two-level set of designer Anna Bonomelli worked well and director Orpha Phelan made imaginative use of the space, especially with her simple tableau for the execution scene
Anthony Ogus, Opera Now****
La Cenerentola
Irish National Opera (November 2019)
Rossini’s operatic version has no glass slippers or fairy godmother, but this production, directed by Orpha Phelan, brings together the mix of comedy and tragedy with a light touch, and those early fairy-tale appearances recur to great effect and with youthful involvement.
David Byers, The Irish Times*****
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.
Dick O’Riordan, The Sunday Business Post
Phelan’s mischievous, glowing and superbly child-like interpretation of the piece…
Emer O’Kelly, Sunday Independent (Ireland)
Orpha Phelan directed an outstanding cast in a beautiful and imaginative staging of the Cinderella story to produce three delightful hours of enthralling entertainment at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin… Excellent as the cast were, the wow factor was the staging that drew the audience into a fantasy world of books.
Cathy Desmond, The Irish Examiner
Orpha Phelan introduces her sturdy directorial concept during the overture: characters from fairy tales come to life… The big choral set pieces are wonderfully shaped by Phelan, with characters from all sorts of fairy tales capering about… This big-hearted show gets the big design it deserves
Katy Hayes, Irish Independent
Throughout, stories, storybooks, and storytelling loom large as Phelan crafts some compositionally brilliant scenes, with the assistance of some famous fairytale cameos, fashioning a series of lively, interlinked chapters out of Rossini’s exuberant score and Ferretti’s humorous libretto. … Under Phelan’s masterful direction, Rossini’s vocally demanding opera is sumptuously and vibrantly realised, with Phelan eliciting some outstanding performances from her chorus and soloists… At a time when many famous stories find themselves being politically reimagined, Phelan remains true to Rossini’s larger than life tale and allows it to simply tell itself. Making the experience far more entertaining, and politically illuminating, for doing so…. Irish National Opera’s "Cinderella/La Cenerentola" is utterly, utterly glorious.
Chris O'Rourke, The Arts Review*****
Orpha Phelan’s production successfully blends the fairy tale magic with some of the darker elements in the story… Like all good fairy tales, Orpha Phelan’s production succeeds brilliantly in bringing out the very dark shadows in this story… Overall, this was a first-rate production
Robert Beattie, Seen and Heard International
Director Orpha Phelan's conception of the opera was in general as light-hearted as Rossini intended, though the darker elements of the story were also flagged.
Andrew Larkin, Bachtrack
…a fine production by Orpha Phelan, in delightful children's-book settings from Nicky Shaw... Under Phelan's direction the whole cast blended into a really smooth team...
Ian Fox, Opera Magazine
Wuthering Heights
Opéra National de Lorraine (May 2019)
Sometimes we want to dissect shows - know what's wrong, and remember beautiful things. But when you realize that you will have almost nothing negative to say about an almost perfect evening, you put your cynicism in the closet. Wuthering Heights, by Bernard Herrmann, on stage at the Opéra National de Lorraine, is of this ilk. To see and hear this production of Orpha Phelan is a total explosion to the heart in a staging that seems like perfection. Orpha Phelan is simply fantastic because she integrates the essence of text, angle and cinematography in authentic theatre and visual magnificence. The impressive set - a mad floor of mountains and sheer cliffs is poetic also; this production praises the inner richness of its characters by connecting them to lighting of breathtaking beauty, on which rests the darker perspective of tomorrow.
Thibault Vicq, Opera Online
Phelan moved the cast, including a quartet of excellent child actors, around intelligently…
Francis Carlin, Opera Now
The French premiere of Wuthering Heights at Nancy's Opéra national de Lorraine is in an eye-catching production of Orpha Phelan. In the best Anglo-Saxon theatrical tradition, the work of the director is particularly appreciated in the precision and care of the stage direction of the performers.
Stefano Nardelli, Giornale della Musica
The production focuses first on a dramaturgical credibility, going so far as to double up the three characters at the beginning of the story with their childish counterparts, skilfully combining memory and realism. In this Wuthering Heights of Nancy, the artistic forces are in tune.
Toutelaculture
Outside and interior spaces merge on the stage, where the wooden waves of Madeleine Boyd's decor evoke as much the Yorkshire hills as the floor of some bourgeois living room. In this sober setting, Orpha Phelan directs a show combining an absolute loyalty to the narrative with a great precision in the painting of the characters. The recurring presence of childish doubles of protagonists evokes opportunely their young years.
Diapason
The creative staging by a talented team carries off supremely the climate of wild purity and satanism of Emily Bronte's literary work.
ConcertoNet
In her staging, Orpha Phelan played - and succeeded - the cinematographic map; it's like being in front of a movie in cinemascope and technicolor. Sensitive to the many evocations of nature in the libretto, Phelan imagined a setting dominated by wood, where the limits between the outside and the inside are blurred... all this is supremely charming.
Crescendo Magazine
The Irish director Orpha Phelan and her team imagined a unique production: a giant wavy floor that recalls the curves of the landscape echoing the instability of relationships between characters, nineteenth-century costumes, perfect readability on the stage, elegant play of light, clever use of video: the show exquisitely matches the music. Let's hope that this first French staging will have a sequel.
Les Echos.fr
The production looked after by Orpha Phelan and a young and enthusiastic cast ensured the success of the show.
Michel Thomé, Res Musica
Orpha Phelan’s interpretation, quite literally, has the advantage of aesthetics (including through dreamlike projections on the backdrop) -
Damien Dutilleul, Olyrix
A Quiet Place
Opera Zuid (November 2018)
The action on stage illustrates how well Orpha Phelan has listened to, and understood the music.
de Limburger*****
Orpha Phelan (director) and Madeleine Boyd (set design & costumes) have opted for a unique setting in which a change of place and time is made clear by means of minimal changes. It works wonderfully well - everything is thought through, with sophisticated lighting from Matthew Haskins and beautiful choreography from Lauren Poulton. Exemplary. This Quiet Place is a fantastic production, a performance with a golden edge, giving Opera Zuid a great trump card for a successful tour of Dutch theatres, along with a trip to Luxembourg.
Place de l'opera *****
Strong direction from Orpha Phelan.
de Volkskrant ****
Orpha Phelan's direction is relevant, inventive, humorous, heart warming. We already know Opera of The Year.
Opera Gazet
A Quiet Place was powerful precisely because director Orpha Phelan did not refer convulsively to historical or current storylines, which are outside the context of the opera itself. The emphasis of this family drama was in the American suburbs where it belongs.
nrc.nl ****
This production is in the hands of the prize-winning duo Orpha Phelan and Madeleine Boyd.
Chapeau Magazine
The director Orpha Phelan opted for a refreshingly no-nonsense approach…
Robbert Nachbahr, Opera Magazine
Fiddler on the Roof
Malmo Opera, September 2017
"Irish director, Orpha Phelan's finest production at Malmö Opera.
Martin Lagerholm, Ystads Allehanda
"Rich, touching and funny ... Do not miss it!
Yvonne Erlandsson, Skånskan
"In view of today's persecution and refugees flowing across borders, this updated version of "Fiddler on the roof" is hugely politically relevant.
Ingemar Olander, Blekinge Läns Tidning
"Timeless drama in a fine setting."
Martin Lagerholm, Kristianstadsbladet
"Irish director Orpha Phelan and her artistic team have managed to capture its gripping symbolism. … Malmö opera has launched the autumn season with a very strong and powerful musical.
Johanna Paulsson, Dagens Nyheter
Fidelio
Longborough Festival Opera (June 2017)
A challenging, provocative and highly rewarding evening. ... This is a production that stays with you and makes you think not just about the opera’s key themes – about totalitarianism and corruption – but about the future of prisons. This is a director-designer duo whose careers will be fascinating to follow.
David Lister, The Independent ****
Phelan has come up with powerful answers
Richard Bratby, The Spectator
A plucky and lively Fidelio that's filled with light and hope
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
imaginative and unsettling
Edward Bhesania, The Stage
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