Amanda Holden

Amanda Holden started work as a professional accompanist while teaching the piano at the Guildhall School in London. Since 1985 she has worked in the musical theatre and has written c.60 translations for the stage as well as several librettos, including Bliss for Brett Dean and The Silver Tassie for Mark Anthony Turnage (Olivier Award: Outstanding Achievement in Opera). Regarded as the “wittiest and most adroit of contemporary practitioners of this difficult craft” her work is regularly performed throughout the English speaking world. Translations recently heard at ENO include Rodelinda (Handel), Don Giovanni and La Bohème; her Castor & Pollux (Rameau) received an Olivier nomination. For 2018 she has translated Gluck’s Orpheus and Euridice (Opera Theatre St Louis) and Pascal Dusapin’s  Passion (UK premiere, Music Theatre Wales). Amanda is the founder-editor of the Penguin Opera Guides; the latest (5th,) edition, The Opera Guide, is published online: www.amandaholden.org.uk