Irish Director Sinéad O'Neill's work for stage is characterised by distinctive movement, striking imagery, and dynamic musicality.

Sinéad’s portfolio ranges from co-creating original music theatre to directing repertory opera, and she is equally at home working with one or one hundred (plus) performers! She is currently engaged by Glyndebourne as director of the World Premiere of Jonathan Dove and April De Angelis's new opera, Uprising.

​

Sinéad has extensive experience of creating new work, including with her long-time collaborator, composer Matt Rogers, with whom she created Amor Mundi (conceived and written by Zsuzsanna Ardó), The Raven, On the Axis of this World and And London Burned. She founded Cambridge City Opera to create original music theatre for new audiences, with projects such as The Barrington Hippo and On the Axis of this World showcased at Cambridge Science Festival. She co-created Pay the Piper with composers Ailie Robertson, Cecilia Livingstone, Ninfea Crutwell-Reade and Anna Appleby and writer Hazel Gould for Glyndebourne Youth Opera (2022).

During the pandemic, Sinéad was commissioned by The Grange Festival to create Precipice, a site-specific promenade performance encompassing opera, dance, circus and spoken word, which she wrote and directed and which was highly acclaimed for its haunting imagery, ambitious scope and originality.

In recent years, Sinéad directed The Spectre Knight (composer: Alfred Cellier) for Wexford Festival Opera and Alcina, The Sofa and Calisto (composers: Francesca Caccini; Elizabeth Maconchy; Francesco Cavalli) for RIAM, Dublin. Previously for Glyndebourne, Sinéad has directed two BBC Proms, the Glyndebourne Opera Cup with Sky Arts, the 50th Anniversary Gala at Queen Elizabeth Hall, and revivals of Il barbiere di Siviglia and L'elisir d'amore.