FEDORA -

Enda Walsh

Librettist

https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/enda-walsh

Portrait Enda Walsh © Sarah Weal © i

Rehearsal The Second Violinist 19 © Ste Murray

Rehearsal The Second Violinist 20 © Ste Murray

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Rehearsal The Second Violinist 10 © Ste Murray

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Rehearsal The Second Violinist 1 © Ste Murray

Short Bio

Enda Walsh, librettist and stage director of the opera “The Second Violinist”, winner of the FEDORA - GENERALI Prize for Opera 2017, is the leading stage director of new operatic works premiered over the last seven years (in terms of quantity of productions directed - Source: Operabase, 2023).

In 2007 and 2008 Enda won Fringe First Awards at two consecutive Edinburgh Festivals for his plays The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom. The former led the Guardian to name him "one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre." In 2011 Once, Enda's adaptation of the film by John Carney, opened off-broadway. Critically acclaimed, it moved to Broadway in 2012, where it picked up eight Tony Awards, including Best Book for Enda. The West End run of Once opened in April 2013.

Since his initial success as a playwright, Enda has gone on to write for the screen. His 2008 biopic, Hunger, told the story of the final days of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and won a host of awards, including the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Heartbeat Award at the Dinard International Film Festival. It was nominated for seven BIFAs (including Best Screenplay), six British Film and Television Awards (including Best Screenplay and Best Independent Film) and BAFTA's Outstanding British Film Award 2009.

Enda's opera The Last Hotel had its world premiere at the Lyceum Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival and transferred to Dublin, London and New York. He recently worked on the new musical, Lazarus, with David Bowie, which opened at New York Theatre Workshop in December 2015 and transferred to Kings Cross Theatre in London in November 2016. His most recent play, The Same, was commissioned by Corcadorca to mark the company's 25th anniversary and was performed in the old Cork prison in February 2017.

Enda has had a strong relationship with Galway City and the Galway International Arts Festival from the very beginning of his writing career. Recently the festival, along with Anne Clarke’s Landmark Productions, have produced his plays, Misterman and Ballyturk. His play, Arlington, had its world premiere at the Galway International Arts Festival in July 2016 and his opera, The Second Violinist, premiered at the festival in July 2017. In 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Galway University. 2021 saw two new works for the stage - Medicine, starring Domhnall Gleeson, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival before transferring to the Galway International Arts festival. The First Child, Enda's latest opera, debuted in October with Landmark Productions/Irish National Opera.

Most recently Enda wrote the book for a musical adaptation of the 2016 film Sing Street by John Carney which was due to open on Broadway in spring 2020. In TV Enda is currently working on Troubles with Blueprint Pictures, Let Me Not Be Mad with Tiger Aspect and The House with Nexus Studios.