Amanda Holden studied music at Oxford with Egon Wellesz and has taught at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her opera translations, many of them commissioned by the English National Opera, are performed throughout the English speaking world. She received the Olivier award for "outstanding achievement in opera" in 2001 - along with Mark Anthony Turnage, the composer - for her libretto for The Silver Tassie. She edited The Viking Opera Guide (1993). Amanda Holden lives in London, N5.