Obituary: Director Lee Blakely, Santa Fe Opera Regular, Passes Away At 45

By David Salazar

Director Lee Blakely has died at the young age of 45, due to a heart attack.

The famed director of opera and musical theater, among other things, was well-known for his work at the Santa Fe Opera where he was the man behind productions for “Madama Butterfly,” “The Pearl Fishers,” and “Rigoletto.” He was also a regular at other North American companies taking on “Falstaff” at the LA Opera, “The Tales of Hoffmann” for the Canadian Opera Company, and “Macbeth” at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, a production for which he won the St. Louis Theatre Circle Awards for Outstanding Production of an Opera.

His career began as an assistant for Sir David McVicar at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in a production of Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte.” He also worked on Gounod’s “Faust” at ROH.

He was also a recipient of the Winston Churchill Fellowship to study artist development and the culture of Philanthropy in the United States.

 

 

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