Lee Blakeley News

CHICAGO - Lyric Opera of Chicago will hold auditions by invitation in New York City for male dancers for the 2015-16 season production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I. This new-to-Chicago production is part of the company's American Musical Theater Initiative and features an internationally acclaimed creative team, including director Lee Blakeley, conductor David Chase, and choreographer Peggy Hickey.

Lyric Opera of Chicago announced today that Tony Award-nominated Kate Baldwin and Paolo Montalban will star as Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam in Lyric's grand-scale production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, April 29-May 22, 2016 (press opening April 30). A graduate of Northwestern University, Baldwin last appeared onstage in Chicago in the Broadway-bound musical Big Fish. Montalban has been seen in Broadway productions of Pacific Overtures and The King and I, and is best known for starring as the Prince in ABC's telefilm of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, alongside Brandy and Whitney Houston.

CHICAGO - Lyric Opera of Chicago will hold auditions by invitation in New York City for male dancers for the 2015-16 season production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I. This new-to-Chicago production is part of the company's American Musical Theater Initiative and features an internationally acclaimed creative team, including director Lee Blakeley, conductor David Chase, and choreographer Peggy Hickey.

Stephen Sondheim's macabre musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street receives its highly anticipated San Francisco Opera premiere in a production featuring a cast of notable operatic stars and performed with Sondheim's original score for the lyric stage.

San Francisco Opera celebrates the opening of its 93rd Season tonight, September 11, 2015 with a gala performance of Verdi's Luisa Miller, conducted by Company Music Director Nicola Luisotti and featuring an international cast, led by soprano Leah Crocetto, tenor Michael Fabiano and baritone Vitaliy Bilyy.

Stephen Sondheim's macabre musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street receives its highly anticipated San Francisco Opera premiere in a production featuring a cast of notable operatic stars and performed with Sondheim's original score for the lyric stage.

San Francisco Opera celebrates the opening of its 93rd Season on Friday, September 11, 2015 with a gala performance of Verdi's Luisa Miller, conducted by Company Music Director Nicola Luisotti and featuring an international cast, led by soprano Leah Crocetto, tenor Michael Fabiano and baritone Vitaliy Bilyy.

This review was first published by KDHX, St. Louis. Opera Theatre of St. Louis has opened Handel's 'Richard the Lionheart,' and it is truly astonishing! It is, in all aspects, the most perfect production of an opera that I've ever seen. And voices? Ah, the voices are quite stunning! This is not to be missed. This is a masterpiece.

Bass-Baritone Jake Gardner discusses the continued resonance of SWEENEY TODD, his approach to acting and performance, and being scared sh-tless by the infamously cut self-flagellation scene.

Houston, March 12, 2015—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its highly anticipated La Fura dels Baus staging of Wagner's Die Walküre with an all-star cast and Stephen Sondheim's thrilling Sweeney Todd in April, after notching critical and sales successes with its winter productions of Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Butterfly's six performances averaged a total capacity of 102% (including resale of returned seats) while Flute's five performances averaged 104% capacity.

Plácido Domingo, LA Opera's Eli and Edythe Broad General Director, has announced the company's 2015/16 season. This will be the 30th season presented by the company, created by Mr. Domingo in collaboration with Richard Seaver Music Director James Conlon and President and CEOChristopher Koelsch. The company's 30th anniversary season will include six mainstage productions and two concerts at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with a total of 40 performances taking place in that venue, as well as 13 performances presented elsewhere through the company's Off Grand initiative. The season will open onSeptember 12, 2015, and will run through June 19, 2016.

San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley and Music Director Nicola Luisotti today announced the Company's 2015-16 season repertory and roster of international and critically acclaimed guest artists, conductors and creative teams scheduled to appear at the War Memorial Opera House.

After a resoundingly successful fall season and the launch of its new holiday opera series with the world premiere of Iain Bell and Simon Callow's A Christmas Carol, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) rings in 2015 with two beloved productions: a reprise of Michael Grandage's knockout staging of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, which triumphed at its 2010 Houston debut, and the American premiere of Sir Nicholas Hytner's iconic English National Opera staging of Mozart's The Magic Flute in a revival directed by Ian Rutherford.

Houston Grand Opera's 2014–15 season, the company's 60th anniversary season, includes the world premiere of A Christmas Carol by Iain Bell—the company's 55th new commission —from award-winning Dickens authority Simon Callow; the continuation of HGO's first Ring cycle, with the American premiere of La Fura dels Baus's groundbreaking take on Die Walküre; the American premieres of Sir Nicholas Hytner's The Magic Flute and Lee Blakeley's Sweeney Todd; a 60th Anniversary Gala Concert featuring mezzo-soprano (and HGO Studio alumna) Joyce DiDonato; and a host of career-shaping role debuts that speak to Patrick Summers's gift for casting. Together with the company's first presentation of John Cox'sOtello, and the returns of Göran Järvefelt's beloved Così fan tutte and Michael Grandage's hit staging of Madame Butterfly, these rich offerings serve once again to illustrate some of the ways that HGO—still the only opera company with two Grammys, two Emmys, and a Tony—epitomizes “one model of what a forward-looking opera company could be” (Greg Sandow, Arts Journal).

At a time when things seem challenging for opera, the Santa Fe Opera holds strong. Santa Fe is among the oldest opera festivals in America and is the largest and most important. It has made its reputation as a distinctive company with a flair for the unusual. This summer they presented operas such as “Dr. Sun Yat-Sen” by Huang Ruo, and Beethoven's “Fidelio.”

Houston Grand Opera capped a financially and artistically successful 2013–14 season by presenting Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger —the Polish-Jewish composer's long-suppressed Holocaust opera—to wide acclaim at New York's Park Avenue Armory as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, July 10–13. Earlier this year, HGO gave the American premiere of the work in Houston with the same cast. There was special praise for the production and performances, conducted by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. New York magazine described David Pountney's staging as “a multi-story set so vivid you can practically smell the machine oil and coal smoke,” while the Financial Times said: “The production, imported from Houston, is imposing in every way.” The New York Times called the cast “flawless,” adding: “The conductor, Patrick Summers, drew a surging, textured, richly detailed performance of this challenging score (lasting three hours) from the inspired musicians of the Houston Grand Opera.” WQXR's Operavore summed up the import of the performances: “The Passenger shows how a Holocaust opera can hold the stage while examining important, complex issues—and could certainly point the way for future composers to deal with such important but delicate subject matter.”

FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014 marked the opening night for the French premiere of the THEÂTRE DU CHÂTELET'S new production of THE KING AND I starring SUSAN GRAHAM and LAMBERT WILSON, with Music by RICHARD RODGERS and Book & Lyrics by OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II. THE KING AND I runs through Sunday, June 29, 2014. Check out a first look below!

FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014 marked the opening night for the French premiere of the THEÂTRE DU CHÂTELET'S new production of THE KING AND I starring SUSAN GRAHAM and LAMBERT WILSON, with Music by RICHARD RODGERS and Book & Lyrics by OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II. THE KING AND I runs through Sunday, June 29, 2014. Check out highlights of the production below!

59E59 Theaters will welcome the US premiere of PAT KIRKWOOD IS ANGRY, written by Jessica Walker, with Joseph Atkins at the piano, and directed by Lee Blakeley, with musical arrangements by James Holmes. PAT KIRKWOOD IS ANGRY begins performances on Tuesday, June 10 for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 29. Press opening is Sunday, June 15 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM & 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM & 7:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.