Stage director DAVID GATELY is known for his vivid story-telling and lively and clever productions. Recent reviews have called his staging “fresh, amusing, and energetic” and praised his direction, which used “nuance and creative physical comedy, resulting in a superb production brimming with energy.” During the 2012/13 season he joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Angels in America, Atlanta Opera for La traviata, the Fort Worth Opera for Ariadne auf Naxos, and Boston University’s Fringe Festival for Massenet’s Le portrait de Manon. Future seasons include engagements with the Fort Worth Opera, Atlanta Opera, and Opera Colorado, among others.

Recent productions of note include his direction of L’elisir d’amore with Dallas Opera, Madama Butterfly with Seattle Opera, La bohème with Florida Grand Opera, Carmen in New Orleans, Les contes D’Hoffman in Edmonton, Die Zauberflöte with the Cincinnati and Vancouver Operas, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with both the Florentine Opera and Glimmerglass Opera, Falstaff with Opera Omaha, and Rigoletto with Utah Opera. His hugely successful “Wild West” production of Don Pasquale, which was recently hailed as a “contemporary classic” by the Denver Post, has been mounted by San Diego Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Colorado, Calgary Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Virginia Opera, Dayton Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Omaha, Edmonton Opera, and the Fort Worth Opera.

During the 2011/12 season Gately directed Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Colorado, Don Pasquale with San Diego Opera, Aida with Vancouver Opera, Orfeo ed Euridice with Boston Baroque, and Lysistrata with Fort Worth Opera. During the 2011/12 season, he directed productions of La bohème with Atlanta Opera, Hansel and Gretel and Little Women with Utah Opera, Faust with San Diego Opera, and Giulio Cesare with Fort Worth Opera. The Calgary Herald wrote of his Lucia di Lammermoor with the Calgary Opera that “the entire opera, [was] well staged by David Gately, the staging happily congruent with the set to evoke the period and its inherent romanticism.” 

During the 2009/10 season he directed Il barbiere di Siviglia with Washington National Opera, Opera Colorado, and Manitoba Opera, L’elisir d’amore with Atlanta Opera, Simon Boccanegra for its premiere with l’Opéra de Montréal, and the world premiere production of Before Night Falls with the Forth Worth Opera, where the Dallas Morning News wrote that he “supplies a physically gripping staging.” In addition, he directed Angels in America with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London for the United Kingdom premiere of the work. 

Additional career highlights include directing Carmen and La bohème with Florida Grand Opera; La traviata, La bohème, L’italiana in Algeri, Little Women, Salomé, Norma, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Falstaff, and Don Pasquale with Fort Worth Opera; Das Rheingold at Ava; Sweeney Todd at the Brevard Festival; and Weill’s The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken at the Fringe Festival in Boston. In addition, he directed Hansel and Gretel with Utah Opera; Don Pasquale with l’Opéra de Montréal, Arizona Opera, San Diego Opera, Calgary Opera, and Edmonton Opera; Le contes d’Hoffman with Tulsa Opera; Così fan tutte with Kentucky Opera; Ariadne auf Naxos, Orpheus in the Underworld, Kiss Me Kate, and Madama Butterfly at the Brevard Music Colony; Der Rosenkavalier with Vancouver Opera; and The Turn of the Screw with the New England Conservatory.