Richard Lee Blakeley was a British opera and theatre director.
Born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire to Carol and Richard Blakeley, Blakeley was educated at The Mirfield Free Grammar School. He subsequently studied theatre at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, beginning at age 18. He also studied at the University of Glasgow. He returned to the Royal Scottish Academy to study theatre directing. There, he was accidentally assigned as director of a student production of Gustav Holst's The Wandering Scholar. The resulting success initiated his career interest in opera direction.
Whilst at the Royal Scottish Academy, Blakeley had worked with David McVicar on the latter's production of Handel's Semele. Blakeley later worked at English National Opera, and re-connected with McVicar, who made Blakeley his assistant. He assisted McVicar at the Royal Opera House on its 2003 production of Die Zauberflöte and its 2004 production of Faust, and served as a regular revival director of these productions at Covent Garden.
In 2001, Blakeley directed the first dramatic staging of Handel's cantata Clori, Tirst e Fileno, at the gay nightclub Heaven in London.