Endangered Productions treasures Lesley Braithwaite. She is a regular cast member appearing in six of our major productions, often as lead. Lesley was Movement Director and member of a radio-commercial-style trio in our one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti - part of our Bernstein & Busoni double bill. Other previous roles include Lucy in The Telephone in our 2023 production It's So Last Century. She was also a party guest in Introductions and Goodbyes.
True confessions, it’s the melodies and maladies of Messieurs Sullivan & Gilbert, that weave their merry way through Lesley’s earliest musical memories. Her first official taste of topsy-turvy came in Trial by Jury, playing Angelina for a Loosely Woven production that was a surprise hit at the National Folk Festival in Canberra.
Her debut with G&S Opera Sydney followed swiftly thereafter, when she landed the role of Pitti-Sing in The Mikado. She has since played Private Willis in the company’s mischievously re-envisioned Iolanthe and Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore. The latter production was directed by Christine Logan with Lesley serving as both Associate Director and Choreographer.
Lesley holds a degree from The Victorian College of the Arts (Univ. of Melbourne) and a Master’s degree in Fine Art (Dance Performance & Choreography) from Mills College in Oakland, California.
Having dedicated many years to finessing her skills as a dancer and dance maker in Australia and the United States, she brings an innate kinetic know-how to her stage performances and a uniquely creative eye to each production.
Joyfully engaged with Endangered Productions since 2020, Lesley has chalked up an eclectic repertoire of chamber opera gems.
In 2020 she sang the lead role of Herr Schlendrian’s wilful daughter, Lieschen or Lisa, in their production of JS Bach's charmingly comedic Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht - also known as the Coffee Cantata.
Endangered Productions' Nordic Noir wove together excerpts from Peer Gynt alongside an original play, Virus - a Fugue by playwright Fredrik Brattberg, in which Lesley played the central character of SHE. In the tribute to Grieg, Lesley could be seen cavorting with trolls as a lusty herd girl, before donning the hooded cape of soulful Solveig. She reports that “singing that character’s divine signature aria, in Norwegian, to a room filled with Norwegians, is an experience that remains "firmly planted between terror and triumph”.
The Coffee Cantata debuted in Bobin NSW after COVID when the company toured Bach to the Bush in 2021. It was then paired with Mozart’s Bastien & Bastienne for Double Trouble presented at Customs House in Sydney with Lesley performing the lead soprano role in both works.
In It’s So Last Century, which showcased the work of four 20th Century composers, Lesley played Lucy in Gian Carlo Menotti’s ‘The Telephone’.
Lesley again made a major contribution to the 2025 Bernstein & Busoni double bill, both as the Movement Director and as a member of a toe-tapping, radio-commercial-style vocal trio in the one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti.
