Olivia Doutney
Company Director
Olivia Doutney is the co-founder of Old + New Productions, and the company's Director. Alongside friend and long-time colleague Leila Alexander, she takes Old + New Productions into an exciting first year with a series of exciting creations.
Having begun her career as an opera singer, Olivia pioneered the opera company Liberata Collective in 2022 with Susanna MacRae, an organisation that focuses on reviving the lost historical art of Baroque Gesture in live performance. Together they have produced Handel's Orlando for a sold-out run at Buxton International Festival, followed by a UK-wide tour and Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito for Beaumaris Festival, both entirely choreographed in Baroque Gesture and performed with period instruments. Olivia is currently writing and producing an original work, Antonia, to be performed UK-wide in 2026, with a focus on blending modern storytelling devices with Baroque-era movement and music.
She has led multi-disciplinary theatre and voice workshops in Morocco and Switzerland, with a focus on the integration of operatic vocal practices into everyday speaking and posture habits, helping to build confidence amongst participants who had little prior exposure to singing and opera. She was also part of the creation process for the popular Blob Opera game with Google Arts & Culture in 2020.
As a performer, Olivia enjoys an international career as a dramatic soprano, performing the title role in Puccini's Turandot to popular and critical acclaim with La Fabrique Opéra de Grenoble, as well as solo roles with the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Luzerner Theater, National Theatre of Zrenjanin and many operatic stages across Europe. In 2025, she joined the Hradec Králové Philharmonic for a special performance of Samuel Barber's 'Knoxville: Summer of 1915' and a première of Lukaš Kurnìk's 'The Walls of Prague'.
She is passionate about evolving opera as an art form into hitherto-unseen directions.
Leila Alexander
Artistic Director
Leila Alexander is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Old + New, a production company dedicated to immersive, interdisciplinary performance that reimagines classical art forms for contemporary audiences. In 2025, she launches the company with a slate of ambitious new works, including a flagship VR opera currently being piloted through the UKRI Immersive Opera Grant, in collaboration with Toby Young, Radical Realities Studios, and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
A compelling figure at the intersection of opera, visual art, and new technologies, Leila is committed to creating multidisciplinary work that expands the expressive potential of classical forms. Her work spans performance, direction, producing, and curating, with a focus on making the classical arts more immersive, accessible, and relevant to the present moment.
As a performer, Leila’s practice integrates classical vocal training with experimental, site-specific, and visual art-based performance. She has appeared in Gabrielle Goliath’s Elegy at the 2024 Venice Biennale, Dom Bouffard’s [Un]Reliable Witness at Gallery 46 in London, and Lee Mingwei’s Sonic Blossom, singing Schubert Lieder in major international galleries. In 2025, she opens the season as Musetta in Regents Opera’s touring La bohème, directed by Sasha Regan and conducted by Ben Woodward. She has also performed at Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Tbilisi Opera House, and the Mozarteum Salzburg. Leila trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama under Yvonne Kenny AM and participated in the Royal Opera House coaching programme during her first term. She is also an alumna of the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Programme and the Mozarteum Salzburg.
Before founding Old + New, Leila served as Company Manager and Producer at Pegasus Opera Company from 2023 to 2025, where she produced all major productions and initiatives. These included Toutes Les Femmes, a double bill of Poulenc’s La voix humaine and the UK premiere of Philip Hagemann’s Roman Fever, co-produced with Broadway’s Hagemann Rosenthal Associates; Windrush: The Journey, a national concert tour and immersive exhibition in partnership with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; and Opera Royale, a double bill of Ethel Smyth’s Fête Galante and Hagemann’s Dark Lady of the Sonnets. She also delivered the Pegasus Mentorship Programme in collaboration with Glyndebourne and managed the company’s affiliated talent agency.
A New Zealand-born artist and emerging cultural leader, Leila was invited in 2024 to speak at Opera America’s Global Dialogue in Opera, and has served as a consultant to Operabase. Her professional background also includes roles as a commercial lawyer, arts strategist, and cultural critic.
She brings over two decades of training in ballet, jazz, tap, and contemporary dance, and was the lead actress in the New Zealand feature film Stars in Her Eyes. She has performed as a soloist at major international sporting events including the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Bledisloe Cup, and Rugby World Cup, and features in the soundtrack of Nikki Si’ulepa’s award-winning short film Ma.
Now, through Old + New, Leila is forging a bold new space for classical art: immersive, inclusive, and artistically ambitious.
LEILA'S
PORTFOLIO
LUCIA: An Immersive Opera VR Experience
Created by Leila Alexander, Artistic Director & Founder of Old + New Productions
Conceived by Leila Alexander, LUCIA reimagines Donizetti’s iconic Lucia di Lammermoor through an immersive virtual reality lens. Audiences are invited into Lucia’s hallucinatory world, blending live operatic performance with VR technology. Developed in collaboration with Radical Realities and composer Toby Young under a UKRI immersive opera research grant.
TOUTES LES FEMMES:
La voix humaine & Roman Fever
Produced by Leila Alexander for Pegasus Opera Company
A striking operatic double bill exploring women’s voices and resilience. Poulenc’s La voix humaine is paired with the UK premiere of Philip Hagemann’s Roman Fever, directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE and conducted by Rebecca Tong. Described by The Guardian as “a catalyst for change.”
WINDRUSH: The Journey Opera Tour
Produced by Leila Alexander for Pegasus Opera Company & the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
A powerful multimedia concert experience tracing the story of the Windrush generation. Featuring music from baroque to contemporary by global majority composers, this production combines live orchestra, narration, and projection with a touring exhibition honouring the legacy of the Windrush journey.
OPERA ROYALE: Fête Galante & Dark Lady of the Sonnets
Produced by Leila Alexander for Pegasus Opera Company
This double bill brings together Ethel Smyth’s Fête Galante and Philip Hagemann’s Dark Lady of the Sonnets. Directed by Femi Elufowoju Jr. and conducted by Odaline de la Martinez, Opera Royale celebrates underrepresented voices in the operatic canon with bold, theatrical storytelling.