Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director, Detroit Opera
Yuval Sharon has amassed an unconventional body of work that expands the operatic form. He is founder and co-Artistic Director of The Industry in Los Angeles and the Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director of Detroit Opera. His first book, A New Philosophy of Opera, was published by Liveright in September 2024.
In the 2024–25 season, Sharon premieres new productions of Victor Ullman’s The Kaiser of Atlantis at New World Symphony and Mozart’s Così fan tutte at Detroit Opera. He also brings his project The Comet / Poppea to the Curtis Institute of Music. Premiered in 2024 at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, The Comet / Poppea uses a rotating stage to juxtapose simultaneous performances of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and a new opera adaptation of W.E.B. Du Bois’s “The Comet,” by George Lewis and Douglas Kearney. Future seasons will see Sharon make his Metropolitan Opera debut with a production of Tristan und Isolde (2025–26) as well as his first-ever Ring cycle, beginning in 2027–28.
Sharon’s appointment as Artistic Director of Detroit Opera has recently been extended through the 2027–28 season. He made his debut with the company in 2020 with Twilight: Gods, an innovative adaptation of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung staged in the Detroit Opera House Parking Center. Since then, he has directed a number of acclaimed productions there, including Ragnar Kjartansson’s 12-hour piece Bliss, staged in the historic Michigan Building Theatre; Puccini’s La bohème, presented in reverse order in the Detroit Opera House; John Cage’s Europeras 3&4, in the Gem Theatre; and The Valkyries—an adaptation of Act III of Die Walküre which used green screen technology and projection screens to bring Wagner’s proto-cinematic vision to life in real time.
Beyond his own productions, Sharon’s artistic guidance has transformed the company into a premier destination for progressive opera in the United States. Highlights from his tenure as Artistic Director include a major revival of Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and the company’s first international co-production, Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar.
With The Industry, Sharon has directed and produced new operas in moving vehicles, operating train stations, Hollywood sound stages, and various “non-spaces.” From 2016–2019, Sharon was the first Artist-Collaborator at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, creating nine projects that included newly commissioned works, site-specific installations, and performances outside the hall. His residency culminated in a new production of Meredith Monk’s opera ATLAS, making him the first director Monk entrusted with her work.
The first American ever invited to direct at Bayreuth, Sharon distinguished himself with a boldly progressive Lohengrin in 2018. He is the recipient of the 2014 Götz Friedrich Prize in Germany for his production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. In 2017, Sharon was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship and a Foundation for Contemporary Art grant for theater. He was named Musical America’s Director of the Year in 2023. Sharon is the inaugural Global Solutions Visiting Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Neubauer Collegium, where he will lead the 2025 Berlin Family Lectures on the subject of John Cage; the series will culminate in a new production of Cage’s Europeras 5.
Photo credit: Casey Kringlen