Yuval Sharon

Sharon was born in 1979 in Chicago[http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/yuval-sharon Foundation for Contemporary Arts – Yuval Sharon] to two Israeli parents. He earned a B.A. in 2001 from the University of California, Berkeley{{cite web|url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/999/|title=Yuval Sharon|publisher=MacArthur Foundation}} studying English and dramatic arts, before spending a year in Berlin. Seeing Anthony Davis's Amistad and Meredith Monk's Atlas{{Cite news|date=2019-06-10 |title=Who brought a 36-foot orb into Disney Hall for Atlas? Yup, that guy again |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-yuval-sharon-atlas-opera-20190610-story.html |access-date=2024-08-06|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}} as a college student and his time in Berlin led him towards opera.{{cite news|last1=Allen|first1=David|title=Opera's Disrupter in Residence, Heading to Bayreuth|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/arts/music/operas-disrupter-in-residence-heading-to-bayreuth.html|access-date=12 September 2017|newspaper=The New York Times|date=20 July 2017}}

Sharon then lived in New York, where he founded a theater company called Theater Faction and worked at the New York City Opera, directing its VOX program from 2006 to 2009, before moving to Los Angeles. He found Los Angeles to be the ideal home for experimental work in opera and founded The Industry to put on innovative productions.{{cite news|last1=Rosenberg|first1=Jeremy|title=Yuval Sharon: L.A.'s Culture Brought and Kept Him Here|url=https://www.kcet.org/history-society/yuval-sharon-las-culture-brought-and-kept-him-here|access-date=12 September 2017|publisher=KCET|date=17 May 2012}}

Sharon serves as co-artistic director of The Industry in Los Angeles, alongside Ash Fure and Malik Gaines.{{Cite web|date=2021-06-25 |title=The Industry Announces Significant Changes in Management Structure, Forms Artistic Director Cooperative |url=https://operawire.com/the-industry-announces-significant-changes-in-management-structure-forms-artistic-director-cooperative/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=OperaWire}} Notable productions include Hopscotch, an opera staged in 24 moving vehicles;{{cite web|title=The Industry presents Hopscotch: a mobile opera for 24 cars|url=http://hopscotchopera.com/|website=Hopscotch Opera|access-date=12 September 2017}} a performance installation of Terry Riley's In C at the Hammer Museum; Christopher Cerrone's Invisible Cities, based on the Italo Calvino novel and staged in Los Angeles Union Station,{{cite news|last1=Farber|first1=Jim|title=Harmonic Convergence: Yuval Sharon, The Industry, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Join Forces|url=https://www.sfcv.org/events-calendar/artist-spotlight/harmonic-convergence-yuval-sharon-the-industry-and-the-los-angeles|access-date=12 September 2017|work=San Francisco Classical Voice|date=22 September 2016}} Anne LeBaron's Crescent City, set in a mythical town loosely based on New Orleans,{{cite web|title=Crescent City|url=https://theindustryla.org/projects/crescent-city/|website=The Industry|access-date=12 September 2017}} Sweet Land, an opera about colonialism and history created in collaboration with Cannupa Hanska Luger, Aja Couchois Duncan, Raven Chacon, Du Yun, and Douglas Kearney;{{Cite news |last=Barone |first=Joshua |date=2020-02-28 |title=An Opera About Colonialism Shows How History Warps |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/arts/music/sweet-land-opera.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |newspaper=The New York Times|ref=none}} and The Comet/Poppea, a double-feature consisting of L'incoronazione di Poppea and an operatic adaptation of W. E. B. Du Bois's short story "The Comet", presented simultaneously on a rotating stage.{{Cite news |last=Walls |first=Seth Colter |date=2024-06-13 |title=A New Opera Mashes Up Monteverdi and W.E.B. Du Bois |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/arts/music/comet-poppea-industry-los-angeles.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |newspaper=The New York Times}}

From 2017–2019, Sharon was the first-ever artist-collaborator at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where his projects included an original setting of Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds with music by Annie Gosfield, performed both inside and outside Walt Disney Concert Hall simultaneously;{{Cite news|date=2017-11-14 |title=Review: War of the Worlds: Delirious opera rises from the death and destruction of L.A. |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-war-of-the-worlds-review-20171114-story.html |access-date=2024-08-02|newspaper=Los Angeles TimesS}} the installation Nimbus; a new performance edition of Lou Harrison's Young Caesar;{{Cite news|date=2017-06-14 |title=Review: The puppet orgy is back in a triumphant reworking of Young Caesar at Disney Hall |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-young-caesar-review-20170614-story.html |access-date=2024-08-02|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}} a staging of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Gustavo Dudamel in Spring 2018;{{cite web|title=Yuval Sharon|url=https://www.laphil.com/tickets/yuval-sharon|publisher=Los Angeles Philharmonic|access-date=12 September 2017}} and productions of John Cage's Europeras 1&2 and Meredith Monk's Atlas, for which Sharon became the first-ever outside producer of one of the composer's works.{{Cite news |last=Barone |first=Joshua |date=2019-06-04 |title=Meredith Monk Lets Go of Her Masterpiece |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/arts/music/atlas-la-philharmonic-meredith-monk.html |access-date=2024-08-02|newspaper=The New York Times}}

On September 9, 2020, Yuval Sharon was named the Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director for the Michigan Opera Theater (as of February 2022 renamed to Detroit Opera). He made his house debut as director that October with Twilight: Gods, an abridged adaptation of Götterdämmerung presented in the Detroit Opera House Parking Center{{Cite news |last=Barone |first=Joshua |date=2020-10-21 |title=Think Outside the Opera House, and Inside the Parking Garage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/twilight-gods-detroit-opera.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |newspaper=The New York Times|ref=none}} and, with Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Millennium Lakeside Parking Garage. Other Detroit Opera productions have included Ragnar Kjartansson's Bliss—a 12-hour loop of The Marriage of Figaro, which Sharon presented in the Michigan Building's former theater space;{{Cite news|last=Beddingfield |first=Duante |title=Michigan Opera Theatre stages lavish, 12-hour show in ruins of old Detroit theater |url=https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/2021/09/28/michigan-opera-theatre-bliss-parking-garage/5888559001/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |newspaper=Detroit Free Press}} a reverse-chronology production of La bohème, staged in Detroit,{{Cite news |last=Binelli |first=Mark |date=2022-07-07 |title=Is the Future of American Opera Unfolding in Detroit? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/magazine/yuval-sharon-detroit-opera.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |newspaper=The New York Times}} Boston,{{Cite web|date=2022-04-24 |title=La bohème|publisher=Boston Lyric Opera|url=https://blo.org/boheme/ |access-date=2024-08-02}} Philadelphia,{{Cite web|title=Boheme – La bohème in reverse |url=https://www.operaphila.org/about/news-press/pressroom/2023/boheme/ |access-date=2024-08-02|publisher=Opera Philadelphia}} and Spoleto Festival USA;{{Cite web |last=Bono |first=Nat |date=2022-05-29 |title=Preview: A backwards La bohème lives happily ever after |url=http://charlestoncitypaper.com/2022/05/29/a-backwards-la-boheme-lives-happily-ever-after/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=Charleston City Paper}} The Valkyries, a staging of act 3 of Die Walküre which he premiered with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl;{{Cite news|date=2022-07-18 |title=Review: With Yuval Sharon and Gustavo Dudamel at the helm, Valkyries makes history again at the Bowl |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-07-18/review-wagners-valkyries-hollywood-bowl-dudamel-yuval-sharon |access-date=2024-08-02|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}{{Cite web|date=2022-09-24 |title=Detroit Opera 2022–23 Review: The Valkyries|url=https://operawire.com/detroit-opera-2022-23-review-the-valkyries/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=OperaWire}} and John Cage's Europeras 3&4, staged in the Gem Theatre.{{Cite news|date=2024-03-18 |title=L.A. lost Yuval Sharon to Detroit. Here's what we're missing — and what we might win back |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-03-18/yuval-sharon-detroit-john-cage-christian-wolff |access-date=2024-08-02|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}

Other projects include a 2012 production of John Cage's Song Books at the San Francisco Symphony and Carnegie Hall with Joan La Barbara, Meredith Monk, and Jessye Norman;{{Cite news|date=2012-03-15 |title=Music review: San Francisco Symphony's John Cage Song Books|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/culture-monster-blog/story/2012-03-15/music-review-san-francisco-symphonys-john-cage-song-books |access-date=2024-08-02|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}} a 2014 production of John Adams's Doctor Atomic, for which he was awarded a {{ill|Götz Friedrich Prize|de|Götz-Friedrich-Preis}}; Péter Eötvös's Tri sestry (Three Sisters) at the Vienna State Opera in 2016;{{Cite web |title=Péter Eötvös' Tri Sestri Receives Raucous Premiere at the Wiener Staatsoper |url=https://bachtrack.com/review-wiener-staatsoper-tri-sestri-march-2016 |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=Bachtrack}} a 2016 production of Die Walküre at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe;{{Cite news|title=Die Walküre: Opera |url=https://www.ft.com/content/555d3592-c05a-11e6-81c2-f57d90f6741a|first=Shirley |last=Apthorp |newspaper=Financial Times |date=December 14, 2016|page=12 |id={{ProQuest|1858204955}}}}

productions of Pelléas et Mélisande and The Cunning Little Vixen with the Cleveland Orchestra, the latter of which became the first fully staged opera ever presented in Vienna's historic Musikverein in October 2017; and a 2018 production of Olga Neuwirth's Lost Highway at Oper Frankfurt.{{Cite news|date=2018-09-19 |title=Review: David Lynch's Lost Highway gets an otherworldly operatic treatment by Yuval Sharon |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-lost-highway-review-20180919-story.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}

Sharon became the first American director at the Bayreuth Festival with a 2018 production of Lohengrin.{{Cite news |last=Allen |first=David |date=2018-07-26 |title=Review: Bayreuth’s First American Director Arrives With Lohengrin|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/26/arts/music/lohengrin-bayreuth-yuval-sharon-review.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |newspaper=The New York Times}} In 2019, Sharon premiered a new production of The Magic Flute at the Berlin State Opera.{{Cite news|date=2019-03-05 |title=Review: Yuval Sharon brings his L.A. brand of controversy to Berlin with a new Magic Flute|author=Mark Swed|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-yuval-sharon-magic-flute-20190305-story.html |access-date=2025-02-25 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}} In 2022, Sharon led the premiere production of Proximity, a trio of new operas commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago comprising The Walkers by Daniel Bernard Roumain and Anna Deavere Smith, Four Portraits by Caroline Shaw and Jocelyn Clarke; and Night, composed by John Luther Adams with text by the late John Haines.{{Cite news |last=Woolfe |first=Zachary|author-link=Zachary Woolfe|date=2023-03-26 |title=Review: In Chicago, an Opera Triptych Reaches for Connection |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/26/arts/music/proxmity-lyric-opera-chicago-review.html |access-date=2024-08-02|newspaper=The New York Times}} He made his Santa Fe Opera house debut in 2023 with Monteverdi's Orfeo, appearing in a new orchestration by Nico Muhly.{{Cite news |last=Barone |first=Joshua |date=2023-08-06 |title=At Santa Fe Opera, the Oldest Work Is Also the Freshest |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/06/arts/music/santa-fe-opera-orfeo.html |access-date=2024-08-02|newspaper=The New York Times}}

In 2024, the Metropolitan Opera announced that Sharon would direct its next Ring cycle, beginning in the 2027–28 season. He will make his house debut with the company with a production of Tristan und Isolde in 2025–26.{{Cite news |last=Hernández |first=Javier C. |date=2024-08-06 |title=The Met Opera Plans a New Ring With a Familiar Maestro |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-ring-nezet-seguin-sharon.html |access-date=2024-08-06|newspaper=The New York Times}}

• 2014 {{ill|Götz Friedrich Prize|de|Götz-Friedrich-Preis}} in Germany for his production of John Adams's Doctor Atomic
• 2017 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award{{cite web|title=Grants to Artists, Performance Art/Theater 2017|url=http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/yuval-sharon|website=Foundation for Contemporary Arts|access-date=12 September 2017}}
• 2017 MacArthur Fellowship
• 2023 Musical America Director of the Year{{Cite web |title=Director of the Year: Yuval Sharon |url=https://www.musicalamerica.com/features/?fid=363&fyear=2023 |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=www.musicalamerica.com}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite news|last=Swed |first=Mark|author-link=Mark Swed|title=Review: As L.A. voted, John Cage's anarchic Europeras 1 & 2 set the tone for election day|newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=2018-11-07 |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-laphil-europeras-review-20181107-story.html |access-date=2019-09-05|ref=none}}

• {{official|https://www.yuvalsharon.com/}}
• [https://theindustryla.org/ The Industry's website]

{{Portal bar|Biography|Theatre|Opera}}

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Category:1979 births

Category:MacArthur Fellows

Category:Living people

Category:People from Chicago

Category:American opera directors

Category:People from Naperville, Illinois

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:American people of Israeli descent