BWW Opera News: Opera Director-Producer Yuval Sharon from LA is a MacArthur 'Genius'

Yuval Sharon, founder and artistic director of The Industry, a Los Angeles-based production company, is one of the new class of "24 Extraordinarily Creative People Who Inspire Us All," according to the MacArthur Foundation, and has been named one of the MacArthur Fellows-better known as the "genius grant."

Sharon is a director and producer of opera expanding the possibilities of where, when, and how opera can be performed, bringing together singers, instrumentalists, and emerging technologies in nontraditional performance spaces, transforming opera from an experience of passive listening to one that is immersive, multisensory, and mobile.

On November 12, his production of WAR OF THE WORLDS by composer Annie Gosfield, will debut as part of his residence with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. War of the Worlds, Orson Welles' 1938 "fake news" broadcast on radio, led millions of panicked listeners to believe that aliens were invading. Sharon takes the original radio script as the basis of an audacious new performance piece to be heard around L.A. - at WWII era sirens reactivated for two-way communication - and simultaneously at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The production can be experienced in four different ways: purchase tickets to the performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall or make a free reservation for a spot at one of the three siren sites.

His production of Christopher Cerrone's INVISIBLE CITIES (2013) was performed in Los Angeles's Union Station, which remained operational throughout the performance, with musicians, dancers, and audience members interspersed among travelers and commuters. Based on the 1972 novel by Italo Calvino in which Marco Polo recounts his adventures, the opera explores themes of imagination and is experienced through headphones, so that each listener's experience is as individualized as one's own imagination.

In the fall of 2015, Sharon premiered HOPSCOTCH: A MOBILE OPERA FOR 24 CARS, which takes place in various locations around Los Angeles, ranging from the opulent interiors of the Bradbury Building to the Los Angeles River to the roof of the Toy Factory Lofts. The audience is transported from location to location in limousines, and at each stop, as well as in the vehicles themselves, singers and musicians enact a story of love, loss, and a mysterious disappearance.

The non-sequential plot allows audience members to travel along one of three different routes, a logistical feat characteristic of Sharon's ambitious vision. Along the way, the fabric of the city and goings-on of its inhabitants are integrated into the mobile opera, disrupting the distinction between fiction and reality.

Among the other works directed and produced by Sharon are CRESCENT CITY (2012) and, and smaller-scale works as part of The Industry's First Take and Second Take series. has also directed productions at the Vienna Staatsoper, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Carnegie Hall, among other venues. In 2018, Sharon will be the first American to direct a production (LOHENGRIN) at the Bayreuth Festival.

Sharon's dedication to realizing both contemporary and canonical operatic works beyond the constraints of traditional presentations is infusing this dramatic musical genre with a new vitality and attracting a new generation of enthusiasts and patrons.

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