Yuval Sharon, whose innovative opera productions have captured the attention and challenged the assumptions of both audiences and critics, is stepping down as co-artistic director of The Industry, the Los Angeles-based company he founded.
Tim Griffin, who joined The Industry in July 2023 as executive director, will add the title of artistic director. Malik Gaines and Ash Fure, who have shared artistic director duties with Sharon since 2021, will serve as a new artistic advisory council.
“When I started The Industry in 2010, I never imagined the impact the organization would have in Los Angeles and on the wider field of opera,” Sharon said in a statement announcing the changes. “The Industry is, without question, something I will consider a lifetime achievement — one made possible by the enthusiasm and curiosity of L.A.’s uniquely engaged audiences.”
At The Industry, Sharon created a series of adventurous productions, many of which received national attention. They included 2015’s Hopscotch, which was performed in a fleet of moving limousines, and 2020’s Sweet Land, which explored themes of mythology and colonialism and was staged at Los Angeles State Historic Park.
A Chicago native and UC Berkeley graduate, Sharon has spent more and more time away from his home base as his stature has grown. Since 2020, he has been the artistic director of Detroit Opera, where he made his debut in a characteristically inventive way, staging an abridged version of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in a parking structure.
Sharon became the first American director to stage a production at the Bayreuth Festival in 2018 with Lohengrin. He has also helmed major projects at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, and Berlin State Opera. He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 2017.
Sharon will make his Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2025–2026 season with Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde and then return to begin work on the composer’s four-opera Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle starting in the 2027–2028 season.
At The Industry, he will assume the title of founder. In that role, he said, he will remain involved with the company, including “conceiving future projects unique to The Industry’s identity.”
Griffin previously served as executive director and chief curator of The Kitchen, an eclectic and well-regarded art and performance space in New York City. In a statement, he said he intends to honor Sharon’s legacy and keep “pushing the boundaries and potential of opera and its dialogue with all the arts.”
The Industry will hold a major fundraising event honoring Sharon on Jan. 30, 2025, in the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles. The company’s next site-specific production will be The He(a)rd, scheduled for June 2025. Created by Fure and architect Xavi Aguirre, it will take place within a large empty pool underneath the downtown L.A. landmark The MacArthur.
The company reports that The He(a)rd will feature 32 channels of “immersive sound” to bring “the body-amped intensity of clubs into the world of experimental opera.”
