Performance Date
Saturday, April 5, 2024, 7:30pm
Friday, April 11, 2024, 7:30pm
Sunday, April 13, 2024, 2:30pm

Location
Detroit Opera House
1526 Broadway St.
Detroit, MI 48226

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This brand-new production by Detroit Opera Artistic Director Yuval Sharon offers a fresh take on Mozart’s controversial comedy, where the role of Artificial Intelligence turns the tale into a futuristic experiment. Don Alfonso’s manipulations of the “emotions” of his robotic inventions (the lovers) become an obsessive quest to develop spiritual machines.

Will his laboratory of lovers lead to a breakthrough for “Humanity 2.0,” or are human habits of jealousy and deceit hardwired into us?

Sung in Italian with English subtitles

Creative Team
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
Director – Yuval Sharon
Conductor - Corinna Niemeyer

Performance Date
Friday, November 1, 2024, 7:00pm
Saturday, November 2, 2024, 7:00pm
Sunday, November 3, 2024, 2:00pm

The Comet / Poppea brings together seemingly disparate worlds connected by stories of cultural transformation. The work juxtaposes Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea), an Italian opera from 1643 unfolding among the social divisions of ancient Rome; and the world premiere of The Comet, based on the 1920 science-fiction short story by sociologist and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois. Set in 1920s New York City, “The Comet” depicts a Black man and white woman as the only survivors after a comet hits Earth.

Presented on a turntable divided in two halves, these worlds unfold simultaneously, with the stage’s rotation creating a visual and sonic spiral for audiences—inviting associations, dissociations, collisions, and confluences.

Creative Team
Director: Yuval Sharon
Conductor: Marc Lowenstein
Curtis Opera Theatre
Curtis Symphony Orchestra

The Comet will be performed in English with English supertitles.
L’incoronazione di Poppea will be performed in Italian with English supertitles.

Performance Date
Saturday, October 19, 2024, 7:30pm
Sunday, October 20, 2024, 2:00pm

On October 19 & 20, 2024, Yuval Sharon and Alexander Gedeon co-direct Victor Ullmann’s The Kaiser of Atlantis, with a libretto by Peter Kien, at the New World Symphony. Joining Sharon will be conductor and New World Symphony Artistic Director Stéphane Denève and the New World Symphony Fellows, soprano Danielle De Niese, making her New World Symphony debut, dancers and more. Ullmann and Kien collaborated on The Kaiser of Atlantis while interned in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt (Terezín) during World War II. The work survived, though both Ullmann and Kien perished in Auschwitz. Ullmann's composition reflects on the consequences of unchecked power and the human spirit's resilience in the face of oppression.

Creative Team
Co-Directors: Yuval Sharon and Alexander Gedeon
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Composer: Viktor Ullmann
Set Designer: Sibyl Wickersheimer
Associate Set Designer & Puppet Designer: Yuri Okohana-Benson
Video Designer: Jason Thompson
Lighting Designer: Yuki Link
Costume Designer: Wilberth Gonzalez

Performance Date
Saturday, May 11, 2024, 2:30pm
Friday, May 17, 2024, 7:30pm
Sunday, May 19, 2024, 2:30pm

Location
Detroit Opera House
1526 Broadway St.
Detroit, MI 48226

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Detroit Opera's 2023–24 season closes May 11–19 with Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. Human and animal worlds collide in this enchanting, cinematic modern fable about a clever vixen who tries to outwit her captors. Music Director Roberto Kalb conducts, and Artistic Director Yuval Sharon directs his production from The Cleveland Orchestra, which uses playful projections to transform singers into forest creatures, with hand-crafted animations that evoke the fable’s comic-strip origins.

"We are inviting the audience into a deeper reflection of how we interact with nature, think about nature, these forces—animals, trees, the seasons, our relation to the ever-shifting natural world,” says Sharon.

This will be the first Detroit performance of one of Leoš Janáček’s great works; the score features some of the most beautiful music ever written.

“This is incredibly family-friendly, and is so fun and mesmerizing,” says Kalb. “And the cast is spectacular—I truly think that no theater in the world can boast a better cast than Detroit Opera.”

Sung in Czech with English supertitles
A Cleveland Orchestra production

Creative Team
Music by: Leoš Janáček
Director: Yuval Sharon
Conductor: Roberto Kalb
Libretto by: Janáček, based on a story by Rudolf Těsnohlídek
Animation creation: Walter Robot Studios (Bill Barminsky & Christopher Louie)
Projection and lighting design: Jason H. Thompson
Costume design: Ann Closs-Farley
Mask design: Cristina Waltz

Cast
Michael Sumuel, bass-baritone, The Forester
Samantha Hankey, mezzo-soprano, Fox Golden-Strip (Lisak)
Mané Galoyan, soprano, The Vixen (Sly Little Fox)
Alex Rosen, bass, The Parson
David Cangelosi, tenor, Schoolmaster/Mosquito
Andrew Potter, bass, Harasta
Rehanna Thelwell, mezzo-soprano, Forester’s Wife/Woodpecker
Elizabeth Polese, soprano, The Rooster

This season’s site-specific operatic experience will be pioneering composer John Cage’s Europeras 3 & 4, which breaks apart European opera tradition and reassembles it as a collage. With pre-recorded music, live singers and pianists, stage actions determined through chance operations, and a digital Europeraclock taking the place of the conductor, Cage’s unpredictable, entertaining light-and-soundscape will challenge your eyes and ears. Europeras 3 & 4 will be presented at Detroit’s historic Gem Theatre from March 8–10, 2024. Casting for Europeras 3 & 4 will be announced later this spring.

“Cage created Europeras 3 & 4 entirely of recycled materials—arias that everyone is familiar with, classics from European repertoire,” says Sharon. “The only catch is that they’re all performed at the same time. Through chance operations, singers will perform arias that they select, while pianists play transcriptions of different operas, and phonographs are playing different recordings. The result is something new and original: an exhilarating, bewildering, wonderful work. There are many experiences happening simultaneously, more similar to an installation, or like when you came to the Michigan Theater to see Bliss in 2021—it does not have to adhere to our standard ideas of narrative or experience. It can be so many different things: a true collage of things we know and love.”

Music by: John Cage (a 70-minute collage of opera arias)
Director: Yuval Sharon

Cast to be announced

Performance Dates
Saturday, July 29, 2023 at 8:30 PM
Wednesday, August 2, 2023 at 8:00 PM
Friday, August 11, 2023 at 8:00 PM
Wednesday, August 16, 2023 at 8:00 PM
Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 8:00 PM

Location
The Santa Fe Opera House
301 Opera Drive
Santa Fe, NM 87506-2823

More Information

Don’t Look Back!

Legendary lovers, Orfeo and Euridice, face death and separation. They undertake a perilous journey from the underworld back to the world of the living. One rule must be followed: Orfeo cannot look at Euridice. His conviction falters, he turns …

This visually breath-taking new production will be directed by MacArthur Prize Winner Yuval Sharon. Starring tenor Rolando Villazón and featuring a new orchestration by Nico Muhly.

Sung in: Italian
Instant Translation Screen: English and Spanish

Creative Team
Music by: Claudio Monteverdi
Orchestration by: Nico Muhly
Director: Yuval Sharon
Conductor: Harry Bicket
Chorus Master: Susanne Sheston
Libretto: Alessandro Striggio
Associate Producer: Julie Kim
Visual Environment: Alex Schweder
Visual Environment: Matthew Johnson
Costume Designer: Carlos J Soto
Projection Designer: Hana S. Kim
Sound Designer: Mark Grey
Lighting Designer: Yuki Nakase Link
Fight & Intimacy Director: Rick Sordelet,
Fight & Intimacy Director: Christian Kelly-Sordelet
Fight & Intimacy Director: Shireen Yehya

Cast
Rolando Villazón, tenor, Orfeo
Paula Murrihy, mezzo-soprano, Messaggera (Through August 16)
Lucy Evans, mezzo-soprano, Messaggera (August 24)
Lauren Snouffer, soprano, La Musica/Speranza
Amber Norelai, soprano, Euridice
James Creswell, bass, Caronte
Blake Denson, baritone, Plutone
Caitlin Aloia, soprano, Proserpina
Lucy Evans, mezzo-soprano, La Ninfa (Through August 16)
Meridian Prall, mezzo-soprano, La Ninfa (August 24)
Christian Simmons, bass-baritone, Apollo
Efraín Corralejo, tenor, 1st Pastore
Brandon Bell, baritone, 2nd Pastore
Luke Elmer, countertenor, 3rd Pastore
Younggwang Park, bass, 4th Pastore/1st Spirit
Le Bu, bass-baritone, 5th Pastore/2nd Spirit

Proximity
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Performed at Civic Opera House
March 24–April 8, 2023

Proximity is a trio of new works that confronts head-on some of the greatest challenges affecting us as a society: yearning for connection in a world driven by technology; the devastating impact of gun violence on cities and neighborhoods; and the need to respect and protect our natural resources. As the story zooms in and out from the individual to the community to the cosmic, audiences find themselves in a compelling snapshot of 21st century life, with all of its complex intersections and commonalities. This new work is comprised of Git Here, composed by Daniel Bernard Roumain with libretto by Anna Deavere Smith; Four Portraits, composed by Caroline Shaw with libretto by Caroline Shaw and Jocelyn Clark; and Night, Composed by John Luther Adams with libretto by John Haines.

Cast and additional creative to be announced

La bohème
Performed at the Emerson Colonial Theatre
September 23, 25 & 30 and October 2, 2022

Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Conducted by David Angus

Yuval Sharon’s new production of La bohème casts familiar elements in a new light, as Sharon stages the classic opera in reverse order from Act IV to Act I, with text and music otherwise unchanged. In this new, never-before attempted arrangement, Sharon reappraises the ways in which audiences and artists can interact with repertoire, bringing fresh eyes and ears to a classic while extracting hope from tragedy, life from death, and love from loneliness. Presented in a co-production with Detroit Opera and Boston Lyric Opera, this bold, unconventional take on Puccini’s opus is itself an experimental, nonconforming, and original piece of art.

Conducted by David Angus
Co-produced with Detroit Opera and Spoleto Festival USA

Lauren Michelle, Mimi
Matthew White, Rodolfo
Edward Parks, Marcello
Benjamin Taylor, Schaunard
William Guanbo Su, Colline

Set Design by John Conklin
Costume Design by Jessica Jahn

La bohème is a co-Production of Boston Lyric Opera, Detroit Opera, and Spoleto Festival USA

The Valkyries
Performed at the Detroit Opera House
September 17, 18, & 20, 2022

Music and Libretto by Richard Wagner
Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis

The Valkyries, Yuval Sharon's staging of Die Walküre, Act III, uses filmmaking technology such as green screens to bring Die Walküre to life. This is the third time Sharon has used green screen technology for stage productions, following two cinematic adaptations: Andrew Norman's Trip to the Moon, inspired by the 1902 silent film of the same title, and Olga Neuwirth's adaptation of David Lynch's Lost Highway. In The Valkyries, Sharon draws on the proto-cinematic nature of Wagner's vision.

Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis
Co-produced with the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Christine Goerke, Brünnhilde
Alan Held, Wotan
Wendy Bryn Harmer, Sieglinde
Alexandra Lobioaco, Gerhilde
Ann Toomey, Ortlinde
Tamara Mumford, Waltraute
GeDeane Graham, Schwertleite
Jessica Faselt, Helmwige
Leah Dexter, Siegrune
Maya Lahyani, Grimgerde
Krysty Swann, Rossweise

Bayreuth Festival
Bayreuth, Germany

Opera by Richard Wagner

In 2018, Yuval Sharon became the first American director to mount a production at the Bayreuth Festival, founded by Wagner in 1876. Sharon’s landmark 2018 production of Lohengrin returns in 2022, with stage design and costumes by Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy and lighting by Reinhard Traub.

Christian Thielemann, conductor

Klaus Florian Vogt, Lohengrin
Camilla Nylund, Elsa
Petra Lang, Ortrud
Martin Gantner, Friedrich
Georg Zeppenfeld, King Heinrich
Derek Welton, The King's Herald
Michael Gniffke, First Nobelman
Tansel Akzeybek, Second Nobelman
Raimund Nolte, Third Nobelman
Jens-Erik Aasbø, Fourth Nobelman

The Valkyries
Performed at the Hollywood Bowl
July 17, 2022

Music and Libretto by Richard Wagner
Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel

The Valkyries, Yuval Sharon's staging of Die Walküre, Act III, draws upon the cultural and industrial associations of Hollywood, using filmmaking technology such as green screens to bring Die Walküre to life on the Bowl's Jumbotron system. This is the third time Sharon has used green screen technology for stage productions, following two cinematic adaptations: Andrew Norman's Trip to the Moon, inspired by the 1902 silent film of the same title, and Olga Neuwirth's adaptation of David Lynch's Lost Highway. In The Valkyries, Sharon draws on the proto-cinematic nature of Wagner's vision, in a production uniquely suited to the Hollywood Bowl.

Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel
Co-produced with Detroit Opera

Christine Goerke, Brünnhilde
Matthias Goerne, Wotan
Eva-Maria Westbroek, Sieglinde
Alexandria Shiner, Gerhilde
Laura Wilde, Ortlinde
Tamara Mumford, Waltraute
Ronnita Miller, Schwertleite
Jessica Faselt, Helmwige
Laura Krumm, Siegrune
Taylor Raven, Grimgerde
Deborah Nansteel, Rossweise

Los Angeles Philharmonic

La bohème
Performed at the Charleston Gaillard Center
May 28 & 31 and June 4, 7 & 11, 2022

Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni

Yuval Sharon’s new production of La bohème casts familiar elements in a new light, as Sharon stages the classic opera in reverse order from Act IV to Act I, with text and music otherwise unchanged. In this new, never-before attempted arrangement, Sharon reappraises the ways in which audiences and artists can interact with repertoire, bringing fresh eyes and ears to a classic while extracting hope from tragedy, life from death, and love from loneliness. Presented in a co-production with Detroit Opera and Boston Lyric Opera, this bold, unconventional take on Puccini’s opus is itself an experimental, nonconforming, and original piece of art.

Conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni
Co-produced with Detroit Opera and Boston Lyric Opera
Matthew White, Rodolfo
Lauren Michelle, Mimi
Troy Cook, Marcello
Brandie Sutton, Musetta
Benjamin Taylor, Schaunard
Calvin Griffin, Colline

Spoleto Festival USA Chorus

Set Design by John Conklin
Costume Design by Jessica Jahn
Lighting Design by John Torres

La bohème is a co-Production of Spoleto Festival USA, Detroit Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera

La bohème
Performed at the Detroit Opera House
April 2, 6, & 10, 2022

Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni

Yuval Sharon’s new production of La bohème casts familiar elements in a new light, as Sharon and Detroit Opera stage the classic opera in reverse order from Act IV to Act I, with text and music otherwise unchanged. In this new, never-before attempted arrangement, Sharon and Detroit Opera reappraise the ways in which audiences and artists can interact with repertoire, bringing fresh eyes and ears to a classic while extracting hope from tragedy, life from death, and love from loneliness. Presented in a co-production with Boston Lyric Opera and Spoleto Festival USA, this bold, unconventional take on Puccini’s opus is itself an experimental, nonconforming, and original piece of art.

Conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni
Co-produced with Boston Lyric Opera and Spoleto Festival USA

Aundi Marie Moore, Mimi
Matthew White, Rodolfo
Edward Parks, Marcello
Brandie Inez Sutton, Musetta
Benjamin Taylor, Schaunard
Cory McGee, Colline
George Shirley, The Wanderer
Cameron Johnson, Parpignol
Benton DeGroot, Customs Officer
Kevin Starnes, Sergeant
Isabella Edmonds-Hogan, Child

Set Design by John Conklin
Costume Design by Jessica Jahn
Lighting Design by John Torres

La bohème is a co-Production of Detroit Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Spoleto Festival, USA.

Twilight: Gods
A drive-in experience of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung
Performed at the Millennium Lakeside Parking Garage
April 28, 30, and May 2, 2021

Concept, Direction, and English translation by Yuval Sharon
With new narrative poetry by avery r. young.

Conceived and directed by Sharon, Twilight: Gods is a site-specific adaptation of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung—the Twilight of the Gods—staged in the Millennium Garages - Millennium Lakeside Parking Garage for Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Inspired as much by the brutal utilitarianism of the parking facility as the safety precautions of the coronavirus era, Twilight: Gods transforms Wagner’s six-hour masterpiece into an hour-long series of dioramic scenes performed in intervals throughout the Parking Garage. Equal parts drive-in theater and opera house event, Twilight: Gods gives audience members the opportunity to watch Wagner’s drama unfold scene-by-scene from the safety of their cars, while the live performance (sung in English) is broadcast to car stereos—a full immersion in the world of the Ring.

Christine Goerke, Brünnhilde
Sean Pannikar, Siegfried
Morris Robinson, Hagen
Donnie Ray Albert, Alberich
Catherine Martin, Waltraute
Maria Novella Malfatti, Rhinemaiden
Katherine Beck, Rhinemaiden
Kathleen Felty, Rhinemaiden

Members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra
William C. Billingham, Music Supervisor
Eric Weimar, Music Supervisor

Production design by Jason H. Thompson and Kaitlyn Pietras
Sound design by Lewis Pesacov
Musical arrangement and orchestration by Ed Windels

Twilight: Gods is a collaboration between Lyric Opera of Chicago and Michigan Opera Theatre.

Twilight: Gods
A drive-in experience of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung
Performed at the Detroit Opera House Parking Center
October 17, 18, and 20, 2020

Concept, Direction, and English translation by Yuval Sharon
With new narrative poetry by Marsha Music

Conceived and directed by Sharon, Twilight: Gods is a site-specific adaptation of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung—the Twilight of the Gods—staged in the Detroit Opera House Parking Center for the Michigan Opera Theatre.

Inspired as much by the brutal utilitarianism of the parking facility as the safety precautions of the coronavirus era, Twilight: Gods transforms Wagner’s six-hour masterpiece into an hour-long series of dioramic scenes performed in intervals throughout the Parking Center. Equal parts drive-in theater and opera house event, Twilight: Gods gives audience members the opportunity to watch Wagner’s drama unfold scene-by-scene from the safety of their cars, while the live performance (sung in English) is broadcast to car stereos—a full immersion in the world of the Ring.

Christine Goerke, Brünnhilde
Sean Pannikar, Siegfried
Morris Robinson, Hagen
Donnie Ray Albert, Alberich
Catherine Martin, Waltraute
Avery Boettcher, Wellgunde
Kaswanna Kanyinda, Flosshilde
TBA, Woglinde

Members of the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra

Production design by Jason H. Thompson and Kaitlyn Pietras
Sound design by Mark Grey
Musical arrangement by Ed Windels

Bayreuth Festival
Bayreuth, Germany

Opera by Richard Wagner

In 2018, Yuval Sharon became the first American director to mount a production at the Bayreuth Festival, founded by Wagner in 1876. Sharon’s landmark 2018 production of Lohengrin returns in 2019, with stage design and costumes by Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy and lighting by Reinhard Traub.

Christian Thielemann, conductor
Eberhard Friedrich, choral conductor

Georg Zeppenfeld, Heinrich der Vogler
Klaus Florian Vogt/Piotr Beczała, Lohengrin
Camilla Nylund/Annette Dasch/Anna Netrebko, Elsa von Brabant
Tomasz Konieczny, Friedrich von Telramund
Elena Pankratova, Ortrud
Egils Silins, Der Heerrufer des Königs
Michael Gniffke, First Elder
Tansel Akzeybek, Second Elder
Marek Reichert, Third Elder
Timo Riihonen, Fourth Elder