Long Beach Opera Announces Yuval Sharon As Interim Director

Long Beach Opera announces Yuval Sharon will serve as the company's Interim Artistic Advisor, who will work together with LBO leadership to plan LBO's 2021 season. Sharon will curate the 2021 season, including selecting the operas, productions, and artistic teams. He will also participate as director for one of the season productions.

Long Beach Opera will announce its 2021 season in April 2020. Sharon will continue his work as Artistic Director for his company, The Industry, while concurrently serving as LBO's Interim Artistic Advisor.

Since announcing that longtime Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek will depart at the end of 2020, Long Beach Opera has commenced the search for the next Artistic Director of the 41-year-old company, which is known for producing innovative productions of new and rarely performed works.

While this search is in process, Sharon will provide artistic curation for the bridge season. Sharon will work with board leadership, including Board Chair Robert Braun, and Executive Director Jennifer Rivera.

Sharon was described by The New York Times as "opera's disrupter in residence," and has been creating an unconventional body of work that seeks to expand the operatic form. He founded and serves as Artistic Director of The Industry in Los Angeles, an acclaimed company devoted to new and experimental opera that has brought opera into moving vehicles, operating train stations, and various "non-spaces" such as warehouses, parking lots, and escalator corridors.

Sharon recently completed a three-year residency at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and was honored with a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship. Major recent productions include an original setting of War of the Worlds, and a staging of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Gustavo Dudamel at the LA Phil, Lohengrin for the Bayreuth Festival, and The Magic Flute for the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Long Beach Opera Board Chair Robert Braun said, "We at LBO are very excited to have the opportunity to work with Yuval, as we all deeply admire his work not only in Southern California but internationally, as a director and as an opera visionary. We feel he is the perfect person to continue Long Beach Opera's mission to engage people with provocative, meaningful experiences that challenge, connect, and inspire for this bridge season, where we will seek to define the next chapter of LBO's future."

Executive Director Jennifer Rivera noted, "This is an exciting moment for LBO, and also for me personally, as Yuval and I both began our careers together at New York City Opera in the early 2000s. Ever since those days I have admired Yuval's ability to creatively change the face of opera in America with his truly innovative artistic sensibilities, and I am so thrilled at the opportunity to collaborate with him, and help fulfill his vision for a full season at LBO."

Yuval Sharon said, "When I founded The Industry here in 2010, I knew I was building off a culture of innovation in the LA region that Long Beach Opera played a significant role in shaping. LBO's 40-year history has opened up so many possibilities for artists in Southern California. I see my assignment as Interim Artistic Advisor as a chance to honor that history, and it offers me another opportunity to deepen my commitment to the audiences and artists in Southern California."

Long Beach Opera's current season, the final under outgoing General & Artistic Director Andreas Mitisek, begins January 12, 2020 with a new version of Henry Purcell's King Arthur, followed by the Los Angeles premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse in March, The American premiere of The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Gavin Bryars in May, and finally, a revival of Frida by Robert Xavier Rodriguez in June.

For more information please visit longbeachopera.org.

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