Yuval Sharon to direct Met Opera’s new stagings of Wagner’s Ring Cycle and `Tristan und Isolde’

NEW YORK (AP) — Yuval Sharon, an American known for innovative productions, will direct the Metropolitan Opera’s next stagings of Wagner’s Ring Cycle and “Tristan und Isolde,” both starring soprano Lise Davidsen and conducted by music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The Met also said Tuesday that Nézet-Séguin’s contract had been extended by six years through 2029-30.

Sharon’s “Tristan” opens March 9, 2026. The Ring launches with “Das Rheingold” starting the second half of the 2027-28 season, includes “Die Walküre” and “Siegfried” in 2028-29, and will be completed with “Gotterdämmerung” in 2029-30. Davidsen will sing Brünnhilde, and there will be complete cycles in the spring of 2030.

Sharon was chosen by Nézet-Séguin and Met general manager Peter Gelb.

“We were both committed to a very highly theatrical Ring but we need at the Met to have something that is reaching seats that are pretty far from the stage,” Nézet-Séguin said. “After a while, it became kind of evident for us that is should be Yuval.”

Sharon, 44, has presented a shortened version of Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods)” at parking lots in Detroit and Chicago, the third act of “Die Walküre” in Los Angeles and Detroit with a green screen for animation and computer graphics, and Puccini’s “La Bohème” reversing the order of acts to portray Mimì as getting healthier rather than succumbing to illness.

Sharon did not want to publicly discuss his Met projects, spokeswoman Amanda Ameer said.

“He wants to have the concept fully worked out before he starts talking about it,” Gelb said. “I would put that down as his artistic eccentricity, which I can sympathize with.“

In addition, Davidsen will star in Verdi’s “Macbeth” opening the 2026-27 season on Sept. 22, 2026, with Nézet-Séguin conducting.

“I’m glad if Lisa Davidsen has chosen the Met as being her house of choice,” Nézet-Séguin said.

Davidsen plans a fully staged “Tristan” before her Met production and will sing Brünnhilde in at least one of the Ring operas before New York.

Sharon founded The Industry Opera in Los Angeles in 2010 and has been Detroit Opera’s artistic director since 2020. He became the first American to direct at the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, in 2018 with “Lohengrin.”

Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)” contains 15 hours of music over four days and is considered opera’s biggest, priciest challenge.

The Met announced in February 2021 a co-production with the English National Opera directed by Richard Jones starting in 2025, with full cycles by 2026-27. The ENO scrapped the project last year halfway through because of funding uncertainty.

Sharon’s production will replace a Robert Lepage staging that appeared in 2012, 2013 and 2019, and gained infamy for “The Machine,” a 45-ton metal structure with 24 planks that malfunctioned on several occasions. New Yorker critic Alex Ross called it “the most witless and wasteful production in modern operatic history.”

The Met gave the Ring’s U.S. premiere in 1889 and has presented five integrated cycle productions since the start of the 20th century that include Franz Hörth directing with Hans Kautsky’s sets (1914-44), Herbert Graf directing with Lee Simonson’s sets (1948-62), Herbert Von Karajan’s staging with Günther Schneider-Siemssen’s abstract sets (1975), and Otto Schenk’s Ring with Schneider-Siemssen’s traditional sets (1989-2004).

Met chair Ann Ziff will be lead funder of Sharon’s Ring, and Gelb said it likely will not be co-produced with another company.

Nézet-Séguin, 49, became Met music director in 2018-19 following the end of James Levine’s 40-year tenure in 2016. A four-time Grammy Award winner, Nézet-Séguin has been music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012-13 and last year was given a contract through 2029-30. He has been music director of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2010.

As part of the Met’s pivot to contemporary works, Nézet-Séguin is scheduled to conduct the company premieres of Mason Bates’ “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” (opening 2025-26 season on Sept. 21), Gabriela Lena Frank’s “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego” (May 14, 2026), Missy Mazzoli’s “Lincoln in the Bardo” (Oct. 23, 2026), Carlos Simon’s “The Highlands” (March 8, 2027) and Huang Ruo’s “The Wedding Banquet” along with also a new Robert Carsen staging of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro.” He will lead revivals of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” Puccini’s “Tosca” and Wagner’s “Parsifal.”

“It’s important to show a broad palette of composers,” Nézet-Séguin said. “It’s at the core actually of my mission, and this is also why I’m renewing. I feel like we just embarked on that journey.”

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press