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 publicl.