NEW YORK — 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,” starring soprano Lise Davidson in the title role and directed by music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
The Mets also said Tuesday that Nézet-Séguin’s contract has been extended by six years through 2029-30.
Sharon’s “Tristan” will begin on March 9, 2026. The Ring will begin with “Das Rhinegold” in the second half of the 2027-28 season, include “Die Walküre” and “Siegfried” in 2028-29, and complete with “Götterdämmerung” in 2029-30. Davidson will sing Brünnhilde, and the full cycle will be in the spring of 2030.
Sharon was selected by Nézet-Séguin and Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager.
“We were both committed to a very dramatic ring, but we needed to do something at the Met that would reach the seats farthest from the stage,” Nézet-Séguin said. “After a while, it became clear to us that it had to be Yuval.”
Sharon, 44, has performed an abbreviated version of Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung” in parking lots in Detroit and Chicago, the third act of “Die Walküre” with green screen for animation and computer graphics in Los Angeles and Detroit, and reversed the order in Puccini’s “La Boheme” to show Mimi recovering rather than succumbing to illness.
Spokesperson Amanda Ameer said Sharon did not wish to discuss his Met projects publicly.
“He wants to work through the concept thoroughly before talking about it,” Gelb said. “I would regard it as his artistic eccentricity, which I can sympathize with.”
In addition, Davidson will star in Verdi’s “Macbeth” opening the 2026-27 season on Sept. 22, 2026, with Nézet-Séguin directing.
“I am delighted that Lisa Davidson has chosen the Met as her preferred home,” Nézet-Séguin said.
Davidson plans to stage “Tristan” in full before its Met production and will sing Brünnhilde in at least one Ring opera before New York.
Sharon founded The Industry Opera in Los Angeles in 2010 and has been artistic director of Detroit Opera 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” contains 15 hours of music composed over four days and is considered opera’s biggest, most expensive challenge.
The Met announced in February 2021 a co-production with English National Opera, directed by Richard Jones, to begin in 2025, with a full cycle to run from 2026-27. Last year, ENO cancelled the project midway through because of funding uncertainty.
Sharon’s production will replace Robert Lepage’s staging that appeared in 2012, 2013 and 2019, and gained notoriety for “The Machine,” a 45-ton metal structure with 24 planks that broke down on multiple occasions. The New Yorker critic Alex Ross called it “the most idiotic and wasteful production in modern opera history.”
The Met gave the U.S. premiere of the Ring in 1889 and has presented five integrated cycle productions since the early 20th century, including Franz Horth’s direction with Hans Kautsky’s sets, Herbert Graf’s direction with Lee Simonson’s sets, Herbert von Karajan’s staging with Günther Schneider-Siemssen’s abstract sets, and Otto Schenk’s Ring with Schneider-Siemssen’s traditional sets.
Met President Ann Ziff Sharon’s ring will be the main financier, and Gelb said it likely will not be produced with another company.
Nézet-Séguin, 49, became the Met’s music director in 2018-19, ending 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’s premieres of Mason Bates’ “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” Gabriela Lena Frank’s “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego,” Missy Mazzoli’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” Carlos Simon’s “The Highlands” and Huang Ruo’s “The Wedding Banquet,” as well as Robert Carsen’s new staging of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro.” He will also lead revivals of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” Puccini’s “Tosca” and Wagner’s “Parsifal.”
“It’s important to showcase a wide range of musicians,” Nézet-Séguin said. “That’s really the core of my mission, and that’s why I’m renovating. I think we’re just starting out on that journey.”
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