The Metropolitan Opera House announced that its next “Ring” cycle, starting in the 2027-’28 season, will be directed by MacArthur Fellowship recipient Yuval Sharon and conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. With the announcement, the Met is also extending Nézet-Séguin’s contract six years through the 2029-’30 season.
Sharon is currently the artistic director of Detroit Opera and the founder and co-artistic director of Los Angeles-based experimental opera company The Industry. In 2018, he was the first American director at Germany’s Bayreuth Festival with a warmly received production of “Lohengrin.” Other Wagnerian bona fides include a 2016 production of “Die Walküre” at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and a 2020 abridged version of “Götterdämmerung” at Detroit Opera, “Twilight: Gods.”
The “Ring” will not be Sharon’s Wagnerian debut at the Met, however; that will be a new production of “Tristan und Isolde” featuring star soprano Lise Davidsen as Isolde and conducted by Nézet-Séguin in 2025. Davidsen will also appear in the Met’s new “Ring” as Brünnhilde, confirming her place as the most sought-after Wagnerian soprano in the world today.
The extension of Nézet-Séguin’s contract through the remainder of the decade also confirms the Met’s confidence in his ability to broaden the opera company’s appeal, attract new audiences, and grow revenue. Nézet-Séguin has championed new works, including operas by women and non-white composers, while also remaining faithful to much of the core operatic canon.
