The new forefront of opera

Last week, we took LA Soho House members to the premiere of ‘Sweet Land,’ an experiential opera performed in Los Angeles State Historic Park, just north of Downtown LA. Described by The New York Times as ‘opera's disrupter in residence,’ Yuval Sharon is the founder of The Industry, the unorthodox opera company behind such critically-acclaimed shows as Hopscotch, Invisible Cities, and now, ‘Sweet Land,’ an opera which re-examines American History through the Native American lens. 

We sat down with Sharon to hear more about using performance as a tool for civic engagement and what’s next for opera as an art form. 

‘There must be something about the way the operas are presented that creates a barrier to us understanding them, and that’s when I started thinking about making my own. Opera doesn’t have to be in some other language about some other time, but it could be in our language and try to address us as Americans. What if opera is not considered an established art form, but rather, an emerging art form, and that people are still discovering what it is? I want to strip away the sense of inaccessibility opera tends to have, without losing the challenge and excitement that surrounds it. It’s not about dumbing it down, but about realising what’s challenging about it is also what’s so inspirational and exciting.’ 

‘I’m looking to change the way opera is experienced – so I started to think about letting it take place in a train station or a moving vehicle or a parking lot. But re-imagining it also includes re-imagining how opera is written, who’s telling the stories and what stories are being told. I want to radicalise every single element of the opera. I also wanted to make sure it wasn’t coming from a privileged perspective, in the way I think opera has been consumed in the past.’

‘The process of creating this was extremely horizontal. There are six members of our creative team – all from different backgrounds – that all came to develop what this is today. Part of our larger mission was to make sure that opera is connected to our civic life in some way. We wanted to address the racial inequality within America, and address how much of our identity tries to erase all of the histories within that inequality. 

With what’s happening now politically and socially in this country, we have to re-examine our identity and recognize our past in a way that honors the voices of those who may not have been heard. What’s great about working with a six-person team was that we were able to highlight all sorts of voices and make sure they were heard. Everyone else’s point of view has certainly expanded my own, and I think the goal of the opera is to help expand the idea of how we want to live in this world.’ 

‘What we really want is for people to own a personal share in the story. Everyone is going to approach it through their own cultural background and I think what we’re trying to do is create a big enough space where all of that can coexist. One thing that’s so powerful about art in general – not just opera – is that art is the place where we can truly play around with and imagine a better life or a better country.’

‘You don’t hear people say LA doesn’t have culture anymore. There’s been a big shift, and it’s been exciting to be a part of that. The artistic community here is being emboldened to think nationally, which is exciting. With ‘Sweet Land,’ we want to put the opera into the landscape of the city itself, and that’s why we set it in Los Angeles State Historic Park. LA is probably the most important character in the show.’ 

‘I would love for independent artists who want to try their hand at opera to have the opportunity and support to do that, and that the larger companies learn from the innovators in the field. I think it’s starting to happen. I think opera in America is so different than opera in Europe in that it’s not a native art form in America. I have had to confront why opera – a non-American art form – is telling the story of America. And in this country, it is so important for the people who make opera to have their own vision of it. I’d like us to lean into that, and take away some of the confining structures we inherited.’