Detroit Opera President and CEO Patty Isacson Sabee, the Detroit Opera Board of Directors, and Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director Yuval Sharon have agreed to extend Sharon’s current contract through the 2027-28 season.

Sharon became the company’s artistic director in 2020 through an appointment made possible by a generous gift from Gary L. Wasserman.

The contract extension sets the stage for a new way for Detroit Opera to undertake artistic planning, with three seasons dedicated to individual centerpieces. The three focuses are America (2025-26), Faith (2026-27), and Sustainability (2027-28) and that will not only shape the repertoire of those seasons, but they will act as organizing principles for all of Detroit Opera’s activities.

In a statement, Yuval Sharon said, “Since I came to Detroit Opera in 2020, we have explored the environment of Detroit by staging operas in parking garages, at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, at the Gem Theatre, and more. Now, we would like to explore things that really matter to this community, by bringing the energy and originality of some of the site-specific pieces into the Detroit Opera House. Rather than working backwards from conventional repertoire to identify a common theme, we are starting from the focus and imagining an entire season’s activities around it. The specific topics were chosen for how they will intersect with the Detroit community: exploring what it means to be an American now, in the past, and what that could look like in the future; how we grapple with faith and how our places of worship, our city, and even the opera house can lead to deep, lasting, and meaningful change; and how the consequences of climate change may affect artistic expression moving forward—and vice versa. But beyond our operatic explorations of each theme, the work is going to take place backstage, within our company, and offstage, within the city. I’m looking forward to working together with our staff and community partners to create a sustained relationship with people of Detroit who are also concerned about these issues.”

In the years since Sharon became artistic director, Detroit Opera has expanded on its nationally recognized history of fairness, belonging, and representation by bringing more diverse voices. The company has presented Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s “Blue,” Matthew Ozawa’s
new co-production of “Madame Butterfly,” and “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.” Sharon earned a MacArthur Fellowship, a Foundation for Contemporary Art grant for theatre, and was named Musical America’s 2023 Director of the Year.