All eyes have been on Detroit in recent years, where Yuval Sharon’s much-profiled tenure at the rebranded Detroit Opera has turned into a case study for new models of opera’s cultural relevance in regional America. News outlets and commentators have been generous in covering his stewardship, highlighting Sharon’s audaciously modern programming and unorthodox concepts—not to mention the audience’s generally positive response—as encouraging proof that opera can find fresh vitality even in its fourth century. There is the sense that much of the country is rooting for Sharon; to see him and the company succeed without reliance on the stability of the canon would be a serious win in the fight for curatorial equity and aesthetic diversity in the country’s big-name houses. When talking about the Detroit/Sharon wager, the phrase “the future of opera” is never far away.
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