( Photo by Steve Gunther )

DirectorAs project director of New York City Opera’s VOX series, in which scenes from new and sometimes experimental operas receive workshop-style tryouts, the young director Yuval Sharon discovered plenty about the potential of new opera in America. As assistant director to German artist Achim Freyer on Los Angeles Opera’s “Ring” cycle, Sharon discovered plenty about the L.A. opera and art scene, enough to persuade him to settle here.

As the excitingly quirky director of Veronika Krausas’ “The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth,” in a run-down old dance hall the summer of 2010, Sharon discovered that what this city needs is an experimental opera company that takes advantage of the wide range of local artists. He has now founded just such a company, the Industry, and he will direct its first production, “Crescent City,” by California Institute of the Arts composer Anne LeBaron and poet Douglas Kearney, at Atwater Crossing on May 10, with performances running through the 27th.

Sharon will also direct the most curious iconic three-soprano cast maybe ever when he takes on excerpts from John Cage’s theatrical “Song Books,” with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas in March, with Meredith Monk, Joan LaBarbara and opera star Jessye Norman.

–Mark Swed