Berlin Family Lectures 2025: May 6, 13, and 20
Picking up on a line from his new book, A New Philosophy of Opera (2024), director Yuval Sharon explores the question under his theme of "Anarchy at the Opera": Is opera a standard bearer or a pall bearer for the status quo?
Anarchy, as a much-maligned political ideology, offers a provocative and generative way to consider an evolution for the art form of opera as a critique of the status quo. These lectures explore both historic experiments in non-hierarchical creation—John Cage’s Europeras and the history of improvisation in opera—as well as Sharon’s own practical experiences with “anarchic” opera (the George E. Lewis and Monteverdi mash-up of Comet/Poppea and the multi-perspectival Sweet Land, both produced by The Industry). He looks at the institution of producing opera to consider if there are other forms of production that can make opera a more dynamic and revolutionary presence in our culture.
The final lecture will conclude with a rare live performance of John Cage’s Europera 5, directed by Sharon, as a demonstration of the ideas explored in his talks.
Lecture 1: "Opera’s Joyous Anarchy"
May 6, 2025, 6 to 7:30 p.m. CDT
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Lecture 2: "Anarchic Improvisation"
May 13, 2025, 6 to 7:30 p.m. CDT
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Lecture 3: “Blow Up The Opera Houses” and Performance: John Cage’s Europera 5
May 20, 2025, 6 to 8:30 p.m. CDT
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
About Yuval Sharon
Yuval Sharon is an innovative director of opera with a vision for transforming opera from its status quo into an imaginative, non-elite form of art. He upends tradition by setting operas in non-spaces such as parking lots, amplifying the human voices, and sometimes performing classic operas in reverse order. Sharon is founder and co-Artistic Director of The Industry in Los Angeles and the Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director of the Detroit Opera.
Among his many honors, Sharon received the 2014 Götz Friedrich Prize in Germany for his production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, a MacArthur Fellowship in 2017, and Musical America's Director of the Year in 2023. He has been a Global Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Neubauer Collegium since 2023. Sharon has successfully defied expectations and expanded the horizons of opera in performances like Christopher Cerrone’s Invisible Cities, set in Union Station of Los Angeles; Hopscotch, an opera staged in 24 moving vehicles; and The Comet/Poppea, where a constantly rotating stage juxtaposed simultaneous performances of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and a new opera adaptation of W.E.B. DuBois’s The Comet by George Lewis and Douglas Kearney. He was the first American to direct at Richard Wagner's Bayreuth Festival with a production of Lohengrin in 2018.
As he wrote in his first book, A New Philosophy of Opera (2024), “Let’s start thinking of opera as evolutionary rather than decaying. Let’s consider the experience of going to the opera as a way of thinking and feeling that will benefit us outside the theater. Let’s start viewing opera as an engine for empathy and awe, and decide to attend a performance with an explorer’s mindset. That means opening ourselves up to the unfamiliar. What would happen if we approached opera on those terms, actively developing our curiosity about things we can’t fathom but long to know?”
About the Berlin Family
Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin are Chicago philanthropists and longtime supporters of the University of Chicago. Randy Lamm Berlin, AM’77, is a former lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and a member and past chairperson of the Division of the Humanities Council. Melvin R. Berlin (March 23, 1929–July 26, 2019) was Chairman Emeritus and founder of Berlin Packaging, LLC. The Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin Family Lectures are named in honor of their gift to the Division of the Humanities.