Tristan und Isolde is a tough opera to stage. Director Yuval Sharon did it anyway

“It’s something I wrote before I got the job, and it’s part of why I took the job,” says Sharon, author of 2024’s A New Philosophy of Opera. “Because I knew it was the hardest, and I love impossible challenges.”

Peter Gelb, general manager of the New York-based Met, has admired Sharon’s work “since he was an enfant terrible” known for innovative productions in Los Angeles and Detroit.

“I think it was inevitable … that he would end up eventually at the Met,” Gelb says. “It was just a matter of finding the right project. It’s finally landed in this production.”

Anticipation among opera lovers has run so high – in part because the great Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen is cast as Isolde – that most of the seven scheduled performances sold out the 3,800-seat house even before the March 9 opening. In a rare move, the Met announced it was adding an eighth performance at the end of the run.