New faces, new ambitions as opera houses reopen

As opera houses around the country warily resume indoor performances, two of the biggest are ushering in new leadership — along with a heightened commitment to building new audiences

SAN FRANCISCO -- As opera houses around the country warily resume indoor performances, two of the biggest are ushering in new leadership — along with a heightened commitment to building new audiences. In San Francisco, Korean-born Eun Sun Kim becomes the company’s first female music director and first Asian. Nearly 2,000 miles to the east, Enrique Mazzola is taking up the reins as only the third music director in the history of Chicago’s Lyric Opera. The nation’s largest company, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, will have a relative veteran on the podium when its season opens Sept. 27: Yannick Nezet-Seguin has been in charge since 2018-19. But the changes at these and other houses go beyond personnel. As Marc Scorca, president and CEO of Opera America, sees it, there’s a greater determination to bring in new, more diverse audiences and to champion new works.