Bringing Innovation to the Opera

How did you become interested in opera?

As a young child, I was a film fanatic and was exposed to classic film scores by great composers like John Williams (ET, Jaws, Schindler's list) and Bernard Hermann (Taxi Driver, Vertigo, Psycho). Years later I realized that those film scores are based on operatic principals: they tell a story through music, visuals, design, and acting. At age 12, I discovered a movie by one of my favorite directors, Ingmar Bergman, "The Magic Flute," which is based on Mozart's great opera. It blew my mind. That sparked my interest, and I began obsessively listening to operas, reading about them, and studying music.

When did your interest take a professional turn?

After serving as a medic in the Israeli Defense Forces, I was accepted to medical school. To support myself, I worked in every possible role in the Israeli opera: an usher, a stage manager, a stagehand, a costume assistant. This is when I fully realized that my actual destiny was to be an opera director and not a trauma surgeon.

I decided to pursue my dream and shifted my focus from the medical world to the stage and studied music and theatre. I never regretted that choice.

You recently gave a TedX Talk about bringing innovation to the opera house. What inspired this topic?

When I started at The Atlanta Opera, I realized that if we remained stagnant, we were going to die. Putting on something like a tango opera in a nightclub brings in people who would never attend a traditional show. The world is changing so rapidly that you can't just continue with business as usual or you'll eventually fail.

This idea of reinvention was further cemented for me at PLD. In the program, we examined case studies of companies that failed to innovate and found themselves out of business. In my talk, I use examples like Sears, PalmPilot, and Blockbuster. Innovation is key to any business, and it applies to the opera as well.

Why did you decide to apply to PLD?

I was forced to! I have a very important supporter in Atlanta who said he'd like me to attend Harvard Business School (HBS). I didn't know anything about it, and to be honest, I wasn't interested, but he convinced me to go—and I thank him every day for it.

When I first arrived at The Atlanta Opera, my strength was as a passionate artist, educator, and fundraiser. I had very little experience in finance, strategy, or management. Attending PLD is the single-most important thing I’ve done in the past six years. It absolutely changed my life.

Was there anything you learned at PLD that proved especially valuable?

I had ideas and vision for The Atlanta Opera, but I didn't have the business terminology and frameworks I needed to execute on them until I attended HBS. I remember sitting in classes and coming up with a bunch of ideas and emailing them to my team right in the middle of lectures—to the dismay of my professors!

What's up next for The Atlanta Opera?

Our biggest change is the product we put on stage. Our Discovery Series puts on chamber operas in unique environments all over the city—each focusing on a different genre, from jazz to blues to mariachi. Performing shows outside the classic repertoire enables us to bring important conversations to the forefront. Whether they're about veterans, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, or racism, they're topics that aren't covered in more traditional productions. We're also commissioning a lot of new pieces, including an opera about artificial intelligence. For that one, we’re collaborating with Georgia Tech and the Prototype Festival, a big opera and musical theater festival in New York City.

If you could give one piece of advice to other leaders in the arts, what would it be?

It's really important to be able to communicate your vision. If you're not able to take your ideas and communicate them to different people, you'll get stuck. At PLD, I learned to share my vision with singers, conductors, and designers, as well as business and finance people, managers, politicians, professors, innovators, entrepreneurs, and donors.

What do you think opera will look (and sound) like 20 years from now?

I don't know exactly what opera will look like, but I know it's not going to be the same. People will want a more immersive experience, with interactivity and technology, or an unusual environment, like a planetarium, botanical garden, zoo, or house. So while I don’t know what the future may bring, in my opinion, it looks pretty bright.