Since its founding in 2010, The Industry has premiered critically acclaimed, site-responsive productions steeped in interdisciplinarity, taking up the medium of opera as a historic platform to bring together artists from different contexts while radically expanding the art form itself. These have included such projects as Invisible Cities (2013), Hopscotch (2015), War of the Worlds (2017), Sweet Land (2020), Hive Rise (2021), Star Choir (2023), and The Comet/Poppea (2024). We also present smaller-scale yet ambitious programs. These include LAB, a hybrid workshop/residency and performance that supports emerging artists and experiments in opera; and Listening Parties, an ongoing series of public programs at venues throughout the city, featuring artists as they present live and recorded work, discussing their inspirations in different models of opera. Our record label and films further extend the reach of all these activities.

Determined to make opera as expansive as possible, The Industry’s operational framework runs counter to those of larger-scale organizations. We untether art forms from institutions and architecture, enabling artists to determine their projects’ scale, site, and context. With a small infrastructure, we commission artists who challenge conventional modalities and silos, moving opera out of the proscenium format and into the community. Our goal is to show opera as a living form that builds upon—but is not bound to reproduce—traditional stories and canons, bringing new artists and audiences to the recast art form.