The Industry positions itself as “an independent, artist-driven company creating experimental productions that expand the definition of opera.” Like the sand mandalas of Tibetan Buddhists, their shows are assembled with endless patience, skill, and care, only to vanish in the twinkling of an eye. There are always too few performances of an Industry show and too few tickets. So far, there have been no revivals, and documentation, if any, falls way short of the live experience. With Sweet Land, once again, we hurtle headlong into the unknown. The creative team consists of two composers, two librettists, two directors, and one designer representing among them the perspectives and life experiences of a Chinese immigrant, three Native Americans, an African American, and Yuval Sharon, the white but woke MacArthur Fellow who founded The Industry and remains its guiding light. We’re promised “a grotesque historical pageant that disrupts the dominant narrative of American identity,” performed on the hoof in the 32-acre LA State Historic Park and “erasing itself” as it goes. —M.G.