Stage Director

Set Designer

Pacific Opera Project presents Fra Diavolo, Daniel Auber’s lively comic opera. This rarely performed gem is a rollicking adventure full of disguises, deception, and delightful melodies. Little known today, but a  favorite of 19th-century audiences, Fra Diavolo bridges the world of grand opera and the lighthearted charm of French operetta, foreshadowing the witty, fast-paced works of Offenbach. With a swashbuckling score, colorful characters, and plenty of mischief, this production brings Auber’s masterpiece to life in a fresh, accessible staging.

EPSG:4326

Fra Diavolo

Highland Park Ebell Club

POP opens our 15th Anniversary Season with an immersive production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, under the stars and overlooked by gorgeous Victorian houses at Heritage Square Museum. One of the most iconic operas of all time, Pagliacci is best known for the haunting aria “Vesti la giubba” and its unforgettable main character, Canio—the clown who must perform while his world falls apart. Set in a worn-down traveling circus, Pagliacci explores themes of jealousy, betrayal, and the blurry line between stage and reality. In classic POP fashion, this production places the audience in the middle of the drama during the opera’s famous “play-within-a-play.”

Pagliacci

Heritage Square Museum

### Event Description: H.M.S. Pinafore by Pacific Opera Project

#### Event Overview:
Join the Pacific Opera Project for a delightful evening of music and comedy with their grand production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore." This beloved operetta, known for its witty dialogue and charming melodies, tells a comedic tale of love and hijinks on the high seas.

#### Event Details:
- **Dates and Times:**
  - Friday, June 13, 2025, at 7:30 PM
  - Saturday, June 14, 2025, at 7:30 PM
  - Sunday, June 15, 2025, at 7:30 PM
  - Friday, June 20, 2025, at 7:30 PM
  - Saturday, June 21, 2025, at 7:30 PM
  - Sunday, June 22, 2025, at 7:30 PM

- **Location:**
  - Heritage Square Museum Lawn
  - 3800 Homer Street, Los Angeles, CA 90031

#### Special Features:
- **Setting:** The performance will take place in the picturesque Victorian village at Heritage Square Museum, providing a unique and immersive backdrop for the show.
- **Seating:** Enjoy table seating with the option to bring your own picnic and wine, making for a relaxed and enjoyable evening under the stars.
- **Collaboration:** This production is a co-production with Opera Las Vegas, where it will premiere on June 6 & 8 before traveling to Los Angeles.
- **Creative Team:** The show will be conducted by Opera Las Vegas Music Director, Josh Horsch, and directed by Josh Shaw, ensuring a lively and engaging performance.

#### Tickets:
Tickets for this enchanting outdoor production are available now. Don't miss the chance to experience "H.M.S. Pinafore" in a setting that perfectly complements its whimsical charm.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit the Pacific Opera Project's website.

H.M.S. Pinafore

Set aboard the British ship HMS Pinafore, this delightful operetta tells the tale of Ralph Rackstraw, a lowly sailor, who falls in love with the captain's daughter, Josephine. Despite the social divide, Ralph's determined pursuit of Josephine's heart faces obstacles from her father, Captain Corcoran, who has other matrimonial plans for her involving the pompous Sir Joseph Porter. With a cast of colorful characters, charming songs, and a series of surprising revelations, this witty and satirical story navigates themes of love, duty, and social class, ultimately leading to a joyous and unexpected resolution where love conquers all.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

A girl raised on the battlefield by a rowdy French Regiment falls in love with an enemy peasant boy, in the ultimate bel canto romantic comedy full of melodies and vocal fireworks. Starring Jana McIntyre, and directed by Pacific Opera Project’s irrepressible Josh Shaw.

The Daughter of the Regiment

Lobero Theatre

Opera Santa Barbara presents an enchanting evening with "The Daughter of the Regiment," a romantic comedy opera by Gaetano Donizetti. This captivating performance will take place at the Lobero Theatre, renowned for its architectural beauty as highlighted by Architectural Digest. The opera is scheduled for Friday, May 2, 2025, at 7:30 PM and Sunday, May 4, 2025, at 2:30 PM.

"The Daughter of the Regiment" tells the heartwarming story of a young girl raised by a French regiment who falls in love with a peasant boy from an enemy camp. This bel canto masterpiece is celebrated for its beautiful melodies and vocal fireworks, promising an unforgettable experience. The production stars the talented Jana McIntyre and is directed by the irrepressible Josh Shaw from the Pacific Opera Project.

Performed in French with English translations projected above the stage, the opera runs for approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, including an intermission. This event is a perfect blend of humor, romance, and exquisite music, making it a must-see for opera enthusiasts and newcomers alike.

Ticket Information:
- Premium Aisle Seating: $169
- Premium Center Seating: $139
- Section A: $99
- Section B: $29 (Prices increase to $39 after May 31st)
Ticket prices include a per-ticket Lobero Facility Fee. Other fees may also apply. Season packages and single seats are available for purchase, offering various seating options to accommodate all preferences.

This event is proudly presented by Opera Santa Barbara, contributing to the rich cultural tapestry of the area. Don't miss the opportunity to experience this romantic comedy opera in one of the most beautiful theaters in the world. For tickets and more information, visit the Lobero Theatre's official website.

Originally set in the charming ambiance of 19th century Spain, we are re-imaging this iconic comedy in current-day Hollywood, where pop princess Rosina is fresh out of rehab after a messy breakup and public meltdown. She’s moved in with her overbearing producer and manager, Dr. Bartolo, who has more than her career on his mind. With the assistance of aging rock legend, turned celebrity voice coach, Don Basilio, Bartolo hopes to marry the young Rosina. However, Hollywood heartthrob Count Almaviva also has his eye on Rosina but wants to win her heart the old-fashioned way, not because of his fame, so he disguises himself as a humble student to approach her. Figaro, a stylist to the stars, and a man-about-town is on the scene to aid with the love connection. A host of personal assistants, housekeepers, out-of-work actors, and even the LAPD show up in this laugh-a-minute comedy.

This production will be sung in Italian with English supertitles and accompanied by a live orchestra featuring members of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Christopher Bozeka's appearance generously Sponsored by Linda Berry.

The Barber of Seville

College of Southern Nevada North Las Vegas Campus

### Event Description: La Scuola de' Gelosi

**Event:** La Scuola de' Gelosi by Antonio Salieri  
**Dates:** January 10-19, 2025  
**Venue:** The Highland Park Ebell Club, 131 S Avenue 57, Los Angeles, CA 90042

**Performance Schedule:**
- **Friday, January 10, 2025:** 7:30 PM
- **Saturday, January 11, 2025:** 7:30 PM
- **Sunday, January 12, 2025:** 3:00 PM
- **Friday, January 17, 2025:** 7:30 PM
- **Saturday, January 18, 2025:** 3:00 PM
- **Sunday, January 19, 2025:** 3:00 PM

**Event Details:**
Pacific Opera Project (POP) kicks off the new year with the US premiere of Antonio Salieri’s "La scuola de' gelosi." This colorful period production is a comedy of errors featuring some of Salieri’s best music, with a plot that mirrors Mozart’s "Così fan tutte." The performance will be presented on the elaborate proscenium set originally built for POP’s 2023 production of "Ercole su'l Termodonte."

**Special Features:**
- Table seating
- Food and wine available

**Creative Team:**
- **Conductor:** Kyle Naig (leading from the harpsichord)
- **Director:** Josh Shaw

Join us for an evening of delightful music and comedy in a unique and immersive setting. Don't miss this rare opportunity to experience Salieri's work in a vibrant and engaging production.

La scuola de' gelosi

### Event Description: Don Bucefalo by Antonio Cagnoni

#### Event Overview:
Pacific Opera Project (POP) proudly presents Antonio Cagnoni’s "Don Bucefalo," a delightful slapstick comedy opera, performed for the first time in the United States since 1867. This unique production will be staged at The Garibaldina, the oldest Italian society in America, located at 4533 N Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90065.

#### Performance Dates and Times:
- **Saturday, November 2, 2024** at 7:30 PM
- **Sunday, November 3, 2024** at 3:00 PM
- **Friday, November 8, 2024** at 7:30 PM
- **Saturday, November 9, 2024** at 7:30 PM
- **Sunday, November 10, 2024** at 3:00 PM

#### Venue:
**The Garibaldina**
4533 N Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90065

#### Production Highlights:
- **Conductor:** Kyle Naig, a POP favorite, returns to lead the orchestra.
- **Director:** Josh Shaw, known for his innovative and engaging productions.
- **Setting:** The action is set in the late 1960s, during The Garibaldina's heyday, adding a retro flair to the performance.
- **Seating Options:** The event offers both table and general seating.
- **Dining Experience:** An optional Italian dinner add-on is available, featuring pasta, salad, and wine.

#### Additional Information:
The Garibaldina Society, one of LA’s hottest retro spots, has been profiled multiple times in the LA Times, making it a perfect venue for this historic and entertaining opera.

#### Tickets:
Tickets are available for purchase. Don't miss this rare opportunity to experience "Don Bucefalo" in a setting that enhances its comedic and musical charm.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit the Pacific Opera Project's official website.

Don Bucefalo

Garibaldina MB Society

### Event Description: Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák

#### Dates and Times:
- **Friday, July 12, 2024** at 7:30 PM
- **Saturday, July 13, 2024** at 7:30 PM
- **Sunday, July 14, 2024** at 7:30 PM
- **Friday, July 19, 2024** at 7:30 PM
- **Saturday, July 20, 2024** at 7:30 PM
- **Sunday, July 21, 2024** at 7:30 PM

#### Venue:
- **Descanso Gardens**
  - **Address:** 1418 Descanso Dr, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011

#### Event Overview:
The Pacific Opera Project proudly presents the Los Angeles premiere of Antonín Dvořák's "Rusalka," a fairy tale opera inspired by the story of The Little Mermaid. This enchanting production will be performed under the oaks at the beautiful Descanso Gardens, one of LA’s premier outdoor venues. The opera will be sung in English, featuring a new translation by Josh Shaw and Grant Preisser.

#### Creative Team:
- **Director:** Josh Shaw
- **Conductor:** Alexandra Enyart

#### Cast:
- **Rusalka:** Rachel Blaustein
- **The Prince:** Derrek Stark
- **Vodnik:** Steve Pence
- **Jezibaba:** Erin Alford
- **Foreign Princess:** Claire Pegram
- **Nymph 1:** Emily Gallagher
- **Nymph 2:** Tiffany Ho
- **Nymph 3:** Christine Li
- **Kitchen Boy:** Sunwoo Park
- **Hunter 2:** José Maldonado

#### Covers:
- **Jezibaba Cover:** Jessica Gonzalez-Rodriguez
- **Rusalka Cover:** Rachel Reich Freed

Join us for an unforgettable evening of music and magic as we bring this timeless tale to life in a stunning outdoor setting. Secure your tickets now and be part of this extraordinary event!

Rusalka

Descanso Gardens

A Hungarian countess, a Russian prince, a magically attractive watch, and a bat costume make for a strange recipe of plot in any setting, except perhaps in a time not that long ago when anything was possible... the Golden Age of Hollywood! A time when an actress has access to a Hungarian Princess costume, a maid is an aspiring chorus girl, a mysterious Russian playboy comes to town to throw around some money, and a matinee idol with panache for the ladies is in a little hot water with the local police.

Die Fledermaus

Occidental College

Hailed as “a dream come true” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), a “perfect … jewel” (Opera Today) and a “buoyant show with a deeply serious core” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Derrick Wang’s comedic “opinion” causes no “dissents”! Put this Alaska premiere production on your entire family’s “docket”. Inspired by the late justices’ own words and by the “operatic precedent” of Händel, Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Verdi, Offenbach, Bizet, Sullivan, Puccini, Strauss, et al. A delightful look at the notorious RBG, and her fierce judicial opponent Antonin Scalia, through the lens of their great friendship, setting forth the case…”We are different. We are one.”

Scalia/Ginsburg

Alaska Center for the Performing Arts

Premiered in Barcelona in 1948, and rarely performed, this age-old children’s story tells of the wealth-seeking, match-making cat who, in return for a hat, a sword and a pair of boots, secures for his young master (a lowly miller) a kingdom and a royal marriage to a princess, tricking a slow-witted ogre out of his castle along the way.

From its opening Montsalvatge’s music is energetic, tuneful and full of catchy rhythms, lush melodies and feline musical effects!

El Gato con Botas

Center Stage Theatre

Wang's Scalia/Ginsburg! Hailed as “a dream come true” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), a “perfect…jewel” (Opera Today), and “the kind of opera that should be everywhere” (OperaWire), Scalia/Ginsburg is a one-act operatic comedy about the unlikely friendship between U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia — and the pivotal moment that would change the Supreme Court for years to come. This juristic double bill will also feature Gilbert & Sullivan’s one act gem, Trial by Jury. Artistic Director Josh Shaw’s and Kelsey N. Johnson's new libretto updates the setting from 1880s England to a 1980s divorce court.

Scalia/Ginsburg & Trial by Jury

Opera Orlando presents Puccini’s tragically grand Tosca to kick off its 2023-24 All for Art MainStage series. As war and rebellion ravage the city of Rome, the celebrated and passionate opera diva Floria Tosca finds herself caught in a web of religious and political intrigue, betrayal, and jealousy as she tries to save her lover the painter and firebrand Mario Cavadorossi, while being coveted by the villainous and corrupt Baron Scarpia, who holds all the power. It is an utterly untenable situation that proves dire for all involved, but Tosca isn’t one to back down from a fight.

TOSCA

Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Tosca

Set in current-day Hollywood, pop princess Rosina is fresh out of rehab after a messy breakup and public meltdown. She’s moved in with her overbearing producer and manager, Dr. Bartolo, who has more than her career on his mind. With the assistance of aging rock legend, turned celebrity voice coach, Don Basilio, Bartolo hopes to marry the young Rosina. However, Hollywood heartthrob Count Almaviva also has his eye on Rosina but wants to win her heart the old-fashioned way, not because of his fame, so he disguises himself as a humble student to approach her. Figaro, a stylist to the stars, and a man-about-town is on the scene to aid with the love connection. A host of personal assistants, housekeepers, out-of-work actors, and even the LAPD show up in this laugh-a-minute comedy.

The production is sung in Italian with English supertitles and an orchestra.

The John Anson Ford Theatre

Set in current-day Hollywood, pop princess Rosina is fresh out of rehab after a messy breakup and public meltdown. She’s moved in with her overbearing producer and manager, Dr. Bartolo, who has more than her career on his mind. With the assistance of aging rock legend, turned celebrity voice coach, Don Basilio, Bartolo hopes to marry the young Rosina. However, Hollywood heartthrob Count Almaviva also has his eye on Rosina but wants to win her heart the old-fashioned way, not because of his fame, so he disguises himself as a humble student to approach her. Figaro, a stylist to the stars, and a man-about-town is on the scene to aid with the love connection. A host of personal assistants, housekeepers, out-of-work actors, and even the LAPD show up in this laugh-a-minute comedy.This production is sung in Italian with English supertitles and accompanied by a live orchestra.

MMF Orchestra At Buena Vista Winery

Buena Vista Winery

MMF Orchestra At St. Marks Lutheran Church, San Francisco

St. Mark's Lutheran Church, San Francisco

MMF Orchestra At Mountain Winery

Mountain Winery

POP brings back its 2019 season-opening tour-de-force production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute AKA #Superflute, set in classic video games from the early 1990s. The “super” production transports Papageno, Tamino, and the gang to the land of video games resembling Mario Bros. and Zelda with a new English libretto by Artistic Director Josh Shaw and E. Scott Levin. Opera Magazine wrote that the new production "could bring in a new generation of opera-goers” and Opera Today raved “Pacific Opera Project’s rollicking new take on The Magic Flute is as much endearing fun as a box full of puppies. And as ingenious Artistic Director Josh Shaw has reimagined the piece (marketed as #Superflute), the staging is also just about as relentlessly and adorably rambunctious, all the while proving to be commendably musically refined… I loved it. I think Mozart would have loved it. If not, to hell with him!”

The Magic Flute AKA #Superflute

El Portal Theater

POP presents the U.S. premiere production of a rare Vivaldi opera based on the ninth Labor of Hercules, where Hercules is tasked with capturing the sword of Antiope, the queen of the Amazons. Recently rediscovered hiding in libraries in Münster, Paris, and Turino, Ercole su’l Termodonte is Vivaldi’s 16th opera, written in 1723 and premiered in Rome, during the Pope’s ban on women in opera. The original cast featured seven castrati (many en travesti) and one tenor. POP will employ a mix of countertenors, mezzos, tenors, and sopranos performing these roles with a period orchestra. The Ebell Club will be transformed into a baroque opera house, complete with box seating. This is not just an opera, but an experience not to be missed.

Ercole su’l Termodonte

The Highland Park Ebell Club

Every night beautiful Giulia lowers a silk ladder from her window for her lover to climb to her bedroom.  A series of misunderstandings turns their little love nest into a circus of relatives, suitors, and servants plotting, eavesdropping, and ultimately happily reconciling, in a blast of Rossini’s glorious vocal acrobatics.

La Scala di Seta

A reprisal of our 2017 smash hit production, set in the 1950s, L’elisir d’amore will be sung in Italian with supertitles sourced from classic 1950s song lyrics, and set in a diner, a la Happy Days or Grease. Of the production, Stage and Cinema wrote, “It’s a shame that we don’t see this type of acting in big opera productions. This astoundingly enjoyable production easily proves why Donizetti’s opera was one of the most frequently performed of its time. This fab outing will not only cement its reputation among devotees, but will gain new admirers. This is a nifty way to introduce opera to the cats in your life” and LOL-LA raved, “Once again Josh Shaw… has a huge hit on his hands, this time set in the world of 1950s Americana.”

L'elisir d'amore

POP returns to the 800-seat Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo for a very special production of Tchaikovsky’s fairytale opera, Iolanta. Cristina Jones, AKA “The Blind Soprano”, stars in the opera’s title role about a princess who is unaware that she is blind. The cast also includes POP favorites Andrew and Megan Potter as King René and Martha and Adam Cioffari as Ibn-Hakia. POP will partner with low-sight organizations for this production to encourage awareness and to amplify their efforts. Special arrangements will also be made for low-sighted audience members, including braille programs. Iolanta will be POP’s first opera presented in Russian and will feature a 32-piece orchestra conducted by Isaac Selya.

Stage Director, Set Designer

Josh Shaw

Events

Past events

7 - 16 Nov, 2025

Fra Diavolo · Pacific Opera Project

5 - 14 Sep, 2025

Pagliacci · Pacific Opera Project

About

Josh Shaw hasn't added a bio