top of page

Biography

Named as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Innovators in Classical Music, Josh Shaw is the Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Pacific Opera Project (POP), which has been described as "L.A.'s most exciting new opera company." Over the past twelve seasons, Shaw has directed over 50 productions at POP, including The Rake’s Progress, Ariadne auf Naxos, La Calisto, Tosca: A Moving Production; and La Boheme: AKA “The Hipsters”.  A frequent librettist for English updates, his Star Trek inspired Abduction from the Seraglio and Nintendo inspired Magic Flute AKA #SuperFlute have gained national attention and have been produced at multiple companies, shattering attendance records.

 

Since turning his attention to directing in 2011, Shaw has directed over 100 productions at companies including Opera Santa Barbara, New Orleans Opera, Opera Orlando, Festival Opera, Gulfshore Opera, Intermountain Opera, Salt Marsh Opera, Opera Neo, and Opera in the Heights. His Barber of Seville at Opera Santa Barbara was described as "riotously funny" and "thoroughly amusing from overture to final bow." His work as a director has been described as "brave and unflinching," "ingenious," "relentlessly and adorably rambunctious," and "with enough good comic ideas for at least three productions." As a producer, Shaw has been praised for his "supreme savvy" and "high level of production quality" with "the power to enthrall and captivate audiences."

 

Recent projects include a new English adaptation of Die Fledermaus at Gulfshore Opera, a ground-breaking production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta starring “The Blind Soprano” Cristina Jones, and the US Premiere of Vivaldi's Ercole su'l Termodonte. One of the busiest directors during Covid, Shaw directed more than a dozen productions during the pandemic including US staged premieres of Gluck’s La Corona and Il Parnaso Confuso, a drive-in Don Pasquale for Opera Santa Barbara, and an updated Cosi– “Covid fan tutte” set in 2020. Other recent projects include productions of Don Giovanni, La Gazzetta (Rossini), La Traviata, Guillaume Tell, The Mikado, and Tabasco: A Burlesque Opera, a newly rediscovered operetta by G. W. Chadwick, last performed in 1894, which was described as "delightful, packed with humor, and a feast for all the senses" by The New Orleans Advocate. In addition to directing the production, Shaw also wrote a new book and additional lyrics for the project that celebrated the McIlhenney Company’s 150th anniversary. 

 

Beyond the rewrite of Tabasco, Shaw has written several English version libretti including a Wild West setting of Die Lustige Witwe, a contemporary setting of Die Schauspieldirektor, a production of Die Zauberflöte set in the world of 1990s video games, Covid fan tutte, a Star Trek inspired Abduction from the Seraglio, a 1930s Hollywood Fledermaus, and a groundbreaking production of Madama Butterfly sung in Japanese and English, a co-production of POP and Opera in Heights (Houston).

 

This season, Shaw directs Into the Woods for Intermountain Opera, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Don Giovanni at Gulfshore Opera,  La Rondine at The Southern Illinois Music Festival, The Pirates of Penzance at POPFalstaff at Salt Marsh Opera, and Tosca at Opera Orlando.

Pacific Opera Project

Josh Shaw is the Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Pacific Opera Project and has designed and directed over fifty productions for the Los Angeles based company. Find out more about POP here.

​

"LA Opera should take note of Pacific Opera Project. The upstart company’s edgy productions explode popular perceptions of what opera is and how it should be performed. Pacific Opera Project takes this typically elite art form and strips it down to its barest essentials: stunning music and simple, enjoyable stories." - Barnaby Hughes, Stage and Cinema

bio
ercole-1486.jpg

"The hero...  is director Josh Shaw, who has been surprising us with his neverending creativity and originality since 2011.

- Stage and CInema

Press Kit

For Josh's full list of shows directed and designed, click here.

res
bottom of page