
Production Gallery
Original Productions
Abduction from the Seraglio | Ariadne auf Naxos | Il barbiere di Siviglia | La bohème | La bohème AKA: "The Hipsters" | La Calisto | Camelot | Carmen | La Cenerentola | Cosi fan tutte | COVID fan tutte | Doctor Miracle | Don Giovanni | Don Procopio | L'elisir d'amore | L'enfant et les sortilèges | Ercole su'l Termodonte | Falstaff | Die Fledermaus | La gazzetta | Gianni Schicchi | Guillaume Tell | The Impresario | Into the Woods | Lucia di Lammermoor | Madama Butterfly 蝶々夫人 | The Magic Flute AKA #SuperFlute | The Merry Widow | The Mikado | Le nozze di Figaro | I Pagliacci | The Pirates of Penzance | Prima la musica | La scala di seta | Sweeney Todd | Tabasco: A Burlesque Opera | Tosca | La traviata | Trial by Jury | Trouble in Tahiti | Turn of the Screw | Viva la mamma!
Abduction from the Seraglio
Pacific Opera Project, Southern Illinois Music Festival, Alamo City Opera, Opera Orlando, Salt Marsh Opera, Festival Opera
Premiered 2014
Set in an episode of Star Trek, this production features an original English libretto by Josh Shaw that stays " true to spirit of the Mozart’s music but with fun and fantastic twists that had the audience laughing" (The Geek Authority).




Il barbiere di Siviglia
Opera Santa Barbara
Premiered 2018
"Shaw’s knack for dramatic and comedic timing...shone, elevating the production as a whole. This was noticeable both on and above the stage, where many of Shaw’s clever supertitles drew hearty laughs from the audience... Shaw began the evening subtly and ramped up the zaniness as the opera progressed. By the final scene, the audience was comfortable with (and thoroughly enjoying) the director’s increasingly absurd choreography" (Opera News)




Madama Butterfly 蝶々夫 人
Pacific Opera Project & Opera in the Heights (Houston)
Premiered 2019
Written by Josh Shaw and Eiki Isomura, this adaptation of Butterfly is sung in English and in Japanese, as if the story really happened. All Japanese characters sing only in Japanese and all American characters sing in English. Goro and Sharpless sing in both languages. This production should be done with Japanese or Japanese-American singers in appropriate roles.




The Magic Flute AKA #SuperFlute
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2018
This "super" production is set in the worlds of early 1980s video games. Co-librettist E. Scott Levin.




La bohème
Gulf Shore Opera
Premiered 2021




Carmen
Ford Theater
Premiered 2018




Ariadne auf Naxos
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2015




Into the Woods
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2022
" Shaw maintained both dramatic momentum and constantly devised attractive stage pictures." (Opera News)




The Mikado
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2013
"Gaudy, flashy and with eye-popping colors, the over-the-top visuals of POP's The Mikado are the Technicolor herald of a new cultural gun in town... Josh Shaw and Musical Director Stephen Karr have achieved something important: Creating accessible opera, updated in often surprising ways, that does not cost much more than the price of a movie ticket." (LA Culture Spot)




Lucia di Lammermoor
Forest Lawn Glendale
Premiered 2017




Tabasco: A Burlesque Opera
New Orleans Opera
Premiered 2018
Tabasco: A Burlesque Opera, a newly rediscovered operetta by G. W. Chadwick, last performed in 1894, was described as "delightful, packed with humor, and a feast for all the senses" by The New Orleans Advocate.




La gazzetta
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2018




Così fan tutte
Opera Neo
Premiered 2017




Gianni Schicchi/L'enfant et les sortilèges
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2020




I Pagliacci
Salt Marsh Opera
Premiered 2019




Don Giovanni
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2011




La Cenerentola
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2021




Guillaume Tell
Southern Illinois Music Festival
Premiered 2016




Camelot
Intermountain Opera Bozeman
Premiered 2019




Don Procopio
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2021




Viva la mamma!
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2015




Sweeney Todd
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2012




L'elisir d'amore
Pacific Opera Project, Opera in the Heights
Premiered 2017




La Calisto
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2014
"so modern, so delightful, so sexually ambiguous, and still so true to the early baroque music of Cavalli. Much of that credit must go to Josh Shaw, who has created in Pacific Opera Project a sharp and talented troupe that can handle both the complex music from the 17th century and the just-as-daunting performance requirements... That Shaw managed to bring all these elements together is an accomplishment in itself. But that he manages to tell the story of “La Calisto” with sometimes rude, always passionate good humor, and with some really great singing, is a tribute to his company..." (LA Daily News)




Ercole su'l Termodonte
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2023
This US Premiere of Vivaldi's recently discovered opera is "the epitome of immersive theatre" (LA Times). Josh and his team transformed the Highland Park Ebell Club into a Baroque theatre, complete with box seating.




COVID fan tutte
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2020
"Shaw’s hilarious interpretation, coupled with his cast’s evident talent for comedy, makes Cosi fan tutte a laugh-out-loud show that is as cathartic as it is entertaining." (Stage and Cinema)




Trouble in Tahiti
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2011




La bohème AKA "The Hipsters"
Pacific Opera Project
Premiered 2012
"Under Shaw’s creative direction ... La Bohème has been superbly brought to life in a setting that is faithful to the original, as well as intimately and creatively wrought ... it is a production that sparkles with wit and infectious joie de vivre." (Stage and Cinema)



