Interview: Director Josh Shaw of Donizetti's Comedic Opera IL FORTUNATO INGANNO

The historic Garibaldina Society is a social club in LA that's been celebrating Italian culture since 1877. This September, it's hosting Pacific Opera Project’s (POP) U.S. premiere production of Il Fortunato Inganno, Gaetano Donizetti's long-lost Italian comedic opera from September 4–13. And after being lost for over 170 years, this time around, POP is giving the 1822 original opera a groovy new spin, setting the mistaken identities and scheming aunts against a stylish 1960s backdrop. And if you love Italian culture, Italian food, Italian wine, and Italian opera, this will be the most Italian Night you can have in Los Angeles this year!

Il Fortunato Inganno is a rare, rediscovered Donizetti comedy about an opera company putting on an opera. The story is set amidst the hilarious backstage antics and egos of Lattanzio Lattrughelli's opera company, which is in the middle of a chaotic rehearsal for a new show. Within this setting, the young actress Eugenia is in love with a cavalry lieutenant, Edoardo. However, Edoardo's gruff uncle, Colonel Franceschetti, adamantly refuses to allow his nephew to marry anyone associated with the theater. 

To save the relationship, Eugenia's clever aunt, Aurelia, hatches a plan. Disguised as a glamorous countess, she approaches the Colonel, flatters his ego, and pretends to fall for him. Completely charmed and manipulated by the ruse, the Colonel swiftly drops his opposition to the marriage. When the disguise is eventually revealed, the Colonel is initially stunned and flustered, but he ultimately laughs it off, allowing love to prevail and the show to go on!

I decided to speak with POP’s Artistic Director Josh Shaw about the discovery and selection of the long-long opera, selecting the venue, his selected cast, and why he thinks audiences will flock to enjoy a totally Italian experience with tickets starting at $15, with table seating that includes wine and pasta!

Thanks for speaking with me, Josh, about POP’s latest project.  How did you first track down Donizetti’s long-lost score?

Since POP specializes in reviving rare and lost Bel Canto operas, as its Artistic Director I had my eye on the score for Il Fortunato Inganno. Unfortunately, after contacting multiple publishers and receiving no word on the score’s availability, I considered giving up on finding the score. However, by happenstance, when I was vacationing in Italy, near the town that hosts the Festival della Valle d’Itria, I had the idea to contact an administrator at the Festival regarding the score’s availability. Within five minutes, I had a reply that put me in touch with an actual person at Sonzogno, and that person replied instantly. There were a few more hoops to jump through from there, but eventually we got a copy of the one existing modern score.

Tell me about your journey to being one of the first people to bring this long-lost Donizetti work to U.S. audiences.

At least a dozen times a year, I go to the internet and spend a few hours searching for “comic Bel Canto operas” or “lost comic operas”. I can’t even tell you how I initially stumbled upon Il Fortunato Inganno this time, because I know I’ve looked at the list of Donizetti operas at least 100 times over the years. It’s such a complicated puzzle to find a fit. No one acts. Is there an existing score? Is there a ton of chorus? Is there a recording anywhere I can listen to?

Somehow, I had missed this one time and again. When I found that it had been published and that there was a commercial recording, I set about making it happen. All of that is just the work before the work that goes into producing one of these “lost” operas. Then there is translating the libretto, learning the score well enough to cast it, writing supertitles, cutting as necessary, and about 45 other steps before you ever start rehearsal. 

Since this piece vanished for over 170 years, did you need to make many cuts or modernizations to keep the pacing snappy for contemporary audiences?

In this case, most of the cuts were in the dialogue. This was written for Neapolitan audiences who were used to a lot of dialogue, rather than recitative, and much of the dialogue is in Neapolitan with inside jokes that are nearly impossible to decipher and not very funny to a modern audience. So, I spent a ton of time, first translating all the dialogue and then cutting and cutting until only the essential plot points were left. I think we ended up with nine minutes of dialogue, when there was something like 35 minutes on the commercial recording. I know this, because I then went through and painstakingly cut the dialogue on the recording to get a timing and to assist the cast in memorization. There are some cuts of repeats and less interesting sections in the music. But in general, I just loved the music so much, it was difficult to eliminate too much. This very likely the only time anyone in our audience will ever hear this opera. I kind of hate to deprive them of any of Donizetti’s work. 

Why did you decide to present it against a stylish 1960s backdrop?

I always try to pick a setting that not only works for the plot, but also the venue. The Garibaldina screams 1960s, so it was pretty easy to lean into that. For our last opera there, Don Bucefalo, we essentially had no set and just let the venue serve as the backdrop, which worked very well. But I didn’t want to do the same thing this time around. The plot of Inganno is very simple, but there are a lot of characters. To help the audience track who is who, I’ve gone to one of my favorite gimmicks - putting characters in very distinct, monochromatic costumes. Once I got there with costumes, I thought a silver background would really help them standout, while still blending with the incredible aesthetic of The Garibaldina. I’m calling it “monochromatic mod”.

Since the plot of Il Fortunato Inganno revolves around an opera company dealing with its own backstage chaos and diva meltdowns, how do you balance the humor of that "show-within-a-show" dynamic? 

Oh, this is something we know very well at POP. The list of meta operas we’ve produced is long: The Impresario/Prima la musica, e poi le parole, Ariadne auf Naxos, Viva la mama, and Don Bucefalo - I’m probably missing one more. “Write what you know” as they say. The collective amount of personal experiences that the cast and I can pull from are innumerable. The only difficulty will be not copying what we have done before in these other shows. And, we do have to be careful of too much “inside baseball.” Just because it is hilarious to us, doesn’t it mean it will be funny to an audience who doesn’t live inside an opera rehearsal week after week.

The opera is packed with classic buffa archetypes involving love triangles, clever disguises, and eccentric composers. How did you direct the singers to make these characters feel fresh and human rather than just historical caricatures? 

Well, we haven’t started rehearsals at the time of this interview, but I always think there rarely is good cause to veer away from caricature in these kinds of shows. Yes, there will be a tender, sincere moment or two in this opera, but 95% of the time we are going for broad humor. In those cases, it is easier to achieve the laughs when people can grab onto archetypes right away. Beyond that, hire the right kinds of singers/actors, and they will do the work for me – and that will certainly be true of this cast. They are fantastic singers and actors, right down the line. I wish there was a way I could explain to POP audiences how lucky we are to consistently have the talent that we do. I mean, it shows in the end result, time after time, but there’s just no way of explaining how talented our casts are, for our level of production. 

Tell me about the singers portraying the lead characters and their history with POP or other opera companies.

Cast members for Il Fortunato Inganno include bass-baritone Scott Levin (LA Opera, Long Beach Opera) as Lattanzio Lattughelli; soprano Avery Boettcher (Santa Fe Opera, Detroit Opera) as Aurelia; baritone Kenny Stavert (Musica le Mans, Indianapolis Opera) as Ortenzio Franschetti; baritone Joel Balzun (LA Opera, Santa Fe Opera) as Bequardo; baritone John Tibbetts (Opera Atelier, Palm Beach Opera) as Vulcano; tenor Fran Laucerica (Opera Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera) as Eduardo; soprano Sunwoo Park (Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Santa Barbara) as Eugenia; mezzo-soprano Kira Dills-DeSurra (Chicago Opera Theater, Beth Morrisson Projects) as Fulgenzia del Foletto, baritone Chris Walters (Lyric Opera of Orange County) as Biscaglino; bass Steve Pence (LA Opera, LA Phil) as Ascanio; and soprano Joanna Kim (Opera in the Ozarks, Opera North) as Firodelisa.

How do you go about finding and casting such talented opera singers from around the country?

This cast is too large and too talented to go into specifics for everyone. Most of this cast has worked at POP sometime in the past. Many have been mainstays for a decade. We do have two debuts, with Kira Dills-DeSurra, John Tibbetts, and Fran Laucerica, all singers who I have known of for sometime. I was finally lucky enough to get them here. This year, all auditions were done virtually, through video submissions. I’ve spent probably 60 hours reviewing submissions and I still have all the Cruzar casting to do. It’s a long process. 

The POP production is being staged at the Garibaldina Society with general seating in chairs or table seating which includes pasta and wine. How does directing for such a close, intimate, and interactive dinner-theater environment change your blocking and storytelling choices? 

It’s the best. Again, if I can put these actors, with those voices, within mere feet of patrons – I’d have to work really hard to mess things up. There is no substitute for live performance up close. You can see every thought, every wink and nod, every drop of sweat. And the sound resonating through your body – that’s what sets opera apart from everything else. There are challenges of space. With eleven people in the cast and a ceiling at 13ft instead of 30ft, it feels tight, for sure. But we plan for that and do our best to still make things feel “grand”. 

Why do you consider the location a perfect place for the opera?   

Well, I would not say perfect for most companies, or most operas. But it is great for this opera and for Pacific Opera Project. The Garibaldina is simply the most Italian place in all of Los Angeles – that right there already makes it special. Then it is in our neighborhood, which is special and convenient. It is a nice size, with around 350 seats, most of which are at tables with wine and pasta. But most of all, it’s just the vibe. The Garibaldina is so perfectly kitsch, and so is POP to a great extent. People go to The Garibaldina and to POP to have a good time. When you put both together, it’s bound to be a blast. 

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about the production?

If you like Bel Canto music, you’ll like it. If you like comedy, you’ll like it. If you like virtuosic singing, you’ll like it. This will likely be the only chance in your entire life to see Il Fortunato Inganno, don’t miss it!

Thanks so much!

Pacific Opera Project presents the U.S. premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's Il Fortunato Inganno, directed by Josh Shaw with music director and conductor Alexandra Enyart, for six performances on Friday, September 4 at 7:30PM; Saturday, September 5 at 7:30PM; Sunday, September 6 at 3:00PM; Friday, September 11 at 7:30PM; Saturday, September 12 at 7:30PM; and Sunday, September 13 at 3:00PM at The Garibaldina; 4533 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90065. Run time is 2 hours 45 minutes, sung in Italian with new English dialogue by Josh Shaw, presented with English supertitles.

This production offers general and table seating; all table seating comes complete with a pasta dinner (marinara sauce with burrata and basil) and a glass of wine. (Sorry, there are no vegan or gluten-free options.) Additional wine by bottle or glass will be available for purchase, and there will be a full cash bar open all evening.

General seating tickets start at $15, with table seating running from $35 per seat to $400 for a private front table of 4 seats, available for purchase at pacificoperaproject.com. Please order your tickets early as performances are expected to sell out.

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