During the spring semester of 2026, I had the opportunity to direct a unique double bill: Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Telephone paired with Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), presented together as part of the University of Arizona School of Music’s opera production.

On the surface, the two works seem dissimilar. The Telephone is a tight, modern comic gem with just two characters and one very persistent phone call standing between a man and his marriage proposal. Der Schauspieldirektor, on the other hand, is Mozart’s backstage farce about the chaos of mounting a production, complete with dueling divas and a beleaguered theater manager trying to hold it all together.

But staged side by side, the pairing revealed something interesting: both operas are, at heart, about the comedy of human communication breaking down. For The Telephone, it’s a couple who can’t get a word in edgewise while The Impresario ‘s ensemble of artists jockey for roles and producers talk past one another. The operas’ conflicts resolve when compromises and understanding begin to form in relationship, whether they be professional or intimate.

For Der Schauspieldirektor, I brought in seven non-singing actors to build out the comic play-within-the-opera, giving the production an extra layer of theatrical chaos that mirrored the opera’s own subject matter.

Working with our student singers on two such different pieces in one production was a gift. Some students were stepping onto an opera stage for the very first time; others were seasoned performers ready to stretch into farce and physical comedy. Watching them find the humor, the timing, and the heart in both works was one of the most rewarding directing experiences of my time as Interim Director of the Opera Program at the University of Arizona.