Woody Allen would take no bows.

He had just made his successful debut as an opera director Saturday, creating a hilarious and memorable production of “Gianni Schicchi,” the third of the one-act presentations in Puccini’s “Il Trittico.” The Los Angeles Opera’s opening-night audience at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion kept applauding, wanting to see the 72-year-old filmmaker join the cast and conductor James Conlon for the curtain call.

But Mr. Allen remained out of view, unwilling to come onstage because of shyness, according to the company.

With the music world celebrating December’s 150th anniversary of Puccini’s birth, director William Friedkin started the night with dark stagings of “Il Tabarro” and “Suor Angelica.” Mr. Allen immediately brought laughter from the auditorium when he began “Gianni Schicchi” by having credits projected in black and white onto a movie screen. The names were nonsensical, such as Giuseppe Prosciutto, Aldo Melone, and Vitello Tonato, to mention three of the more printable.

Then, when the madcap action unfolded, it was clear that he viewed the opera, which takes place in 1299, as an old Italian film. Santo Loquasto’s sets, with Florence’s Duomo in the background, were in black and white and gray. So were the costumes and the laundry clipped to clothing lines throughout. The only deviations from the color scheme were the singers’ faces and a few yellow lamps.

More than most opera directors, Woody Allen pays attention to the small details that make a performance take off. Donati is so realistically propped up with a cup in his hand outside the door that passers-by think he’s a beggar and drop coins. An unexpected ending is added when Buoso’s cousin Zita returns to the stage and stabs Schicchi as he sings his final notes — tying the comedy to the violent dramas that preceded.

Mr. Conlon, the company’s music director, produced a rich sound from the orchestra. Working with general director Placido Domingo, he has transformed the Los Angeles Opera into an increasingly interesting company. Mr. Domingo was to conduct Sunday’s U.S. premiere of composer Howard Shore’s “The Fly”; the first two installments of a new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle are up ahead early next year, and the 2009-10 season features Mr. Domingo as Pablo Neruda in the world premiere of Daniel Catan’s “Il Postino,” with tenor Rolando Villazon also in the cast.