Joseph Mechavich

Conductor

American conductor Joseph Mechavich has established a leading position on the modern music podium with breakthrough productions of contemporary opera such as Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Moby-Dick, Great Scott, Out of Darkness: Two Remain and Three Decembers, and Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, Cold Sassy Tree, Of Mice and Men and Wuthering Heights to name a few. Season 2020-21 sees the eminent conductor returning to standard repertoire with Die Zauberflote at North Carolina Opera, and this summer at Brevard Music Festival he leads productions of Carmen and Man of La Mancha.

M. Mechavich can also be found conducting much of the standard operatic canon in leading US opera houses; recent highlights include Il Barbiere di Siviglia at The Washington National Opera and at Minnesota Opera, Werther at Florida Grand Opera, Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci at Madison Opera, Eugene Onegin at Curtis Institute of Music, Ariadne auf Naxos, Macbeth and Madama Butterfly at Kentucky Opera where he serves as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor.

“Joseph Mechavich drew outstanding playing from the orchestra, and his pacing was masterful, alive to the score’s shifting moods. He did not pause at the conclusion of Werther’s famous aria and, while this deprived Pittas of an ovation, Mechavich kept the tension at fever pitch during the final confrontation between the protagonists. He also skillfully kept the brass from dominating the orchestral fabric, minimizing the orchestration’s Wagnerian overtones.”
South Florida Classical Review

“…it brought the capable Joseph Mechavich, who had considerable success with the San Diego Opera conducting productions of Jake Heggie’s “Moby-Dick” and “Great Scott” and John Adams’ “Nixon in China.” With the San Diego Symphony in the pit, Mechavich offered an equally convincing reading of Catan’s lush, atmospheric score [Florencia en el Amazonas].”
Opera News

Operatic Repertoire

Joseph Mechavich, conductor: Operatic Repertoire

Adams
Nixon in China

Antheil
Transatlantic

Beethoven
Fidelio

Bellini
La sonnambula

Bernstein
Candide

Bizet
Carmen
Les pêcheurs de perles

Bohlmer
Riders of the Purple Sage

Britten
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Turn of the Screw

Catán
Florencia en el amazonas

Cimarosa
Il matrimonio segretto

Debussy
Pelléas et Mélisande

Donizetti
Don Pasquale
L’elisir d’amore
La fille du regiment
Lucia di Lammermoor

Gounod
Faust
Roméo et Juliette

Floyd
Cold Sassy Tree
Markheim
Of Mice and Men
Susannah
Wuthering Heights

Gershwin
Porgy and Bess

Gilbert and Sullivan
HMS Pinafore
The Mikado
The Pirates of Penzance

Gluck
Orfeo ed Euridice

Handel
Gulio Cesare

Heggie
Dead Man Walking
Great Scott
Moby Dick
Out of Darkness: Two Remain
Three Decembers

Higdon
Cold Mountain

Humperdink
Hansel and Gretel

Lehár
The Merry Widow

Leoncavallo
Pagliacci
Mascagni
Cavalleria rusticana

Massenet
Cendrillon
Werther

Menotti
Amahl and the Night Visitors
The Medium
The Telephone

Mizzoli
Breaking the Waves

Monteverdi
L’incoronazione di Poppea

Mozart
Così fan tutte
Don Giovanni
Die Entführung as dem Serail
Lucio Silla
Le nozze di Figaro
Il re pastore
Die Zauberflöte

Offenbach
Les contes d’Hoffmann

Puccini
La bohème
Gianni Schicchi
Madama Butterly
Sour Angelica
Tosca
Turandot

Previn
A Streetcar Named Desire

Puts
Silent Night

Ravel
L’enfant et les sortilèges

Rodgers and Hammerstein
Showboat

Rossini
Il barbiere di Siviglia
La Cenerentola

Saint-Saëns
Samson et Dalila

J. Strauss
Die Fledermaus

R. Strauss
Ariadne auf Naxos
Daphne

Stravinsky
The Rake’s Progress

Talbot
Everest

Verdi
Aida
Falstaff
Macbeth
Otello
Rigoletto
Simon Boccanegra
La traviata
Il trovatore

Ward
Crucible

Wagner
Der fliegende Holländer

Contact

Deborah Sanders

Founder and Director
deborah@arbourartists.com