After the sudden loss of General Director David Roth in July, Kentucky Opera memorialized the man who led the company for nine years—but also knew this must mean looking toward the future. Principal conductor Joseph Mechavich, whose upcoming engagements take him from New Zealand to California, is now artistic director. He has plans for working with his “Louisville family” to keep the company on a trajectory of growth during the transitional period. He spoke to Classical Singer via phone the morning of Turandot’s opening at Nashville Opera in October.
You were appointed artistic director by Kentucky Opera’s board in September. What else is the board currently doing?
During this transition, the board is looking at the structure of the company and at how they envision it to be 5, 10, 50 years from now. They’re taking time to view the company and its impact in the region at 36,000 feet.
I’m a part of this transition team since I’ve had a long association with the company. I’m planning for the future couple of seasons and acting as the face for the company in the community, region, and nation.
Has planning for the next couple of seasons at Kentucky Opera needed your immediate attention?
It’s the job to plan for the future, to organize all the fundraising, and to organize budgets for the next couple of seasons so that we are set to go and presenting great products for our patron base.
Is this your first time in an administrative role?
David and I worked very closely together in terms of planning for upcoming seasons at Kentucky Opera. I worked closely with our director of production as well, so we were already in a collaborative sense looking forward to the future. My role has expanded a bit with the absence of David. I’m responsible for casting and other creative team elements—but still in close collaboration with my colleagues at Kentucky Opera. And I will, in between my conducting engagements, go back to Louisville to spend more time with my opera family there.
Do you foresee less time on the podium and more time in an administrative setting?
I am first and foremost a conductor and musician and I live to be a part of the theatrical experience of opera, this amazing art form. I have a distinct and humbling relationship with my opera family in Kentucky and will always make time for them and their needs.
You conducted Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick at Calgary Opera and San Diego Opera in 2012. What are your feelings about being able to conduct this latest Heggie opera, Great Scott, at San Diego Opera next year?
I have the utmost respect—dare I say admiration and love—for Jake and the team that he surrounds himself with.
It is a moving experience to work on any of his pieces. I am personally humbled that I get to be a part of presenting these American masterworks to opera companies around the country. For me, it’s life changing to have done Moby-Dick in San Diego and in Calgary—and now to have this amazing opportunity to do Great Scott in San Diego. I am so thrilled. I saw the workshop in San Francisco, and it is hilarious. I’m also going to Dallas to see the final dress rehearsal.
What’s it been like to prepare scores written by living composers?
I’m a curator most of the time. I can’t ask Mozart a question, so when I’m working with living composers it is the highest privilege to not just collaborate with them but to let them tell me what they need, what they want. Every question I have I can ask of Jake or any other living composer, like Kevin Puts. I can call them up and say, “What do you want here?” That is so amazing to do because I can’t call up Puccini or Beethoven. It’s so thrilling to have a composer by my side saying, “You know, Joe, it’s too fast.” I love that.
When did you begin working on the score for Great Scott?
I got the piano-vocal score over the summer, so I spent some time with it then. I like to learn a piece and then put it away. When I get back home, I’ll be looking at the piece again.
Have you and Jake already discussed the score and any questions you may have about it?
Not yet, because I know this time that he’s spending in Dallas [for the premiere Oct. 30–Nov. 15 at Dallas Opera] right now will shed a lot of light on it. I look forward to seeing the production and seeing some of the solutions and just being a part of the birth of this amazing piece.
What’s your process of reviving a work you haven’t conducted in a few years? For instance, you conducted Madama Butterfly in 2010 at Kentucky Opera but did not conduct it again until 2014 at Calgary Opera.
Well, with Butterfly, I’ve done it 13 times. My responsibility is to stay true to the intent of the composer. I try to inspire my colleagues onstage and in the pit so that we hold true to what’s printed in the score. That’s my responsibility, and it’s very important to me.
When I have a new group of people, it’s always something new—you’re painting with new colors. As a curator, we hang the painting on the wall and don’t touch the painting, but just put a different light on it. And that light is the cast—[it’s the conductor’s job to] make them as comfortable as possible and allow them to shine. That’s my role in reviving some of these masterpieces.
Are there any scores you feel like you know like the back of your hand?
Butterfly, Don Giovanni, La bohème. Also John Adams’ Nixon in China. I’ve done it once and I’m doing it again in New Zealand (in 2016 with Auckland Philharmonia), because that never leaves you. I’ve been humbled that my career has allowed me to do the masterworks many times. Right now I’m doing Turandot for the second time. With every great score, even when I’m doing Butterfly, you always find something new. It’s a joy to revisit these masterpieces.
Are there any specific challenges you find with doing some of these more recent works like Nixon in China?
I don’t see challenges, but I see opportunities to solve some of the interesting corners or some of the most difficult passages. Instead of it being a completely technical experience when the music is difficult, I try to make it theatrical, dramatic. I try to find some sort of emotional solution so that the difficulty of the music comes from the depth of the drama.
Sometimes when things are difficult in life, that’s very complex. I feel that when you’re in a difficult situation, whether it’s in Silent Night or Nixon in China or Moby-Dick, and the music gets technically difficult, that’s because the drama demands it.
Do you have any musical advice for singers?
Almost all of the answers are in the score. Interpreting a role has to first come from knowing every single note, rest, and articulation in the score—and coming up with a reason for why it is that way. There are so many beautiful voices in our industry, and the ones we want to hear are the ones who have made informed choices that are based in the score. To me, that is the most important thing because that’s what I start out with, and that’s what these master musicians did.
When you look at Butterfly, when you look at Nixon in China, all the information is there. There’s no guessing. The only guessing for me when I work with singers is how they shape and color the text.
What is something refreshing you’ve seen singers bring to the rehearsal process?
When artists—and not just singers, but full orchestras—understand that it’s a collaborative process. When they understand that opera is really big chamber music. There is a flexibility, a give and take, almost a sensual experience between pit and stage. Even when you’re doing a big opera like Turandot, the amount of energy that you share with your singer-actors, it’s fantastic. Those singer-actors that are open to that and understand it, that’s the breath of fresh air. That’s what I love: that they are able to breathe and I’m able to breathe with them, I’m able to accompany them, I’m able to lead them when I need to lead them but their intent is clear.
What are you looking for in a singer?
I think it’s evident in the way that I never call them singers. I always call them singer-actors. To me, it’s not just a beautiful voice, but having a commitment to the text, the text, the text. That is it. Sure, people might sometimes sing a little out of tune, but if you’re committed to the text, it’s coming from a moment of intent, and that’s fixable, especially if you’re singing sharp. I love when people sing sharp—it means they’re overcommitted. It’s fantastic! When I see someone who auditions for me that is tasting every single word and is a wordsmith, that is the type of singer-actor I love.
How important are first impressions, in relation to personality and outward appearance?
For me, I don’t like to so much judge that. It’s so unbelievably unreasonable for singers to have to go through this audition process. You have five to seven minutes to show your product. I understand completely the pressures, but when I see someone come into the room who knows it’s his or her five or seven minutes, that gets my attention. [I don’t prefer to see] those that feel auditioning is a burden; sometimes I’ve seen singer-actors who have done that. But most of the time, when I’ve been part of auditions, it’s because we want to hear you for something.
What can a singer do to get rehired?
You know, these are called opera houses. The singer-actor, conductor, director, stage management, anybody who’s a guest artist . . . you’re going to someone’s home. Opera companies have very few opportunities to engage their public. So when you are at a regional opera house in North America, you are going to someone’s home.
To be an affable, wonderful steward of the art form is so important as we go through this almost cultural war we’re going through. We have to celebrate in every way this art form and have a connection to the audience. The singer-actors’ proximity to and relationship with the patrons is vital. Everyone wants to have connections. Patrons want to have a connection to the product, and it’s not just [in] going to see you—they want to have a little bit of a relationship.
Knowing that it is absolutely vital to be a general in the army of protecting and serving and promoting and loving this art form. That is so important to know as a visiting artist.
