Yves Abel

INTRODUCTION

Yves Abel is one of the world’s most versatile conductors, equally comfortable in opera and concert with a repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music.

RECENT AND FUTURE ENGAGEMENTS

Yves Abel’s most recent projects include La traviata, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly and Salome at San Diego Opera; Carmen at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, and Wiener Staatsoper; Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice;  Norma and Roberto Devereux at Teatro della Maestranza in Sevilla; Tosca in Hong Kong; Romeo et Juliette at Savonlinna Opera Festival; Macbeth at Seoul Arts Center; Otello at Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro; Lucrezia Borgia at Teatro Comunale di Bologna; Romeo et Juliette in San Francisco; Samson et Dalila at Chorégies d’Orange.

His future projects include (a.o.):  I pagliacci and Il barbiere di Siviglia in San Diego; Turandot at Savonlinna Opera Festival; Romeo et Juliette at Canadian Opera Company Toronto; Carmen at Wiener Staatsoper; Dialogues des carmélites at Teatro Regio di Torino (house debut in season 25/26); La damnation de Faust at Opernhaus Zurich (house debut in season 25/26); La fille du regiment at the Royal Ballet and Opera in London; Armida at Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro and a concert with Filarmonica Toscanini in Parma (featuring Ciardelli’s Brano inedito (5/10′) (new commission), Bruch’s Fantasia scozzese, op.46 and Elgar’s Enigma Variations, op. 36).

BIOGRAPHY

A regular guest with the world’s greatest orchestras and opera companies, Yves Abel has been the Principal Conductor of San Diego Opera since the 2020/21 season. In April 2025, General Director David Bennett announced the extension of Abel’s contract through 2032, news described as “as important as the operas for the upcoming season.”

Yves Abel was Chief Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche (NWD) Philharmonie Herford from 2015 to 2021, and from 2005 to 2013 he was Principal Guest Conductor at Deutsche Oper Berlin.

In autumn 2017, he won the Rubies Award of Opera Canada for outstanding contributions to opera in Canada.

He has already conducted in such theaters as Metropolitan Opera New York, ROH Covent Garden London, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris, Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Rossini Opera Festival di Pesaro, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, New National Theatre Tokyo.

In concerts he has performed with such important orchestras as Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra,  Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony,  Orchestre National de Lyon, Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Seoul Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Sinfonica de Navarra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini Parma.

As a Franco-Canadian, he has a particular affinity with the French repertoire. He has won significant critical acclaim for his achievements as founder (in 1988) and Music Director of L’Opéra Français de New York, with whom he has rediscovered rare French operas and also performed the world premiere of Dusapin’s To be Sung. Also for this activity, in 2009, he was awarded the title “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Government.

His wide opera repertoire includes, among others, Le nozze di Figaro (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Così fan tutte (New National Theatre Tokyo), Il turco in Italia (Montecarlo, Lisbona), Ermione (Dallas Opera), L’italiana in Algeri (Vienna State Opera), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Metropolitan Opera, Opera di Roma), La cenerentola (Rossini Opera Festival), Don Pasquale (Deutsche Oper Berlin), I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bavarian State Opera), Norma (Bilbao), La traviata (ROH London), Il trovatore (Seattle Opera), Simon Boccanegra (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Otello (Oviedo), Faust di Gounod (Teatro San Carlo di Napoli), Werther (Oviedo), Les contes d’Hoffmann (Metropolitan Opera, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse), Carmen (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera), Madama Butterfly (Liceu de Barcelona, Vienna State Opera, Opera di Roma, San Francisco), La bohème (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Dialogues des Carmélites (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Pelléas et Mélisande (Oviedo), Hänsel und Gretel (Opera National de Paris), L’elisir d’amore (Toronto), Les pêcheurs de perles (Liceu de Barcelona), Hamlet (Deutsche Oper Berlin).

His recordings include Ravel & Bizet: Orchestral Works with the Nordwestdeutsche (NWD) Philharmonie (Ars), Thaïs with Renée Fleming and Werther with Andrea Bocelli (Decca), Madama Butterfly with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Chandos), French arias collections – one with Susan Graham and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Erato) and one with Patricia Petibon and the Orchestra of the Opera National de Lyon (Decca) – and Romantique, romantic arias collection with Elīna Garanča (Deutsche Grammophon).