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[Melodie]

Yves Abel is quickly becoming established as one of his generation's most compelling conductors in both the operatic and symphonic repertoires. A frequent guest with the world's great opera companies, he has led acclaimed productions at the Metropolitan Opera (Carmen with Denyce Graves and Plácido Domingo), the Opéra National de Paris (Faust), the Lyric Opera of Chicago (L'elisir d'amore and Il barbiere di Siviglia), the San Francisco Opera (Hamlet with Thomas Hampson and Ruth Ann Swenson), the Santa Fe Opera (L'italiana in Algeri), the Netherlands Opera (Dialogues des Carmélites and Il barbiere di Siviglia), the Seattle Opera (Vanessa, Die Fledermaus, and La Cenerentola), the Royal Danish Opera (L'elisir d'amore and Un ballo in maschera), England's Opera North (Don Carlos), the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Matilde di Shabran, and Adina), and the Glyndebourne Festival (Le Comte Ory). Already planned for future seasons are re-engagements with the Metropolitan Opera and the Netherlands Opera, as well as new productions with the Santa Fe Opera (Così fan tutte), the Dallas Opera (Ermione), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Don Pasquale) and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Iphigénie en Tauride).

His recent orchestral engagements include debuts with the Toronto Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke's at the Caramoor International Music Festival in New York, and London's Philharmonia Orchestra in a recording of Madame Butterfly. Internationally, he has led Copenhagen's Collegium Musicum, the Bochum Symphony in Germany, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Genoa Opera Orchestra, among many others. Future engagements include a return to the Netherlands Philharmonic as well as a debut with the Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo in Naples. In Canada, he has conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra on numerous occasions and has recently appeared with the Nova Scotia Symphony (where he will return in 2002-2003), the Hamilton Philharmonic, and the Windsor Symphony.

His first recording project for London/Decca, Massenet's Thaïs, with a cast including Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, and Giuseppe Sabbatini, was released in late 2000 to critical acclaim. He has recently completed an English-language Madame Butterfly on Chandos with the Philharmonic Orchestra, and an additional recording project, a disc of 19th & 20th century arias from French light opera with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on Erato, was released in Spring 2002.

Mr. Abel has won significant critical acclaim for his achievements as Music Director of L'Opéra Français de New York, which he founded in 1988 to breathe new life into operatic rarities from the French repertoire. Their most recent productions have included Saint-Saëns' La Princesse jaune, Bizet's Djamileh, Hérold's Zampa, Poulenc's La Voix humaine, and Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein. Among the other works produced by L'OFNY with Mr. Abel, all to consistent accolades, have been Offenbach's Barbe-Bleue and La Périchole, Bizet's La Jolie Fille de Perth and Le Docteur Miracle, Cherubini's Médée and Les Deux Journées, Chabrier's L'Étoile, Donizetti's La Favorite, Milhaud's Le Pauvre Matelot and Esther de Carpentras, Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice and Iphigénie en Aulide; Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict.

http://pages.ca.inter.net/~abelc/yvesabel.html