San Diego Opera debut. Franco-Canadian conductor Yves Abel has been principal guest conductor at Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2005 where he has conducted performances of Don Pasquale, Simon Boccanegra, The Marriage of Figaro, La traviata, Dialogues of the Carmélites, Tiefland, Carmen and Carmina Burana. He is a regular guest at the Vienna Staatsoper where he has led performances of The Elixir of Love, Madama Butterfly, Simon Boccanegra, A Masked Ball, The Daughter of the Regiment and Carmen. A frequent guest with the world’s great opera companies he has conducted performances at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Milan’s La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, l'Opéra National de Paris, Netherlands Opera, Grand Théatre de Genève, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Communale Bologna, New National Theatre in Tokyo, Welsh National Opera and Opera North. In 2009 he was awarded title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.