yves ABEL

this past June, in the garden of a ground floor apartment in a quiet neighbourhood of Hamburg, Yves Abel is relaxed as he talks about the challenges and rewards of conducting at the Hamburg State Opera. The Toronto-born maestro has conducted two well-reviewed performances of the run so far. Although this is his first Britten in the pit, he actually became familiar with the English composer at the age of eleven; Abel sang the boy’s part in 1975 in , conducted by Mario Bernardi at Festival Ottawa (where later he was also the first boy in ). “That was an incredibly memorable time because it was with [legendary American soprano and vocal pedagogue] Phyllis Curtin singing the Governess. Mary Morrison was Mrs. Grose, and after her operatic career, she became one of the great Canadian singing teachers at the University of