Hans Wallat

German conductor and general music director Hans Wallat was born in Berlin on 18 October 1929 and studied with Rudolf Neuhaus.

He left the DDR shortly before the Berlin Wall was built, and worked at Deutsche Oper Berlin.

He specialised in German opera, especially Wagner, and conducted over ninety Ring cycles.

His work took him to many places, including Bayreuth, Bremen, the Bolshoi Theatre, Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Mannheim, Vienna State Opera and New York Metropolitan Opera.

Hans Wallat died in Hilden on 11 December 2014, aged eighty-five.