Hans Wallat

Hans Wallat (born October 18, 1929 in Berlin ; † December 11, 2014 in Hilden ) was a German conductor .

biography

After training with Rudolf Neuhaus in Schwerin and first activities in Schwerin , Stendal , Meiningen and Cottbus , Wallat was appointed first conductor in Leipzig in 1958 and a little later as first conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin . There he specialized in the German subject , especially in the works of Richard Wagner . In 1965 he became General Music Director (GMD) in Bremen and, on the recommendation of the sick Karl Böhm, conducted the Bayreuth Festival in 1968the performances The Mastersingers of Nuremberg and The Flying Dutchman , which he took over completely in Bayreuth in 1970/71. Since then he has been regarded as a Wagner specialist and has conducted a. a. at the Metropolitan Opera in New York , at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and at the Vienna State Opera . In total, he conducted around 90 Ring cycles and was considered one of the most knowledgeable interpreters of the tetralogy .

From 1970 to 1980 Wallat was general music director at the Nationaltheater Mannheim , then until 1985 GMD at the Theater Dortmund and Staatskapellmeister in Hamburg . From 1986 to 1996 he shaped the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Duisburg / Düsseldorf as GMD together with general manager Kurt Horres . In 1996 he was made honorary conductor of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra .

At the Richard Wagner Festival in Wels , he conducted Tristan and Isolde , Siegfried and Parsifal . On his 75th birthday, the newly built Dortmund Concert Hall, under the direction of its founding director Ulrich Andreas Vogt , hosted a highly acclaimed Wallat Ring in 2003 and 2004 , a semi-staged performance of the Ring of the Nibelung with international soloists and the Dortmund Philharmonic .

In April 2009 he became an honorary member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, a festive Wagner concert under Wallat's direction took place in the Düsseldorf Opera House in November 2009 .