Hager, Leopold (1935– )

Austrian conductor. He studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum and made his debut at Mainz in 1958 with L'Italiana in Algeri. He conducted opera in Linz, Cologne, and Freiburg im Breisgau, and was principal conductor of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra 1969–81; at the Salzburg Festival in 1971 he conducted a revival of Mozart's Mitridate. He conducted Fidelio at Vienna in 1973, and Le Nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro at the New York Metropolitan Opera House in 1976 (returning for Così fan tutte/All Women Do It in 1991). At Buenos Aires in 1977 he led Tristan und Isolde, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in 1978 he conducted Figaro. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera House in 1995 with Don Giovanni. He has recorded such early Mozart operas as La Finta semplice/The Pretended Simpleton, Lucio Silla, and Il re pastore/The Shepherd King.