Wallberg, Heinz (1923– )

German conductor. After study in Dortmund and Cologne he conducted various regional orchestras in Germany, between 1946 and 1954. He made his opera debut with Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro at Munster, in 1947. He was music director at Augsburg, and then Bremen (1955–60). He made his London debut in 1963 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose. He was a regular at the Vienna Staatsoper, and conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1975–82) and the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra (1975–91). In 1961 he made his Salzburg debut, with the first performance of Wagner-Régeny's Das Bergwerk zu Falun. His US debut was made in 1991 with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington DC. He conducted Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg/The Mastersingers of Nuremberg at Wellington (1990) and Beethoven's Fidelio with Australian Opera (1992).