Horst Stein studied music at the Music High School in Frankfurt am Main and at the Cologne Conservatory, where his teachers included the conductor Günter Wand. After a short period working with the Wuppertal Opera as an assistant conductor, he was appointed conductor at the Hamburg State Opera in 1951. He joined the music staff of the Bayreuth Festival in 1952, assisting such eminent conductors as Karajan, Keilberth, Knappertsbusch and Krauss. Having moved from Hamburg to the Berlin Staatsoper in 1955, Stein was progressively promoted from first conductor to chief conductor, but left East Germany in 1961 to return to the Hamburg State Opera as a senior conductor during the Rolf Liebermann era. Between 1963 and 1970 he served as chief conductor at the Man...