Die Soldaten
He took to freelance conducting in 1965, including the premiere of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera "Die Soldaten" in Cologne that year, a work that had been deemed to be impossible to perform. He premiered Aribert Reimann's opera "Ein Traumspiel" on 20 June 1965 at the Opernhaus Kiel. He then had a contract with the Netherlands Opera.