Waghalter, Ignatz
WAGHALTER, IGNATZ
WAGHALTER, IGNATZ (1882–1940), conductor and composer. Born in Warsaw, Waghalter studied in Berlin, where he became conductor of the Comic Opera. From 1912 to 1923 he was conductor and general musical director of the German Opera House in Berlin-Charlottenburg. In 1925 he visited the United States and conducted the New York State Symphony Orchestra for one season. In 1933 he moved to Prague, in 1934 to Vienna, and after 1938 he settled in New York. As a composer he was best known for his operas, particularly Mandragola (1914), based on Machiavelli's comedy. He also wrote operettas, works for strings, piano works, a vaudeville (Bibi), songs to Yiddish texts, and piano arrangements of Yiddish songs. Waghalter wrote an autobiography, Aus dem Ghetto in die Freiheit (1936).