During his time at Düsseldorf his operatic repertoire included Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, Rigoletto, I due Foscari and Otello, Giacomo Puccini's La bohème and Madama Butterfly, Richard Strauss' Daphne and Der Rosenkavalier, Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann plus several of his operettas, Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Edipo re.

He made his British debut in 1966 with a performance at the Edinburgh Festival of Alban Berg's Wozzeck, a work whose premiere his father had conducted in 1925.

[13] In 1989, following Herbert von Karajan's resignation from the Berlin Philharmonic, Kleiber was offered, but declined, the opportunity to succeed him as music director.

4 and Franz Schubert's third and eighth ("Unfinished") symphonies, also with the Vienna Philharmonic, recordings of Dvořák's Concerto for piano and orchestra with Sviatoslav Richter, Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz, Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus and Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata.

[citation needed] Kleiber's small studio discography has been increased by a number of releases of live recordings, often sourced from broadcast relays.

The Sixth is especially notable as the only occasion on which Kleiber conducted the work; in this instance the source came not from a radio broadcast but a C-90 compact cassette recorded for his son.

Produced by Paul Frankl and presented by Ivan Hewett with research by Ruth Thomson, this feature was based on interviews with four who knew Kleiber well: tenor and conductor Plácido Domingo, music administrator and intendant Sir Peter Jonas, music journalist and critic Christine Lemke-Matvey and conductor–pianist Charles Barber.

When I work with him, I feel that he knows why the composer wrote every note, treated every phrase, conceived of every bit of orchestral color in a particular way...If he were to become the permanent conductor of a major orchestra, he could turn it into the greatest ensemble in history.

Producer Jon Tolansky, who himself played for Kleiber at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, interviewed singers Ileana Cotrubaș, Thomas Hampson, Dame Felicity Lott, the late Dame Margaret Price and Jonathan Summers, members of the Chicago Symphony, Royal Opera House, London Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, conductor and Kleiber friend Charles Barber, administrators Sir Peter Jonas and Sir John Tooley, and recording executive Costa Pilavachi.

Some 100 current conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev and Mariss Jansons, participated in the BBC poll.

Kleiber, who conducted just 96 concerts and around 400 operatic performances in his 74 years, was voted ahead of Leonard Bernstein and Claudio Abbado, who took second and third places respectively.

Jeremy Pound, Deputy Editor of BBC Music Magazine, added: "Asking 100 of today's conducting greats to name their idols and inspirations was a fascinating experience.

Kleiber's incredible attention to detail, sheer enthusiasm for music, and astonishingly accomplished level of performance could never be doubted – perhaps 'less is more' is the real path to true greatness?"

"Uniquely, Carlos Kleiber combined the rigors of German analysis, form and discipline with the expressive vitality of Latin dance, pulse and joy.