His directing debut took place in Radebeul with Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
Here he was also director of rarities like The Golden Cockerel, The Nose, Katerina Ismaelova (Stalinist version of the Lady Macbeth von Mzensk), The Devils of Loudun, Les vêpres siciliennes and Hans Pfitzner's Palestrina (with Peter Schreier in the title role).
Among the world premieres he staged were Alan Bush's Joe Hill, Günter Kochan's Karin Lenz [de] and Joachim Werzlau's Meister Röckle.
Fischer's appointment as chief director of the Staatsoper by its chief, the harpsichordist Hans Pischner, proved to be far-sighted, as Fischer represented a moderate opposite pole to the music theatre style of the Komische Oper Berlin, which was influenced by Walter Felsenstein, and yet, as a former comrade-in-arms of directors such as Joachim Herz, he brought both classics and world premieres to success with his skilful directing.
He was also (successively) a lecturer and later head of department at the music colleges of the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin.