Leo Spies

Leo Spies (4 June 1899 – 1 May 1965) was a Russian-born German composer and conductor active in the musical and theatrical life of Germany, and especially in Berlin.

He studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik under Engelbert Humperdinck and Robert Kahn from 1916 to 1917.

In his early career Spies worked as a repetiteur in various German theatres and for Universum Film AG.

He was the ballet conductor of the Berlin State Opera from 1928 to 1935 and the Deutsche Opernhaus from 1935 to 1944, when the country was ruled by the Nazi Party.

[1] He also composed incidental music for plays, including the 1946 Berlin production of Zum goldenen Anker (the German language adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's Trilogie marseillaise).