Wolfgang Rennert completed his training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, studying conducting with Clemens Krauss and composition with Johann Nepomuk David.

On 1 March 1962, he conducted the world premiere of Louise Talma's Die Alkestiade, with a libretto by Thornton Wilder based on his play A Life in the Sea, in a German version with Inge Borkh in the title role.

[5] On 24 September 1964, he conducted the world premiere of Gerhard Wimberger's Dame Kobold, a comic opera after Calderón's play The Phantom Lady (La dama duende), staged by Otto Schenk.

[2] Until the end of the 1970s, Rennert worked in Berlin with stage directors such as Ruth Berghaus, Erhard Fischer, Harry Kupfer and Luca Ronconi.

[2] He conducted new productions of works including Weber's Oberon, Verdi's Falstaff and Othello, Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Strauss' Salome, and Alban Berg's Wozzeck.

In 1991 he began a fruitful musical working phase as a permanent guest conductor of the Semperoper in Dresden, where his last productions were Mozart's Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte in 2008.