Opera conductor Hiroshi Wakasugi died Tuesday of multiple organ failure at a Tokyo hospital, the New National Theater said. He was 74.
Wakasugi was the artistic director of the theater since 2007 and was a professor emeritus at Tokyo University of the Arts.
He was best known for conducting such German composers as Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, but also conducted works by Kosaku Yamada.
Wakasugi served as conductor at opera houses in Dresden and Bavaria in Germany.