From 1899 to 1906, Leo Blech conducted at the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague, before moving to the Königliches Schauspielhaus in Berlin. In 1913 he was promoted to General Music Director. Between 1923 and 1926, Blech took various positions at opera houses in Berlin and Vienna, including the Deutsches Opernhaus, the Berlin Volksoper, and the Vienna Volksoper. In 1926 he returned to the Schauspielhaus, now called the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where he remained until 1937 when German government policies forced him into exile in Riga, where he was conductor of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
With an eye to the substantial German and foreign reputation of Blech Hermann Göring issued an order to major Karl Heise, head of the Schutzpolizei in Riga from September 1941, to issue an exit visa for Blech for neutral Sweden - making Blech the only Jewish survivor of Riga to escape by such high level intervention.
During and after World War II, Blech conducted at the Royal Opera, Stockholm. In 1949 he returned to Berlin to conduct at the Städtische Oper, where he worked until 1953.
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