Christian Thielemann chosen to succeed Daniel Barenboim as music director of Berlin's Staatsoper

Berlin's city government says Christian Thielemann has been chosen as the new general music director of the city's Staatsoper, months after Daniel Barenboim ended his three-decade reign

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Christian Thielemann has been chosen as the new general music director of Berlin's Staatsoper, months after Daniel Barenboim ended his three-decade reign, the city government said Wednesday.

The 64-year-old German conductor will take the job at the Staatsoper, or State Opera, next year, Berlin state culture minister Joe Chialo announced. “With him, we are ensuring the highest musical excellence for our city," he said.

Thielemann trained as an assistant to Herbert von Karajan and Barenboim, worked in smaller German houses and was music director of Nuremberg’s State Theater from 1988–1992.

He moved on to serve as music director of Berlin's Deutsche Oper from 1997-2004 and of the Munich Philharmonic from 2004-11. He has been chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden since 2012-13, a role that already was scheduled to end after the 2023-24 season.

Thielemann also has conducted over 150 Vienna Philharmonic concerts and led more than 180 performances at the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.

Barenboim was credited with leading the Staatsoper, which is located in what was communist East Berlin until 1990 and is one of three opera houses in reunited Germany's capital, to world renown after reunification.

Now 80, he was general music director from 1992 until he stepped down at the end of January, saying that his health had become too poor to carry on.