Christian Thielemann succeeds Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera

German conductor Christian Thielemann will succeed Israeli-Argentine maestro Daniel Barenboim as director of the Berlin Staatsoper, whom the latter left for health reasons, the prestigious German institution announced on Wednesday. Last January, the 80-year-old pianist and conductor born in Argentina, Barenboim, suffering from a serious neurological illness, announced his resignation from the Berlin Opera.

The head of Culture in Berlin, Joe Chialo, indicated that Christian Thielemann, who has regularly conducted the Berlin Staatsoper orchestra, the Staatskapelle, will succeed Barenboim from September 2024. The Berlin Staatsoper, located on the main avenue Unter den Linden, in the former SST part of the German capital, is one of the city's three opera houses.

Also read: Daniel Barenboim resigns from Berlin Staatsoper due to “serious neurological illness”

Born in Berlin, classical music star Christian Thielemann is known for his love of Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Last year, his production at the Staatsoper du Ring, Richard Wagner's famous tetralogy also known as The Ring of the Nibelung in French, was "unanimously described as phenomenal", according to the German daily Berliner Zeitung.

The German conductor, aged 64, is under contract until next year with the Staatskapelle of Dresden, whose orchestra he directs, one of the most renowned in the German-speaking world. A protégé of the legendary Herbert von Karajan, Christian Thielemann was general music director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, an opera house in the west of the capital, but resigned in 2004 due to a financing dispute with the city.