FIRST OFF . . .

Paris Opera officials Thursday named 36-year-old Myung-Whun Chung music director of the Bastille Opera, confirming reports of the appointment widely circulated earlier this week. The Korean-born conductor--who leads the radio orchestra in Saarbrucken, West Germany, and was associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini--succeeds Daniel Barenboim, who was fired from the post in January by Pierre Berge, the government-appointed chairman of the Paris Opera board. Elements in the Barenboim-Berge conflict were the conductor’s $1.1-million salary for four months, and artistic control over the composition of the opera orchestra and the naming of stage directors. No details on Chung’s salary or the length of his contract were given, but Chung did say that it calls for him to be in Paris for at least six months a year, and gives him final say in the hiring of stage directors. A compromise on revamping the orchestra is still being worked out. The Bastille position, which was previously offered to Charles Mackerras and Marek Janowski, among others, will be Chung’s first opera directorate. Neither Chung nor Berge offered any specific plans for the first season in the new opera house, which will be inaugurated July 13 with a special concert as part of the bicentennial celebrations of the French Revolution.