Berlin opera gets general director

Michael Schindhelm, the German director of Switzerland’s Basel Theater, has been chosen as the first general director of a foundation set up this year to oversee Berlin’s three opera houses.

In announcing the appointment, the Berlin city government didn’t specify when Schindhelm, 44, will take charge.

Funding for the arts in debt-laden Berlin has been a problem since Germany and its capital reunited in 1990, bringing together the city’s cultural venues in east and west. The foundation was established to enhance coordination and cut costs at the three opera houses -- the Deutsche Oper in the former West Berlin and the Staatsoper and Komische Oper in the formerly communist east.