Berlin says Dietmar Schwarz has been named to take over as director at the city's Deutsche Oper starting in the 2011/2012 season.
The city announced in a statement Thursday that the 53-year-old would take over in the summer of 2011. Schwarz is currently the opera director at the Theater Basel. His contract in Berlin will run until 2017.
Schwarz will take over from Kristen Harns, who caused an uproar in 2006 for canceling a Mozart opera that featured the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad. Harns cited security concerns following the international protests over a Danish paper's publication of caricatures of depicting Muhammad.
The Deutsche Oper is one of three opera houses in reunified Berlin and the only one in the former western sector.
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