‘O hehrstes Wunder!’ For Hermann Grampp, Thielemann’s conducting of the ‘Ring’ in the Berlin Staatsoper’s new production is a wonder of our age

It has been (at least since 1990) an unwritten law in Berlin that, at a certain level of fame, you stick to but one of the two major opera houses in the city and never switch to the other. It may have to do with the fact that Daniel Barenboim had been in power at the Staatsoper (former East Berlin) continuously since 1992, and the fact that Christian Thielemann had been general music director at the Deutsche Oper (former West Berlin) between 1997 and 2004. During this period the rivalry – musically, personally, if not politically – between the two alpha maestros might have added to this situation. At any rate, switching to the ‘other side’ of an imaginary musical Berlin Wall was simply out of the question. It was therefore remarkable news when it was announced in June that Thielemann would replace Barenboim, who was ill, to conduct two concerts with the Berlin Staatskapelle, the orchestra of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Barenboim’s child.