When the illustrious conductor Tullio Serafin was appointed artistic director of the Teatro Reale dell’Opera in 1935, he set up a chorus of 90 members, the same number as the present-day Coro della Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera. From the very outset, the Chorus has played a key role in the artistic life of the theatre and the city, acquitting itself admirably in the great seasons of the last century, the summer seasons at the Baths of Caracalla inaugurated in 1937, to the important events of our day, including the centenary celebration of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca, broadcast by the first channel of Italian radio and TV on 14 January 2000. While the primary focus of the Chorus of the Teatro dell’Opera is the opera repertoire ranging from the eighteenth century to contemporary music, it has also distinguished itself in splendid performances of symphonic and religious music under the baton of the most distinguished conductors including Toscanini, De Sabata, Gavazzeni, von Karajan, Giulini, Patanè, Mehta, Bernstein, Prêtre, Solti, Sinopoli, Oren, Nelson and Gelmetti, the present musical conductor, with whom recordings have been made of Iris by Pietro Mascagni and La fiamma by Ottorino Respighi.
The Chorus has recently appeared in a number of important tournée in Japan, in Hannover (Expo 2000), at the Kremlin in 2003, in Sydney (2004) with the Messa di Requiem by G. Verdi conducted by Maestro Gelmetti, with orchestra groups from the Sidney Opera House. The artistic level has always been guaranteed by the commitment of renowned chorus masters such as Benaglio, Conca, Lazzari, Boni, Parodi, Piccillo, D’Angelo, Rosetta, Meister, Gandolfi, Balatsch, and Seminara.
Since October 2000 the chorus is conducted by Andrea Giorgi.