The Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera was founded together with the Teatro Costanzi, which opened in 1880.
It has performed the premieres of Cavalleria Rusticana, L’Amico Fritz, Iris, and Tosca, and was conducted by such figures as Pietro Mascagni, Igor Stravinskij, and Riccardo Zandonai.
The transformation of the Teatro Costanzi into the Teatro Reale dell’Opera di Roma in 1928 gave the orchestra a more international character confirmed by the constant presence of the greatest conductors and opera singers ever since its foundation.
The figures that succeeded one another as permanent conductors up to the end of the 1950s include such luminaries as Gino Marinuzzi, Tullio Serafin, and Gabriele Santini, who forged the orchestra’s characteristic features of great ductility and mellowness of tone. In more recent years, the orchestra has been led by Bruno Bartoletti, Daniel Oren, and Gianluigi Gelmetti, the present Director of Music.
The other great conductors who have successfully worked with the orchestra include Toscanini, De Sabata, Gavazzeni, von Karajan, Giulini, Patanè, Mehta, Bernstein, Prêtre, Solti, Sinopoli, Oren, Nelson, Schippers, Maag, Fedosseyev, Ahronovich, Rostropovich, Plasson, and Tate.