Rome Opera House

The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma occupies the front of Piazza Beniamino Gigli 7, behind Via Nazionale and a few steps from Piazza della Repubblica: the right stop is Repubblica Teatro dell’Opera on metro line A, which comes out 200 meters from the entrance portico. At street level the area is served by lines H, 40, 60, 64, 70, 71, 116T and 170 along Via Nazionale, the 70 and 71 on Via Depretis, the 16, 75, 84, 150 festivo, 360, 590, 649 and 714 on Via Cavour, and the cluster that gravitates on Termini with 16, 38, 75, 86, 90, 217, 310, 360, 649 and 714. The Foundation's switchboard answers at 06 481601, the ticket office at 06 48160255 and at 06 4817003. Tickets are bought at the theater's box office, by phone, by email or on the authorized sales channel indicated by the official website, where purchase by credit card carries no fees. Young people and students up to 30 and those over 65 get a 25 percent discount by showing an ID, for spectators with disabilities the reduction is 25 percent or five euros. Prices change title by title and section by section, so the exact fare for the performance you're interested in is read on the seating chart published by the theater. The historic hall, the Costanzi, today has about 1,560 seats, the other venues of the Foundation are the Teatro Nazionale at Via del Viminale 51 and, in summer, the open-air stage of the Baths of Caracalla.

If you're building a musical itinerary in the city, the page on the Baths of Caracalla is the natural complement to this one: in winter you go to the Costanzi, in summer the same orchestra and the same chorus move among the brick walls of the Severan baths.

How to Get to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Without Picking the Wrong Entrance

The theater has a peculiarity that disorients first-timers: the building you see from the square is not the one from 1880. The facade on Piazza Beniamino Gigli is the result of the twentieth-century remodeling, while the original entrance opened elsewhere, on Via Firenze side. If you arrive by metro you get out at Repubblica, take Via Torino toward the south and in three minutes you're in front of the portico. If you arrive from Termini it's a walk of a scant 10 minutes along Via Cavour or Via Depretis. If you arrive by bus from Via Nazionale you get off at the height of Via Torino and turn left.

Metro, Bus and Taxi for the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Line A is the most convenient route by far: the station carries the theater in its name, Repubblica Teatro dell’Opera, and after the show it lets you get back to the center without looking for a taxi in the rain. Watch the schedule, though: the last weekday ride doesn't wait for the audience of long recitatives, and a second act that ends past 23:00 leaves you on foot. The surface lines that pass through Via Nazionale are the most frequent, with H, 40, 60, 64, 70, 71, 116T and 170. On Via Depretis the 70 and 71 stop. On Via Cavour the 16, 75, 84, 150 festivo, 360, 590, 649 and 714 go through. From Termini, which is the richest hub, the 16, 38, 75, 86, 90, 217, 310, 360, 649 and 714 arrive. For a taxi the reference point is stand 6645, with reservations at the number 06 6696. The advice is to book the ride home before going into the hall: at the exit, with 1,500 people leaving together, the line for a car lasts longer than the third act.

By Car: The ZTL and the Garages Affiliated With the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The theater is located inside the limited traffic zone of the Centro Storico, active Monday to Friday between 6.30 and 18.00 and on Saturday between 14.00 and 18.00. The theater flags two affiliated garages, one inside and one outside the perimeter. Inside the ZTL there is Euro Parking at Via Napoli 66, with a rate of five euros for the whole duration of the show. Outside the ZTL there is Parking Esedra at Via Modena 10, again five euros, with the addition of half an hour before and half an hour after the performance. The agreements also apply to the audience of the Teatro Nazionale. Blunt opinion: coming by car to an opening night is a masochistic choice, because between electronic gates, one-way streets and the simultaneous exit of a thousand cars you lose more time than you gain. The metro costs less than a coffee and leaves you at the door.

Tickets, Prices and Discounts at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The pricing policy of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma follows the logic of all Italian opera foundations: the cost depends on the section, the title and the day. A midweek repertory performance costs much less than an opening night with an international cast, and the same seat changes price between December and July. For this reason the theater publishes, for each production, a seating chart with the division into sections and the relative price list: that is the source to look at before deciding.

Where to Buy Tickets for the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Four ways. The first is the theater's box office, which remains the best channel for those who want to choose the seat looking at the chart together with a human being. The second is online purchase on the channel authorized by the theater, which the official website declares free of additional fees. The third is the phone, through the authorized reseller's call center. The fourth is booking by phone, fax or email, useful for groups. The ticket office answers at 06 48160255 and at 06 4817003, and the reference address is ufficio.biglietteria@operaroma.it.

Discounts: Under 30, Over 65, Groups and Affiliations

The picture of the concessions is clear and worth knowing. Young people and students up to 30 and spectators over 65 buy with a 25 percent discount, upon showing an ID. For the summer season at the Baths of Caracalla the reduction drops to 10 percent for all categories. Cultural associations, C.R.A.L. and affiliated bodies get 10 percent with a minimum of 10 people, a percentage that rises to 20 percent for non-subscription performances in the historic hall. Discounts do not apply to premium sections, that is the front rows of the stalls, the balcony and the gallery, and are not valid for performances classified as extra. For affiliated bodies the request is sent to promozione.pubblico@operaroma.it, with phone reference 06 48160312. There is also a card dedicated to the young audience, the Carta Giovani Opera, designed for people under 30.

Subscriptions, Refunds and Lost Tickets

The Foundation offers articulated subscription packages: the broadest formula covers the entire opera season, others are dedicated to dance or concerts, and there are specific ones for the under 30 audience. On the refund front the rule is strict and worth knowing beforehand: purchased tickets are neither refunded nor exchanged, except in case of cancellation of the show, in which case the refund takes place within five days by presenting the ticket at the box office, without return of any brokerage fees. At the Baths of Caracalla, rain that arrives after the first act gives no right to any refund: it is the clause that generates the most arguments at the exit every year. The ticket is valid only for the date and time indicated, is not transferable and cannot be moved. In case of loss no duplicates are issued: you have to show up in person at the box office and fill out a loss declaration indicating the seat exactly. The theater reserves the right to change dates, program and cast distribution.

The Teatro Costanzi: How Rome as a Capital Gave Itself an Opera House

To understand the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma you have to start from a fact that today seems incredible: in 1870, when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, the city did not have an opera house up to the task. It had glorious and small halls, like the Argentina and the Valle, born for an audience of prelates and Roman nobles, not for the bourgeoisie that was arriving from the north with the ministries. Milan had La Scala, Naples the San Carlo, Venice the Fenice. Rome, the capital, had nothing comparable. The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is born exactly from this void, and it is born from private initiative, not public.

Domenico Costanzi, the Hotelier Who Bought a Valley

Even before the capital was moved to Rome, Monsignor Francesco Saverio de Mérode, owner of the San Vitale valley, understood that urbanizing the route between the nascent railway station and Via del Corso would be an enormous business. Via Nazionale would rise along that axis. Domenico Costanzi, a real estate entrepreneur from the Marche, joined the operation and bought land. In 1874 he built the Hotel Quirinale there, which today is listed among the Locali storici d’Italia. On the neighboring lot he decided to build the opera house that the new capital lacked, and in 1879 he commissioned its design.

The move of the hotel next to the theater was not chance: it was strategy. Costanzi connected the two buildings with a reserved underground passage, so that the hired artists could stay at the hotel and reach the stage without setting foot in the street. For a tenor on tour, in the unpaved and windy Rome of the 1880s, it was a recruiting argument almost more convincing than the fee.

Achille Sfondrini and the Horseshoe Hall of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The project went to Achille Sfondrini, a Milanese architect who specialized in theater buildings and worked in the Neo-Renaissance style then in fashion. Sfondrini designed a horseshoe-shaped hall, conceived, as the Foundation itself states, to work as a sounding board and amplify the sound of the operas performed. The original plan included three tiers of boxes, an amphitheater and a gallery, for a capacity of around 2,212 spectators, now reduced to about 1,560 seats for reasons of safety and comfort. The dome was frescoed by Annibale Brugnoli of Perugia. The construction lasted 18 months: a speed that in 1880 was worth a sports record and that today, in Rome, sounds like a legend.

The Inauguration of November 27, 1880 with Semiramide

The theater was inaugurated on November 27, 1880, in the presence of King Umberto I of Savoy and Queen Margherita, with Gioachino Rossini's Semiramide. The choice of title was not neutral: Semiramide is an opera from 1823, Rossini's last Italian score, monumental, vocally prohibitive, exactly the kind of challenge with which a new theater declares to the world that it is not a provincial hall. It was, in a sense, a political statement in music.

The venture, however, did not prove profitable. Costanzi had to pledge his own assets to keep it going and remained impresario until his death, when his son Enrico succeeded him. The historical truth is that for its first 40 years the Costanzi was a splendid theater and chronically in the red: in Umbertine Rome the public that could afford a subscription was not enough to cover the costs of an ambitious season.

Walter Mocchi, Emma Carelli and the Impresa Costanzi

In 1907 the administrative management passed to the impresario Walter Mocchi. In 1912 his wife Emma Carelli, a soprano of standing who had trodden the major stages, became its director and head of the new Impresa Costanzi. It is a passage that deserves more attention than it usually gets: in the 1910s, a woman at the head of a major European opera house was an absolute rarity. Carelli held the helm for 14 seasons, widened the repertoire toward foreign music theater and brought Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company to Rome.

Marcello Piacentini and the Two Transformations of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

In 1926 the theater changed hands: the City of Rome bought it and took over its management. From that moment the Costanzi stopped being a private enterprise and became the opera institution of the capital. The immediate consequence was a building site.

The 1926-1928 Works and the Teatro Reale dell’Opera

The works of completion, expansion and renovation were entrusted to Marcello Piacentini, the architect who would sign the monumental Rome of the ventennio. The theater closed on November 15, 1926. Piacentini completely redid the exterior facades, added a fourth tier to the three original tiers of boxes and redesigned the entrance. The theater took the name Teatro Reale dell’Opera and was reinaugurated on February 27, 1928 with Arrigo Boito's Nerone conducted by Gino Marinuzzi. Here too the choice of title says it all: Nerone is Boito's unfinished, posthumous opera, set in imperial Rome, and reopening with it meant claiming a theater that was Roman by subject as well as by address.

The Crystal Chandelier of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The element everyone remembers after a first visit is the chandelier. Piacentini had a huge crystal fixture installed which, according to the Foundation's description, has 27,000 drops and lit the hall for the first time on the evening of February 27, 1928. At the time it was presented as the largest in Europe. Watch it as the hall goes dark: the lights dim by degrees and the crystal goes from white to amber before vanishing into the dark. It's the best moment of the evening and it lasts eight seconds.

The Relocated Entrance and the Facade Piacentini Didn’t Build

With the 1926 works the formal entrance was eliminated, which faced the gardens behind the Hotel Quirinale and was reached from a dead-end alley that has since disappeared. The main entrance was moved from Via Firenze to Via del Viminale. Because of the tight timeline it was not possible to build the new facade on the square according to the more radical design that Piacentini had prepared and which remained unpublished. This is one of the reasons the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, seen from outside, disappoints anyone who expects Garnier-style scenography: the facade you see is a compromise, not the design its architect had in mind.

The 1930 Buccolini Organ

In 1930 the Buccolini organ-building firm set up a pipe organ with one keyboard and pedalboard, hidden to the right of the stage behind an expressive grille. It's used in the scores that call for it, from Tosca to Cavalleria rusticana, and the audience almost never notices where the sound comes from. The same firm restored it in 2004.

Piacentini’s Second Intervention, 1958-1960

With the move to the Republic the adjective royal disappeared from the name. In 1956 the City of Rome entrusted Piacentini himself with a new expansion and restoration project, begun in 1958 and completed in 1960, in the climate of urban renewal that accompanied the Olympic Games. The works brought the grand staircase, the foyer of the boxes, new rooms for offices, new furnishings and the rebuilding of the facade in a twentieth-century style. This is the look the theater keeps today. Anyone who enters from the portico and climbs the staircase is walking inside the last Roman project of one of the most debated architects of the century.

What You See Inside the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

A visit to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is not a museum visit: you go in for a performance, and what you see depends on where you sit. Still, it's worth arriving 40 minutes early and walking through the spaces calmly, because the interior route tells of three overlapping eras.

The Portico, the Grand Staircase and the Foyers

You enter under the portico of Piazza Beniamino Gigli, which is the latest part of the building. The vestibule leads to the grand staircase built in the 1958-1960 intervention: light marble, sober railings, a twentieth-century taste that today we read as elegant and that in the 1960s simply seemed modern. From the foyer of the boxes you reach the upper levels. At intermission the foyer is the place where you understand what audience goes to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma: much less worldly than its reputation lets you believe, with a clear prevalence of Roman subscribers who know each other by name.

The Hall and the Four Tiers of Boxes of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The hall is horseshoe-shaped, following Sfondrini's layout conceived as a sounding board. To the three original tiers Piacentini added a fourth in the 1926-1928 works. Above the boxes run the amphitheater and the gallery. The current capacity is about 1,560 seats, against the 2,212 of the nineteenth-century design: the reduction is the price paid for wider seats, safety exits and modern regulations. The red of the velvets and the gold of the stuccoes are the usual livery of Italian-style theaters, but the proportions of the hall of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma are more compact than you'd expect, and this is its acoustic good fortune: no one is truly far from the stage.

The Dome Frescoed by Annibale Brugnoli

The ceiling is the most nineteenth-century part of what you see: the dome painted by Annibale Brugnoli, a Perugian painter active in Rome in the second half of the nineteenth century, which survived both of Piacentini's building campaigns. Brugnoli worked in many Roman interiors of that period with a repertoire of allegorical figures and false architecture. Looking at it requires tipping your head back, and the right moment is as soon as you enter, with the hall still lit and half empty: with the lights off you won't see it anymore.

Where to Sit at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma: The Opinion of Someone Who Has Been Going for Years

The central orchestra section, from row 6 to row 12, is the best place to hear and see together, and that's why it costs more. The first three rows are a mistake many people make: you're below the level of the stage, you look at the singer from below and the orchestra pit covers part of the orchestral sound. The side boxes of the first two tiers offer a partial view and a lower price: if you go for the music and not for the set design, they're a bargain. The gallery of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is the choice of Romans who go often: you see everything from above, the sound arrives compact and you spend little. In a horseshoe theater the worst seat is never the farthest one, but the most lateral one in the low boxes.

A Curiosity About the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The best curiosity concerns a tunnel. When Domenico Costanzi built his theater next to the Hotel Quirinale, which had opened in 1874 on the newly created Via Nazionale, he didn't just put them side by side: he connected them with an underground passage. The reason was practical and commercial at once. The engaged artists stayed at the hotel owned by the same impresario and reached the stage by crossing the underground, without going out in the street, without meeting admirers, without exposing their throats to the air of Rome. For a nineteenth-century opera singer, who considered a draft a professional threat, it was a rare privilege. For Costanzi it was a way to fill the same guest twice, with the room and with the contract.

The consequence is that the history of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma can't be read only in the hall. It can also be read in the hotel next door, which today appears in the list of the Locali storici d’Italia and which for decades housed the voices that were about to debut a few meters away. Anyone passing along Via Nazionale in front of the Quirinale usually sees an ordinary hotel. In reality that building is the first piece of the theater, built six years before the theater itself, and without it the Costanzi would probably never have been built. The Roman impresario was not a patron: he was a real estate developer who had understood that an opera house raises the value of a neighborhood, and that a hotel attached to an opera house fills up by itself. The fact that he then lost his own personal assets keeping the season alive is the romantic part of a story that began as an urban development operation along the axis that leads from the station to the Corso.

I'll add a detail that completes the picture: the dead-end alley from which you reached the formal entrance facing the gardens behind the hotel no longer exists, erased by Piacentini's works. The theater you see has therefore lost its original noble entrance, and the only way to imagine it is to mentally reconstruct the geography of that block before 1926.

The World Premieres That Made the History of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The Costanzi is not a theater that hosts other people's masterpieces: it is a theater where some masterpieces were born. Two, in particular, changed the history of Italian opera, and they were born 17 years apart on the same stage.

Cavalleria rusticana, May 17, 1890: Verismo Is Born

Pietro Mascagni was 26, conducted a philharmonic in Cerignola and had submitted Cavalleria rusticana to a competition for one-act operas announced by the publisher Sonzogno. He won. The world premiere took place at the Costanzi on May 17, 1890, with Gemma Bellincioni and Roberto Stagno. From that evening Italian opera changed direction: out with kings and queens, in with Sicilian peasants, the knife, jealousy, Easter Mass. Musical verismo was born here, in this hall, in a one-act work of 70 minutes. In the same season the Costanzi also hosted the premiere of Mala Pasqua by Stanislao Gastaldon, which started from the same short story by Giovanni Verga: history rewarded Mascagni and forgot Gastaldon, and it's a textbook case of how thin the line is between a masterpiece and a title nobody stages again.

Tosca, January 14, 1900: The Most Roman Opera There Is

Giacomo Puccini gave the Costanzi the world premiere of Tosca on January 14, 1900. It is the most Roman opera in the repertoire: it opens in Sant’Andrea della Valle, continues at Palazzo Farnese and ends on the platform of Castel Sant'Angelo, all places you can walk in one afternoon. That it was born a few hundred meters from those places is not a folkloric detail: Puccini insisted that the bells of the third act reproduce the real sounds heard at dawn from the Janiculum and from Castel Sant’Angelo, and sent collaborators to capture them. On March 9, 2004 the theater presented again the historic staging of that premiere, a rare philological operation and rightly celebrated.

Mascagni at Home at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Mascagni was a regular at the theater, of which he was also artistic director in the 1909-1910 season, and he gave several premieres there. After Cavalleria rusticana came L’amico Fritz on October 31, 1891, conducted by Rodolfo Ferrari with Fernando De Lucia and Paul Lhérie. In 1898 it was the turn of Iris, with Enrico Caruso on the playbill. On January 17, 1901 Le maschere was staged, an opera that Mascagni debuted simultaneously in several Italian theaters on the same evening, a resounding publicity experiment and, in large part, a failure. In 1917 came Lodoletta. Five premieres in the same theater are the signature of a relationship that goes beyond chance.

Puccini, Leoncavallo, Zandonai, Alfano

Besides Tosca, Puccini brought to the Costanzi the Italian premiere of La Fanciulla del West, conducted by Arturo Toscanini in 1911, and the Italian premiere of Gianni Schicchi in 1919. Ruggero Leoncavallo presented the premiere of Maia there in 1910. 10 years later Riccardo Zandonai gave the premiere of Giulietta e Romeo there. On January 5, 1952 Franco Alfano's Sakùntala was staged in world premiere, a reworking of the earlier Leggenda di Sakuntala performed at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna on December 10, 1921, whose score had been lost during the Second World War: Alfano rewrote the opera from memory, and the Costanzi gave it a second life.

Cecilia by Licinio Refice, February 15, 1934

At the Teatro Reale dell’Opera, directed by Marcello Govoni, the world premiere of Cecilia was performed on February 15, 1934, an opera in three episodes and four scenes composed by the priest Licinio Refice, born in Patrica in 1883 and died in Rio de Janeiro in 1954. The subject is the life of Saint Cecilia, a Roman martyr of the third century. The success was great, thanks also to the performance of Claudia Muzio, one of the most celebrated sopranos of the time. The opera reached the stage after a decade-long battle that Refice waged with the civil and religious authorities: the score was ready as early as 1922 and the author hoped to stage it for the Holy Year of 1925. A priest-composer bringing a saint onto the stage was, in the Rome of those years, delicate material on both fronts.

The Other World Premieres of the Costanzi Between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

The list is longer than collective memory preserves. In 1888 the Costanzi hosted the world premiere of Medgé by Spiro Samara, with Emma Calvé. In 1890, besides Cavalleria rusticana and Gastaldon's Mala Pasqua, Vincenzo Ferroni's Rudello was staged. In 1896 it was the turn of Giacomo Setaccioli's Sorella di Mark. These are titles that nobody performs today, and yet they tell the real function of a major theater at the end of the nineteenth century: a forge that produced a lot, got it wrong often and every so often hit a masterpiece.

Something Nobody Tells You About the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Nobody will tell you that the resident orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is 25 years younger than the theater, and that for a quarter of a century the opera seasons of the capital were played by makeshift ensembles, put together performance by performance. The reason was economic and structural: the impresario managements that ran the theater until 1926 worked on a precarious and occasional basis, and had no interest in keeping 140 orchestra players under contract for 12 months a year. The result, in terms of quality, was what you can imagine.

The turning point came in 1905 at the will of the city councilor Count Enrico di Sanmartino, who convinced the Rome City Council to create the Orchestra Municipale, 100 members, a large part of them from the Banda Municipale. That ensemble became the Orchestra del Teatro Costanzi and remained so until 1926. The transformation of the Costanzi into the Teatro Reale dell’Opera pushed the management and the city administration to set up a truly permanent orchestral ensemble, even if on a seasonal contract. In 1935 the City of Rome, through the vice governor Marquis Dentice d'Accadia in his capacity as artistic director, set the overall complement of the staff and brought the orchestra to 143 members, including the band's players.

The chorus is even more recent: the Coro del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma has taken part in the artistic life of the theater since 1935, at the will of Tullio Serafin, then artistic director of the Teatro Reale dell’Opera. Serafin is the same conductor who a few years later would build Maria Callas's repertoire. Here is the point that almost no guide explains: when you hear an impeccable chorus in a Nabucco or a Turandot at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, you are listening to an institution born in the full swing of the 1930s, not a nineteenth-century inheritance. The two permanent soundtracks of this theater, orchestra and chorus, are respectively 120 and barely 90 years old: much less than the wall that surrounds them.

Orchestra, Chorus and Musical Direction of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Today the Foundation has a permanent musical director: Michele Mariotti, born in Pesaro, trained in composition at the Conservatorio Rossini and in conducting at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese, who has been music director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma since February 2022. Before arriving in Rome he had been principal conductor and then music director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and he has conducted at La Scala, the Metropolitan in New York, the Royal Opera House in London, the Opéra in Paris, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. In 2016 the Associazione Nazionale Italiana Critici Musicali awarded him the 36th Premio Abbiati as best conductor of the year. The superintendency is entrusted to Francesco Giambrone, formerly superintendent of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, who arrived in Rome at the end of 2021 after the eight years of Carlo Fuortes, appointed on December 23, 2013 and in office until December 27, 2021.

In August 2011 Riccardo Muti received the appointment as Honorary Director for life of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, where he had taken over the musical direction in 2008. The relationship between Muti and this theater is one of the most intense and most conflict-ridden chapters of recent Italian musical life, and it left in the orchestra a school of sound that is still recognizable today in the Verdi repertoire.

The Ballet Company and the Dance School of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Anyone who thinks of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma only as a home of melodrama forgets half of its identity. The theater has a permanent ballet company and a dance school among the oldest in Italy, and the ballet season has always had a popular following in the city.

The Firebird and the Ballets Russes, April 9, 1917

The date that matters is April 9, 1917: at the Costanzi the Italian premiere of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird was held, performed by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company. We are in the middle of the world war, and Diaghilev was bringing to Rome the repertoire that had revolutionized European dance. That Roman tour is one of the decisive episodes in the relationship between the avant-gardes of the early twentieth century and the Italian capital.

The Companies and Stars Who Passed Through the Roman Stage

Since immediately after the war the American Ballet Theatre and the Sadler's Wells, today the Royal Ballet, have performed here, together with the Soviet stars Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maksimova. In the 1950s Attilia Radice and Guido Lauri danced in the world premieres of the main traditional ballets, later taking over the direction of the school and the company respectively. Among the many names who signed dance productions in this theater are Erik Bruhn, Zarko Prebil, Roland Petit, Maya Plisetskaya, Carla Fracci and Paolo Bortoluzzi.

The Dance School of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Since 1928

The Dance School was founded in 1928, the same year as the reopening as Teatro Reale dell’Opera, and is today among the oldest and most prestigious professional dance schools in Italy. It isn't based in the theater: it occupies a historic villa at Via Ozieri 8, in a quiet area near the Acquedotto Felice. The villa has a small film glory, because Luchino Visconti used it as a set for Bellissima in 1951. The school trains professional dancers starting in childhood and also offers a two-year course for teachers of classical academic dance, with a third year of specialization. Admission is by selection and attracts students from all over Italy and abroad.

Eleonora Abbagnato at the Head of Dance

Since 2015 the direction of the Ballet Company has been entrusted to Eleonora Abbagnato, étoile of the Paris Opéra, and since August 2022 Abbagnato also directs the Dance School. A native of Palermo, she began studying at four, trained between Monte Carlo, Cannes and Paris, entered the Ballet of the Paris Opéra in 1996 and on March 27, 2013 was named étoile, the first Italian to reach that milestone. She has danced in works by Nureyev, Balanchine, Forsythe and Béjart. In 2010 President Sarkozy named her Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite, and in March 2023 the Italian Minister of Culture named her president of the Consiglio superiore dello spettacolo.

My Advice for Visiting the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

There is only one piece of advice and it's worth more than all the others: don't pick the evening by the famous title, pick it by the performance. Season openings have the worst audience a theater can have, made up of people who come to be seen, applaud at the wrong moments and chat during the preludes. Midweek repeat performances, the third or the fourth, have the same cast, an orchestra by now well broken in on the title, tickets that cost noticeably less and a hall of real listeners. If you go to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma only once in your life, go to a Tuesday or Wednesday repeat.

Second piece of advice, a practical one. Buy early and buy on the theater's official channel, where purchase by credit card is stated to be free of fees: for the popular titles, Tosca, Traviata, The Nutcracker, the cheaper sections sell out weeks ahead. If you are under 30 or over 65, bring your ID and ask for the 25 percent discount: it's not automatic, you have to ask for it, and it applies to a large part of the sections with the exclusion of the first rows of the orchestra, the balcony and the gallery.

Third piece of advice, about the evening. Arrive 40 minutes early. The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma doesn't have huge waiting areas and in the last 10 minutes before the start the entrance becomes a funnel. With 40 minutes of margin you have time to leave your coat, climb the grand staircase, look at Brugnoli's dome with the hall still lit, read the playbill and sit down without stepping over 12 people. If the performance is at the Teatro Nazionale at Via del Viminale 51, know that it is a completely different hall, carved out of a cinema from the 1920s, with a much closer relationship between spectator and stage.

Fourth and last: don't trust the running time printed in the program. In Italian opera the intermissions are long and in two cases out of three the evening ends 20 minutes after the scheduled time. If you have to catch the last metro, check beforehand the closing time of Line A and allow for the delay. The theater also recommends a minimum age of four to attend performances: below that threshold the hall is the wrong choice, for the child and for whoever is sitting next to them.

The Other Homes of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma: Nazionale, Caracalla, Circo Massimo

The Foundation doesn't live in a single building. The orchestra, chorus and ballet company of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma also have the Sala Respighi, inside the Galleria Regina Margherita, the Teatro Nazionale and above all the open-air stage of the Terme di Caracalla.

The Teatro Nazionale, a 1925 Cinema Turned Opera House

The Teatro Nazionale is at Via del Viminale 51, at the corner of Via Agostino Depretis, a stone's throw from the Costanzi. It opened in 1925 as a movie theater under the name Supercinema, designed by the architects Arnaldo Foschini and Attilio Spaccarelli with the engineer Giacomo Giobbe, on behalf of the commendatore Urbano Rattazzi, who carved it out of a preexisting building. It measured 36 meters by 30 and held 2,500 spectators between orchestra and galleries. The interior decorations were in Italian Liberty style, with gilded stuccoes, paintings, stones and fabrics, and the presence of an orchestra pit indicates that it also hosted variety and live shows, not just screenings. After the Second World War it became a pure cinema. At the end of the 1990s the City of Rome bought the former Supercinema and entrusted it to the Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera di Roma as a second venue. Today you see productions of a more compact, contemporary format there, and dance shows: anyone who wants to understand where the Foundation's programming is going should look at the schedule of the Nazionale before that of the Costanzi.

The Terme di Caracalla, the Summer Season Since 1937

The Baths of Caracalla are the summer home of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and one of the fixed appointments of the Roman summer. The baths, which the Romans called Antoniniane after the name of their founder Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus, known as Caracalla, were inaugurated in 216 AD, although scholars believe the undertaking had been conceived by his father Septimius Severus. The theatrical adventure begins in 1937 as an experimental initiative: Governor Piero Colonna announced it to the press on July 27, 1937 and the inaugural season opened on August 1 with Lucia di Lammermoor, starring Toti Dal Monte and Beniamino Gigli, with Oliviero De Fabritiis on the podium. The five experimental performances became about 40 as early as the following season. A cavea holding 20,000 spectators was built and the stage was moved to the area of the calidarium. Aida is the most performed title in the history of the place, and it's no accident: no other space in the world allows you to stage a triumphal march inside an authentic imperial monument.

The story was interrupted between 1940 and 1945 by the war, resumed after the war and continued until 1993. In 2001 the festival returned with a mobile stage set-up, designed to preserve the atmosphere of the place and at the same time guarantee the protection of the ancient structures: this is the new logistical situation that distinguishes today's Caracalla from the one with 20,000 seats. The address is Viale delle Terme di Caracalla. Discount of 10 percent for the eligible categories. And a warning that matters more than any other: in case of rain after the first act no refund is provided.

The Circo Massimo

In 2020 and 2021 the summer season of opera and ballet was held at the Circus Maximus, where it was possible to set up a larger seating area, orchestra pit and stage, so as to respect the distancing imposed by the pandemic. The valley between the Palatine and the Aventine has continued to host large open-air productions: the summer program of the Foundation can be read on the page of the Caracalla Festival at the Circo Massimo.

Another Well-Known Fact, Yet Seldom Cited

Everyone knows that the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma was called Teatro Costanzi and that today it carries another name. But almost no one remembers that, in between, it was called for almost 20 years the Teatro Reale dell’Opera, and that the adjective was not an ornament: it was an institutional declaration. In 1926 the theater was bought by the public authority and renamed royal, and under that name it went on stage on February 27, 1928 with Boito's Nerone. With the advent of the Republic the adjective dropped and the theater took its current name. In a single plaque, then, you can read the whole political history of twentieth-century Italy: the private enterprise of the nineteenth century, the monarchical state takeover of the ventennio, the republican foundation.

The architectural corollary is cited even less. The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma you see is not the work of a single architect but of two, 80 years apart, and the second worked twice on the same building. Achille Sfondrini designed in 1878-1880 the horseshoe hall, the dome, the three tiers of boxes. Marcello Piacentini intervened between 1926 and 1928 on the facades, entrance and fourth tier of boxes, and then again between 1958 and 1960 on the facade, grand staircase and foyer. The result is that the outer shell is twentieth-century and the inner soul is nineteenth-century. Anyone who enters expecting a homogeneous building is thrown off. Anyone who knows how to read the layers finds in it one of the clearest documents of how Rome rewrote itself in the last century.

Third element rarely cited: the facade design that Piacentini had prepared for the square was never built for lack of time and remained unpublished. There exists, then, an alternative Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, drawn and never built, sleeping in an archive. It's the kind of detail that changes the way you look at a building: that facade is not what the architect wanted, it's what the architect managed to do by the reopening date.

The Right Photo to Take at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The photo everyone takes is the facade on Piazza Beniamino Gigli by day, and it is the worst possible: flat front, harsh light, parked cars, no depth. Piacentini's twentieth-century front doesn't stand up to a high sun. The right photo at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is a different one and requires two conditions: darkness and the interior.

The first shot to look for is the facade at the blue hour, that is in the 20 minutes after sunset, when the lights of the portico are already on and the sky still keeps a residue of deep blue. In that window the relation between the warm light of the building and the sky works, the traffic on Via del Viminale leaves trails and the square gains the scenography it lacks by day. Position yourselves on the opposite side of the square, slightly off-center toward Via Torino, so as to catch the portico at three-quarters and not head-on: the oblique angle gives volume back to an otherwise two-dimensional front.

The second shot, the truly rare one, is the hall before the start. Enter early, go up to the gallery even if you have a seat in the orchestra section, and photograph from above with the hall lit and half empty: take the chandelier in the foreground and the curve of the four tiers of boxes descending toward the proscenium. It's the only vantage point from which you understand Sfondrini's horseshoe layout and from which Piacentini's chandelier doesn't become an overexposed white blotch. Rest the camera on the parapet, because the exposure time will be long and the flash is useless as well as rude.

Non-negotiable rule: no photographing during the performance. Not only a matter of regulations, but because a lit screen in a dark hall ruins the evening for 30 people and distracts the singers. If you want a memento, take it before the lights go down or during the final applause, when the curtain is up and shooting is tolerated in many halls. The third shot not to overlook is the dome of Annibale Brugnoli: wide-angle lens, back resting against the seat back, camera pointed vertically. With the hall lit it comes out well. With the lights off don't even try.

Some Important Events That Took Place Here Through History

The first event is the inauguration itself, on November 27, 1880, with Rossini's Semiramide before Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy. Rome, the capital for 10 years, was finally equipping itself with an opera house on a par with the other European capitals, and was doing it with the money of a private citizen from the Marche, not with the State's.

The second is May 17, 1890, with the world premiere of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana performed by Gemma Bellincioni and Roberto Stagno. Within a single evening an unknown 26-year-old composer became the most talked-about name in Europe and the verismo school had its manifesto. Few theaters in the world can say they have christened an entire movement.

The third is January 14, 1900, world premiere of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca. The opera most tied to Roman topography was born a few hundred meters from the places where it is set, and on March 9, 2004 the theater presented its historic staging again.

The fourth is April 9, 1917, with the Italian premiere of Stravinsky's The Firebird brought by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in the middle of the world war: the European avant-garde was entering Rome through the main door.

The fifth is November 15, 1926, the day of the closing for Piacentini's building site, and February 27, 1928, the reopening as Teatro Reale dell’Opera with Arrigo Boito's Nerone conducted by Gino Marinuzzi, under a crystal chandelier of 27,000 drops lit for the first time that evening.

The sixth is August 1, 1937, when the summer season at the Terme di Caracalla opened with Lucia di Lammermoor, Toti Dal Monte and Beniamino Gigli on the stage and Oliviero De Fabritiis on the podium, after Governor Piero Colonna's announcement to the press on July 27. From five experimental performances it went to about 40 the following year.

The seventh is February 15, 1934, with the world premiere of Licinio Refice's Cecilia and Claudia Muzio in the lead, which arrived after a decade-long battle with the civil and ecclesiastical authorities.

The eighth is January 5, 1952, world premiere of Franco Alfano's Sakùntala, an opera rewritten after the wartime loss of the original 1921 score.

The ninth concerns two productions that the oldest Romans still cite: Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro of 1964, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini with staging by Luchino Visconti and with Ilva Ligabue, Mariella Adani and Rolando Panerai, and Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo conducted by Giulini with staging by Visconti in 1965. They were two seasons in which the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma was, simply, the best theater in Italy.

The tenth is August 2011, with the appointment of Riccardo Muti as Honorary Director for life, and the season of institutional renewal that brought first the superintendency of Carlo Fuortes, from December 23, 2013 to December 27, 2021, and then that of Francesco Giambrone. 2020 and 2021 left another mark: the summer season moved to the Circo Massimo to allow distancing.

Who Has Passed Through the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The list of those who have stepped onto this podium is, quite simply, the history of conducting in the twentieth century. At the Costanzi have conducted Otto Klemperer, Victor de Sabata, Vittorio Gui, Gino Marinuzzi, Tullio Serafin, Gabriele Santini, Erich Kleiber, Arturo Toscanini, Antonino Palminteri, Herbert von Karajan, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Carlo Maria Giulini, Thomas Schippers, Claudio Abbado, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Peter Maag, Mstislav Rostropovich, Giuseppe Patanè, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Nino Sanzogno, Lovro von Matačić, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Oliviero De Fabritiis and, since 2008, Riccardo Muti. Since February 2022 the musical direction has been Michele Mariotti's.

On the side of the voices the catalog is just as dizzying. Singing at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma have been Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, after whom the square in front of the theater is named, Feodor Chaliapin, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Aureliano Pertile, Claudia Muzio, Maria Caniglia, Giuseppina Cobelli, Ebe Stignani, Fedora Barbieri, Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Magda Olivero, Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Franco Corelli, Tito Gobbi, Alfredo Kraus, Carlo Bergonzi, Leyla Gencer, Antonietta Stella, Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballé, Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Raina Kabaivanska, Piero Cappuccilli, Renato Bruson, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Ruggero Raimondi, Roberto Alagna, Gino Sinimberghi, Giulio Neri, Leontyne Price, Leo Nucci, Jessica Pratt and Anna Netrebko.

To these must be added the creators of the premieres: Gemma Bellincioni and Roberto Stagno for Cavalleria rusticana in 1890, Fernando De Lucia and Paul Lhérie for L’amico Fritz in 1891, Emma Calvé for Medgé in 1888. And the composers in person, who came here to oversee their own creations: Mascagni, who was also artistic director in the 1909-1910 season, Puccini, Leoncavallo, Zandonai, Alfano, Refice. For dance have passed through Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, Vladimir Vasiliev, Ekaterina Maksimova, and Erik Bruhn, Zarko Prebil, Roland Petit, Maya Plisetskaya, Carla Fracci and Paolo Bortoluzzi have signed productions. On the directing front the name that weighs most is Luchino Visconti's, who here staged the Nozze di Figaro of 1964 and the Don Carlo of 1965 with Giulini on the podium.

One last passage, less known: the villa on Via Ozieri that houses the Dance School was a set for Bellissima, the film that Visconti shot in 1951 with Anna Magnani. The link between this theater and the Milanese director, then, begins before the two opera stagings of the 1960s and passes through a building that is not the theater.

The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma with Children

The theater indicates a recommended minimum age of four for attending performances, and the threshold is realistic. Below that age the wait in the dark becomes intolerable for the child and unbearable for whoever has the seat next to them. Above it, a lot depends on the title. The right repertoire for a first time is ballet: The Nutcracker in December and Swan Lake are shows that a six- or seven-year-old follows without problems, because the story is understood by watching and not by listening to a text sung in a language they don't know. Among the operas, comic and short titles work well, while a four-hour Wagner is the best way to make a kid hate opera for the rest of his life.

A tip on method: tell the plot before going in, in two minutes, without sparing the ending. In opera the spoiler doesn't exist, because the pleasure is in the how and not in the what. A child who already knows that Tosca will throw herself from the Castle follows the third act with 10 times more attention than one who hasn't understood who Scarpia is. The Foundation also has an active educational department, reachable at 06 48160518 and at didattica@operaroma.it, which runs programs aimed at schools and young audiences.

Accessibility at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The theater is accessible to people in wheelchairs, with reserved spaces in the orchestra section and an elevator to reach the upper levels. The reduced rate provides a 25 percent discount or a five-euro ticket. Since the reserved seats are necessarily limited and in a historic hall they can't be multiplied, booking ahead at the box office is not a suggestion but a necessity: call 06 48160255 well in advance and specify the need, so as to arrange the entrance and the seat. The venues of the Foundation have different characteristics from one another, and the access conditions at the Terme di Caracalla, where you walk on open-air archaeological ground, are not comparable to those of the hall in Piazza Beniamino Gigli.

What to Wear at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

A frequent question, and the honest answer is: much less formally than you imagine. At midweek repeat performances the Roman audience shows up in ordinary dress and nobody raises an eyebrow. At season openings, gala performances and the opening night the code rises noticeably, with a dark suit for men and a long or cocktail dress for women, especially in the boxes. The practical rule is simple: dress as for an important dinner and don't err in either direction. A detail that matters more than the outfit: leave your coat at the coat check, because holding it in your arms in an orchestra seat for two and a half hours is a form of self-harm.

What to See Around the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

The location is among the richest in Rome and within a 10-minute walk a disproportionate heritage is concentrated. Toward the north, beyond Piazza della Repubblica, you reach the Terme di Diocleziano, the largest bath complex of imperial Rome, today a section of the Museo Nazionale Romano. Five minutes in the opposite direction, going up toward the Esquiline, you find Santa Maria Maggiore, with the early Christian mosaics of the nave and the coffered ceiling. Going down Via Nazionale you pass in front of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the great nineteenth-century exhibition machine of the capital. A little farther on, toward the Quirinale, is Palazzo Barberini with the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, and on the top of the hill the Quirinal Palace. Continuing you arrive at the Trevi Fountain and, beyond, Via del Corso.

For those who want to stay on a musical theme, Roman geography offers alternatives that differ from one another: the Teatro Brancaccio on Via Merulana and the Teatro Sistina for musicals and major drama, the Teatro Olimpico for dance and concerts, the Auditorium Parco della Musica for the symphonic repertoire, the Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali for those who want to understand up close how the sound they heard in the hall works.

When to Go to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and When to Avoid It

The season of the historic hall roughly covers autumn, winter and spring, while in summer the Foundation moves outdoors. The best period for an evening at the Costanzi is between January and March: the city has few tourists, tickets can be found, the audience is that of the subscribers and the level of listening is high. December is the busiest month because of the Christmas titles, in particular the ballets, and the good seats vanish months ahead.

To avoid, if you can choose: the opening night of the season, for the reasons already stated, and Sunday afternoons, which in Rome gather an audience of regulars with little tolerance for those who arrive late. In summer the logic reverses: you go to Caracalla or the Circo Massimo, you accept the risk of rain and you gain something no closed theater can give, namely a backdrop of imperial ruins 30 meters high behind the singers. If you have to choose a single evening in the whole year and you are in Rome in summer, that's the choice. If you are in Rome in winter, then a midweek repeat at the Costanzi, in the gallery, with your ID in your pocket for the discount.

Quick Questions About the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Where exactly is the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma?

At Piazza Beniamino Gigli 7, between Via del Viminale and Via Firenze, behind Via Nazionale and a few steps from Piazza della Repubblica.

What is the metro stop for the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma?

Repubblica Teatro dell’Opera, on Line A. From the station it's a walk of just under three minutes.

How much does a ticket for the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma cost?

It depends on the title, the section and the day: for each production the theater publishes a seating chart with the corresponding price list, and that's where you read the exact price of the performance you're interested in.

Are there discounts for young people at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma?

Yes. Young people and students up to 30 years old get a 25 percent discount by showing an ID. There is also a card dedicated to the under-30 audience, the Carta Giovani Opera.

And for over-65s?

Same 25 percent discount, upon showing ID. The discounts don't apply to the first rows of the orchestra section, the balcony, the gallery and performances classified as extra.

How many seats does the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma have?

Today about 1,560. The original design by Achille Sfondrini provided for about 2,212 among boxes, amphitheater and gallery.

Why is it also called Teatro Costanzi?

From the name of Domenico Costanzi, the entrepreneur who had it built in 1879-1880 and who was its impresario until his death.

When was the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma inaugurated?

On November 27, 1880, with Rossini's Semiramide, in the presence of Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy.

Which famous opera debuted at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma?

More than one. Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana on May 17, 1890 and Puccini's Tosca on January 14, 1900 are the two world premieres that changed the history of Italian melodrama.

Can you take photos inside the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma?

Before the start and during the final applause generally yes. During the performance no, out of respect for the performers and for whoever sits next to you.

Is the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma wheelchair accessible?

Yes, with reserved spaces in the orchestra section and an elevator to the upper levels, and with a discounted ticket at a 25 percent reduction or at five euros. The seats are few: it's best to book in time at the box office.

Do you need to book for the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma?

For the popular titles and for the December performances yes, well in advance. For a midweek repertory repeat you almost always find a seat even at the last minute.

Can tickets be exchanged or refunded?

No. A refund is provided only in case of cancellation of the show, within five days, by presenting the ticket at the box office, and it does not include intermediary fees.

What if it rains at the Terme di Caracalla?

If the rain arrives after the first act there is no refund. It's the clause that generates the most arguments every summer.

I lost my ticket: will they issue a duplicate?

No. You have to go in person to the box office and fill out a loss declaration indicating exactly the assigned seat.

How long does a performance at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma last?

It depends on the title: from just over an hour for a one-act work to more than four hours for the big titles with two intervals. Always allow 20 minutes beyond the stated time.

From what age can you bring a child?

The theater recommends a minimum age of four. For a first visit, ballets work better than the long opera titles.

What is the difference between the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and the Teatro Nazionale?

They are two venues of the same Foundation. The historic hall in Piazza Beniamino Gigli is the Italian-style theater of 1880. The Nazionale, at Via del Viminale 51, is a former cinema from 1925 that was converted, and it hosts productions in a more contemporary format.

Can you visit the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma outside performances?

The Foundation offers public opening activities and visits. Information and bookings go through the dedicated office, at visiteguidate@operaroma.it and the contacts published by the theater.

Where do I park near the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma?

The theater lists two affiliated garages: Euro Parking at Via Napoli 66, inside the ZTL, and Parking Esedra at Via Modena 10, outside the ZTL, both at five euros for the length of the performance.

Is the theater inside the limited traffic zone?

Yes. The Centro Storico ZTL is active Monday to Friday between 6:30 and 18:00 and Saturday between 14:00 and 18:00.

Is there a coat check?

Yes, and it's worth using: two and a half hours in your seat with a coat on your lap is an avoidable torment.

Who runs the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma today?

The superintendency is held by Francesco Giambrone, the musical direction by Michele Mariotti since February 2022, and the direction of the Corpo di Ballo and the Scuola di Danza by Eleonora Abbagnato. Riccardo Muti has been Honorary Director for life since August 2011.

Where does the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma hold its summer season?

At the Terme di Caracalla, its summer venue since 1937, with the mobile stage system introduced in 2001. In 2020 and 2021 the season took place at the Circo Massimo.

How do you get to the Terme di Caracalla for the performances?

The address is Viale delle Terme di Caracalla. The reference metro stop is Circo Massimo on Line B, also served by tram 3 and by several surface lines.

Is it worth going to the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma if I don't know opera?

Yes, as long as you choose well: a ballet or a short verismo title like Cavalleria rusticana is the right way to start. A four-hour opera in a foreign language, with no preparation, is the wrong way.

What is the best seat in the hall?

The central stalls between the sixth and the 12th row for those who want the best, the gallery for those looking for the best ratio between cost and listening. Avoid the first three rows of the stalls and the lower boxes furthest to the side.

We close with our opinion: the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is not a monument to tick off a list, it is a hall to be used for what it does well. Take a midweek repeat performance, sit in the gallery, arrive early, watch the chandelier as it dims, and forget the gala premieres. It costs little, it sounds better, and you'll take home a Roman evening that no line at the Colosseum can give you. And if you happen to be in the city in summer, then forget the hall: Caracalla, with the risk of rain factored in.

Frequently asked questions about the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Where exactly is the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma?

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is at Piazza Beniamino Gigli 7, between Via del Viminale and Via Firenze, behind Via Nazionale and a few steps from Piazza della Repubblica. If you arrive by metro, get off at the Repubblica stop, take Via Torino heading south, and you are in front of the portico in three minutes.

What is the closest metro stop to the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma?

The closest metro stop to the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is Repubblica Teatro dell'Opera, on Line A: from the station it is a walk of just under three minutes, following Via Torino south to the portico of the building.

How do you dress to go to the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma?

At the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma the dress code is much less formal than you might imagine: at midweek repeat performances the Roman audience shows up in ordinary clothes. The code goes up only at season premieres, gala performances and the inaugural evening, with a dark suit for men and a long or cocktail dress for women, especially in the boxes.

Is the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma wheelchair accessible?

Yes, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is accessible to people in wheelchairs, with reserved spaces in the stalls section and an elevator to reach the upper levels. The reduced rate is a 25 percent discount or a five-euro ticket, and it's best to book ahead at the box office because the reserved seats are limited.

Is the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma suitable for children?

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma gives a recommended minimum age of four for attending its performances, a realistic threshold because under that age waiting in the dark becomes hard to manage. Above six or seven, the right repertoire for a first visit is ballet, with titles such as The Nutcracker in December or Swan Lake.

When is the best time for an evening at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma?

The best time for an evening at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, in the historic hall in Piazza Beniamino Gigli, runs from January to March: the city has few tourists, tickets are easier to find and the audience is the season-ticket holders. In summer the Foundation moves outdoors, to the Terme di Caracalla.

Is it better to choose a premiere or a repeat performance at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma?

To see a show at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma it's better to choose a midweek repeat performance, the third or the fourth, rather than the premiere evening: the cast is the same, the orchestra is by now well run in on the title, and the audience is made up of enthusiasts rather than people who come to be seen.

If you want to build a Roman itinerary around an evening at the opera, the fieldwork is described on the TourLeaderPro page dedicated to Rome, while those organizing groups and private experiences can start from the customized experiences for small groups. For those traveling with foreign friends, the English guide Best Things to Do in Rome and the three-day itinerary in Rome are the quickest way to fit the theater into a program that works.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

Planning a trip to Rome? The English guides to visiting the city are on ItalyPlanner.com.