A rich program at the Rome Opera House: discover the magic of opera, ballet, and great music at the historic Costanzi Theatre.
Teatro dell’Opera di Roma has gained an increase in international prestige over the years, hosting performances by world-renowned artists such as Caruso, Gigli, Del Monaco, Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Montserrat Caballé and Raina Kabaivanska, as well as acclaimed orchestra conductors Toscanini, De Sabata, Klemperer, Abbado and the Master Riccardo Muti since 2008. And the 2025-26 season is no exception.
The new season at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma will offer audiences 12 new productions, 9 operas and 3 ballets, along with 14 opera titles, 8 in-house ballets, 3 tours by the Ballet Company, one tour by the Orchestra, and 4 concerts.
Dance once again plays a major role this year, ranging from great classics such as The Nutcracker and La Bayadère to explorations of the 20th century and the contemporary repertoire, with works by George Balanchine, Pina Bausch, Jerome Robbins, Jacopo Godani, Marco Goecke, Angelin Preljocaj, and Benjamin Millepied.
Also on the program are four concerts, three of them conducted by Music Director Michele Mariotti. The season will culminate with the annual summer Caracalla Festival, set against the splendid backdrop of the Roman Baths.
INSPIRATION
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Opera
The new Opera di Roma season opens, as usual, on November 27 under the sign of Wagner, tackled for the first time by the three principal artists involved: Music Director Michele Mariotti, director Damiano Michieletto, and tenor Dmitry Korchak, the protagonist of Lohengrin.
Carolina López Moreno stars as Mimì in La bohème (January 14–25) in a production by Davide Livermore. Featuring major international voices and an evocative staging created in collaboration with the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, the production incorporates French Impressionist paintings that bathe the protagonists in light and color. On the podium are Jader Bignamini and, for one performance, Alessandro Palumbo.
The new Italian version of Inferno (February 19–March 7, 2026), an opera by composer Lucia Ronchetti, will receive its world premiere at the Teatro Costanzi. Conducted by Tito Ceccherini, it features Laura Catrani, Leonardo Cortellazzi, Andreas Fischer, and the renowned ensemble Neue Vocalsolisten.
On March 1, 2026, Arianna a Nasso (March 1–10, 2026), Richard Strauss’s masterpiece with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, returns to the Costanzi stage. Maxime Pascal conducts, with Axelle Fanyo, Tuomas Katajala, Ziyi Dai, Angela Brower, and Adrian Eröd in the principal roles.
Marking the return of the great Canadian director Robert Carsen is the production of Georg Friedrich Händel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (April 7–14, 2026). Gianluca Capuano takes the podium, with Johanna Wallroth, Ed Lyon, Anna Bonitatibus, and Raffaele Pe on stage.
Vittorio Grigolo and Nino Machaidze star in Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, on stage from April 28 to May 6. The production is directed by Luca De Fusco and conducted by Daniel Oren, a familiar presence for Rome audiences.
Michele Mariotti’s second title of the season is Rossini’s Tancredi, featuring countertenor Carlo Vistoli (May 19–29).
The celebrated 2006 Salzburg Festival production of Le nozze di Figaro by Claus Guth receives its Italian premiere (September 15–23). Mozart’s comic opera also marks Emmanuel Tjeknavorian’s debut on the podium of the Opera di Roma.
The third operatic title under Mariotti, and the season’s final offering, is Verdi’s Falstaff (October 13–November 1), directed by Tatjana Gürbaca and starring renowned baritone Luca Salsi.
TIPS
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Dance
The 2025–2026 dance season opens with Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, the quintessential Christmas ballet, in Paul Chalmer’s fairy-tale staging, on stage December 17–31, 2025. The leads are Chloe Misseldine and Jacopo Tissi. On the podium, conductor Nir Kabaretti will alternate with Carlo Donadio.
From February 3 to 8, 2026, La Bayadère will be presented in Benjamin Pech’s choreographic version. Taking the stage are Paris Opera Étoiles Sae Eun Park and Paul Marque, making their Costanzi debuts. Ludwig Minkus’s score will be conducted by Fayçal Karoui.
Also returning this year is the Trittico Contemporaneo, strongly championed by Eleonora Abbagnato, with three works making their Rome premieres: Spring and Fall by John Neumeier, Echoes from a Restless Soul, and I Feel the Earth Move.
The Teatro Nazionale hosts the Preljocaj Evening, a tribute to one of today’s most compelling choreographers. From April 14 to 19, three of his works are on the bill: La Stravaganza, Annonciation, and Noces, with recorded music.
In the Sala Petrassi at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, from April 28 to 30, Burn debuts, a new dance-theater project conceived by internationally renowned artist and set designer A. J. Weissbard. The original recorded score is by Michael Galasso, with narration by John Malkovich, the original interpreter of the role of Pale in the 1987 stage production.
For the first time at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, from June 9 to 14, George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, inspired by Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, will be presented, with costumes and sets by Gianluca Falaschi. The music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy will be conducted by Karen Durgaryan.
In the autumn, from October 27 to November 8, the season’s second Contemporary Triptych arrives: Goecke / Robbins / Bausch, an homage to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, which made its Italian debut in Rome in 1911. On the program are Petruschka (2016) by Marco Goecke, Afternoon of a Faun (1953) by Jerome Robbins, and Pina Bausch’s Le Sacre du printemps (1975), conducted by Andrew Litton.
Concerts
There are four concert dates in the new Opera di Roma season.
The program opens on March 5, 2026 at the Costanzi with a concert titled At the Court of the Kings of France. Music for Versailles. Violinist and conductor Emmanuel Resche-Caserta leads the Orchestra Nazionale Barocca dei Conservatori with soprano Marie Perbost.
Michele Mariotti conducts three programs: Visioni d’addio at the Teatro Costanzi (May 28), where the Orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma performs Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka, alongside Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 in C major, D 944, “The Great.”
Two performances of Gioachino Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle follow (October 17 and 22). The second, given in the evocative setting of the Basilica of San Vitale, brings the concert series to a close. A stellar vocal cast appears on both dates: soprano Hasmik Torosyan, countertenor Carlo Vistoli, tenor Dmitry Korchak, and bass Michele Pertusi. The Rome Opera Chorus is directed by Ciro Visco.
Summer Season
Also in the summer 2025, the Opera House returns to the traditional stage at the Baths of Caracalla with performances of ballet, music, opera and extras between June to August. Some of the featured titles include the ballet Carmen and a tribute to Puccini with performances of Tosca and Turandot, all under the creative direction of Massimiliano Fuksas.
Teatro Costanzi
Piazza Beniamino Gigli
For the full program: operaroma.it
We will be traveling to Rome in May 2019. We wish to attend a performance, and look forward to doing so. We will be booking soon. Thanks.