Rome's opera house first opened on the capital's Viminal hill on 1 November 1880 as the Teatro Costanzi, founded by entrepreneur Domenico Costanzi and designed by Milanese architect Achille Sfondrini. Costanzi's self-financed opera house was inaugurated with a performance of Rossini's Semiramide, in the presence of Italy's king and queen, on 27 November 1880.

A decade later Rome took the opera world by storm when it premiered Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, whose runaway success established the theatre's reputation as a shrine to verismo opera.Giacomo Puccini's Tosca also received its international premiere in Rome on 14 January 1900.