After the first act, the audience had already been preoccupied with drinking wine and socializing for nearly 45 minutes, when the theatre director announced that the show was being cancelled. Callas had decided not to come out on the stage of the Roman theatre. She claimed that the state of her health did not allow her to continue the performance and neither pleas nor threats of the director could change her mind. As it turned out, no substitution was prepared, and even if there had been it would not have mattered, the Roman audience came only to see her.

What a scandal! Papers worldwide for weeks on talked about the moods of Callas, and she really never again appeared on the stage of the Roman opera. Rome remained in her memory as a place where neither her voice nor her artistic ambition, to sing to the utmost of her abilities, were appreciated.

This episode, is but an overture of a story of the Roman opera theatre itself, after the La Scala in Milan, the second „temple” of Italian opera. Its history begins at the moment, when a deteriorating villa with a garden, still remembering the times of cinquecento, was purchased at the end of the XIX century by the entrepreneur Domenico Costanzi, in order to build a city theatre. In 1880 a building in Neo-Renaissance style was created, designed by Achille Sfondrini, while its decorations were entrusted to Annibale Brugnoli. The grand opening of the first season took place in the autumn of the same year. However, in time the theatre could not handle the ever-growing number of visitors. In 1926 the building became property of the city, which had decided to enlarge it, giving this task, to a trusted architect of Benito Mussolini – Marcello Piacentini. He changed the main enterance from the side of via Firenze into the present one – from via Beniamino Gigli. The interior was further embellished by gilded stuccos, as well as a chandelier from Murano, 6 meters in diameter, 3.5 meters in height and composed out of 27 thousand crystals, hung on 17 concentric rings, the largest such object in the whole world. The theatre under a new name of Teatro Reale dell’Opera began its activities on 27 February, 1928 with the opera Nerone by Arrigo Boito.

After World War II, construction works, including enlargement of the building were once again entrusted to Piacentini (1955-1960). Unfortunately it was decided to use the fashionable at that time modernism, at the same time moving away from the neostyles of bygone eras. The opera foyer, the main salon, stairs, but most of all the building façade were reconstructed, giving it a raw appearance. Today this impressive on the inside building, does not draw attention with its external architectural structure – it even seems architecturally unattractive. This was not changed by a group made out of bronze depicting the Muses on the building façade.

Nevertheless, entering the opera, today known as the Teatro dell’Opera and participating in one of the shows, leaves and unforgettable impression, and not just a musical one. The interior shocks with luxury but that is not all. This is the stage where in the year 1900 the world premiere of one of the most outstanding works of Giacomo Puccini – Tosca, took place. The opera is set in Rome transporting us to scenery so characteristic of the city, for example the Barberini Chapel in the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, or the Castle of the Holy Angel. On the stage of this very theatre, the greatest opera singers of all time performed: apart from the magnetizing voice of Callas, also Enrico Caruso, Feodor Chaliapin, Renata Tebaldi, Monserrat Caballé, Joan Sutherland, Placido Domingo, or Luciano Pavarotti, to name only a few. We cannot help but feel their presence, sitting in the audience, awaiting the next act, lifting our eyes up towards the loges and the monstrous chandelier. And although during the annual inauguration spectacles the women no longer attract attention with diamonds, taffetas and furs, attending such an event is still prestigious and cannot be overlooked by anyone who wants to “be noticed” in the city