Cluj-Napoca Romanian Opera

Romanian National Opera
Front view
General information
Architectural style	Neo-baroque
Town or city	Cluj-Napoca
Country	Romania
Construction started	1904
Completed	1906
Design and construction
Architect	Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer

The Romanian National Opera, Cluj-Napoca (Romanian: Opera Naţională Română din Cluj-Napoca) is one of the national opera and ballet companies of Romania. The Opera shares the same building with the National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca.

The Romanian Opera was officially opened on 18 September 1919, simultaneously with the National Theatre and the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy. On 13–14 May 1920 the first two performances - 2 symphonic concerts - were conducted there by the Czech conductor Oskar Nebdal.

The first opera performance took place on 25 May 1920 with the Romanian version Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, with Alfred Novak as conductor, and Constantin Pavel as stage director. Famous artists of the early days of the institution include Constantin Pavel, the first director of the institution and the first tenor to sing the Radames role in the Cluj-Napoca Romanian Opera, the Italian conductor Egisto Tango, the composer Tiberiu Brediceanu, the baritone Dimitrie Popovici-Bayreuth.

The Romanian Opera managed to establish in a very short period of time a very good and prolific artistic team. In just its first 2 years (1919–1921), it staged 99 performances, including Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, Charles Gounod's Faust, de Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Nicolae Bretan's Luceafărul, Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser and 15 symphonic concerts of the Opera's own Orchestra.

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