Rottenberg came from a German-speaking Jewish family in Czernowitz, the then-capital of Bukovina, which was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy at the time.

He conducted an amateur orchestra and worked as a Lieder accompanist during his studies.

In 1892 he succeeded Felix Dessoff as Erster Kapellmeister at the Frankfurt Opera.

He was recommended for the position by Johannes Brahms and Hans von Bülow, being preferred to two other famous applicants, Richard Strauss and Felix Mottl.

Other important performances, partly German premieres, included Hans Pfitzner's Der arme Heinrich (1897), Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1907), Richard Strauss’ Elektra (1909) and further operas by Ferruccio Busoni, Leoš Janáček, Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith.