In the second half of nineteenth century, theatrical activity was very intense in Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the country.

After the Proclamation of the Republic (1889), in 1894 playwright Artur Azevedo launched a campaign for the building of a new theater to host a local company, to be created along the lines of the Comédie Française.

At the time, then-Mayor Francisco Pereira Passos launched a major upgrade of the city center by opening in 1903 the Central Avenue (Now Avenida Rio Branco), shaped after the boulevards of Paris and flanked by magnificent examples of eclectic architecture.

Finally, four and a half years later — a record time for the work that took the relay from 280 workers in two shifts — on July 14, 1909, President Nilo Peçanha inaugurated the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, which had the capacity for 1,739 viewers.

In its early heyday, it featured only foreign opera and symphonic orchestra shows, especially from Italian and French companies.

In 1931, the Municipal Symphonic Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro was created and celebrities such as Arturo Toscanini, Sarah Bernhardt, Bidu Sayão, Eliane Coelho, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith and Alexander Brailowsky highlighted the programs of the Theatro.