Royal Swedish Opera chief conductor between 1923-1933 and 1938-1946. The Royal Swedish Ballet, "Kungliga Baletten", was founded by Gustav III of Sweden in 1773. The current general manager of the Royal Swedish Opera is the Swedish mezzo-soprano Birgitta Svendén. In November 2011, the Dutch conductor Lawrence Renes was named the next chief conductor of the company, as of the 2012–13 season, with an initial contract through the 2016–17 season. Notes Sources Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera () is Sweden's national stage for opera and ballet. The building is located in the center of Sweden's capital Stockholm in the borough of Norrmalm, on
Giuseppe Verdi retire, should he have wished to do so. He had reached a stage where he could develop his operas as he wished, rather than be dependent on commissions from third parties. "Il trovatore" was in fact the first opera he wrote without a specific commission (apart from "Oberto"). At around the same time he began to consider creating an opera from Shakespeare's "King Lear". After first (1850) seeking a libretto from Cammarano (which never appeared), Verdi later (1857) commissioned one from Antonio Somma, but this proved intractable, and no music was ever written. Verdi began work on "Il trovatore" after