 As of January 2018, Murat Karahan is the General Director.The first opera staged during the Ottoman period is usually attributed to the reign of Selim III (1761–1808), when Selim, himself a composer and a poet, invited a foreign company to stage an opera at the Topkapı Palace in 1797.In 1840, Gaetano Donizetti's "Belisario" became the first opera to be translated into Turkish, and was performed at the newly built theatre by Italian architect Bosco.