Italian Riccardo Muti quit as first conductor of the Rome Opera, media reported on Monday.

The 73-year-old director has decided to withdraw from the productions of Verdi's Aida and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which were planned to be on stage in November and in spring 2015 respectively.

In a letter addressed to the general director of Rome Opera Carlos Fuortes, Muti wrote that "there are no conditions to ensure the serenity necessary to me to lead successful productions."

The main reasons behind this step would be long-standing difficulties linked to state and city funding, and ongoing labor strife within the Rome Opera, whose latest seasons have been often disrupted by workers' strikes and tensions between unions and management.

His decision came as a severe blow for Italian cultural authorities. Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini said he understood the reasons behind "the director's painful decision," and spoke with bitter disappointment about the internal strife at the Rome Opera.

"I hope this decision will at least open the eyes of all those who are hampering, with cooperative and self-destructive opposition, the change Italian opera have been waiting for too long," Franceschini said.

Rome mayor Ignazio Marino said Muti's choice was "undoubtedly influenced by the instability within the Opera House, caused by ongoing protests and strikes that lasted months and led to the cancellation of several performances."

One series of protests in early July resulted in La Boheme being performed at the ancient Baths of Caracalla without the orchestra at times because musicians were on strike.

However, Marino vowed the city council would keep supporting the restructuring and salvage plan for the theatre, which had a 12 million euros (15 million U.S. dollars) deficit in 2013.

Riccardo Muti was asked to lead major operas with no administrative duties at the Rome Opera in 2008, and three years later accepted the title of honorary director for life.

In 2011, he made an unprecedented and protocol-breaking speech during Verdi's Nabucco, to condemn the severe budget cut made by Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government to culture and arts. He appealed to Italians to "keep culture alive in their country."

Muti led the famous Milan's La Scala theatre for 19 years, and also the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performed several times with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg festival.

Still working with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as music director, Muti said he will now devote his time in Italy only to the "Luigi Cherubini" orchestra for young professionals he founded in 2004. Endit

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