Dan Simmons’s Hyperion novels are probably exactly what you want. But just in case you want a bunch more recs…

Ursula Le Guin’s Hainish cycle (The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, etc.) are more loosely connected, not a continuous saga, but some of the greatest of all time.

William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy is near-future, not epic space opera, but should definitely be on your radar.

I know you’ve been reading Wolfe already, but if you haven’t read the New Sun books yet, be sure to put those on the list too.

And…again maybe not the exact genre you had in mind, and it’s only two books, but Walter Miller’s Leibowitz novels are fantastic.