Liceu

The Large Theater of Liceu of Barcelona , known like “ El Liceu ”, is the oldest and prestigious theater of the city comtale, especially like theater of opera , considered as one of most prestigious of the world.

Located on Rambla of Barcelona, he has seen represented, for more than 150 years, the most prestigious works, interpreted by the best tenors and sopranos of the world. During decades, it was the symbol and the meeting place of the aristocracy and the Catalan middle-class.

History

In 1837, a Battalion of the National Militia, with Manual Gibert I Without at its head, created, in the Couvent of Montsió, which is in the surroundings of current the Portal del Àngel , the Liceo Filodramático de Montesión .

The goal of the new institution was, on the one hand, to promote musical teaching (from where the name of Liceo) and on the other hand, the organization of scenic representations of operas by the pupils.

Into 1838, the institution changed its name into that of Liceo Filarmónico Dramático of S.M. Reina Isabel II .

The lack of space and the pressures of the sisters, former owners of the convent, who had recovered some of the rights that they had lost and claimed to be able to return, were the reasons so that the Liceo Filarmónico Dramático of S.M. Reina Isabel II gives up the Convent of Montsió.

In exchange, he to them was conceded the purchase of the building of the Convent of Trinitaires, located in at the center of Rambla of Barcelona. Immediately work of demolition of this convent started to build a new building able to accommodate all the activities of Liceu.

With the difference of other European cities, where monarchy took care of the construction and the maintenance of the theaters of opera, with Barcelona the construction of the Gran Teatre del Liceu had to be done by the means of the contributions of particular shareholders, according to a structure similar to a business firm. This fact conditioned until the structure of the new building, for example the absence of royal cabin.

The managers of the Liceo Filarmónico Dramático of S.M. Reina Isabel II charged Joaquim de Gispert I with Anglí with assembling a project which makes viable the construction of the new building. This project envisaged the creation of two entities: the Sociedad de Construcción and the Sociedad Auxiliar de Construcción . The shareholders of the first obtained, in exchange of their financial contributions, the right to use with perpetuity some of the cabins or the armchairs of the future theater. Those of the second brought the complement of the money necessary in exchange of the property of other spaces of the building.

The Sociedad Auxiliar of Construcción will be at the origin of the Cercle of Liceu .

Miquel Garriga I Roca was the architect in charge of the construction of Liceu. Work began the April 11th 1845, and the Theater was inaugurated the April 4th 1847.

Currently, after the new legal organization which intervened in 1994 to be able to face its restoration, the Liceu is a public theater, property, with equal shares, of the four principal administrations present in Barcelona: the General information of Catalonia, the Ayuntamiento of Barcelona, the Diputación of Barcelona and the Ministry for the Culture of Spain.

The administration is under the responsibility of the Fundación del Gran Théâtre del Liceu , where are represented, in addition to the institutions quoted above, the Consejo de Mecenazgo there the Antigua Sociedad del Gran Théâtre del Liceu .

Incidents with the theater

In 1893 the Anarchiste Santiago El Salvador launched a bomb on the Scène of Liceu which caused 20 dead.

Another historical incident assigned the theater to the beginning of the Spanish Civil war when, in 1936, the Liceu was exproprié, nationalized and converted by the republican authorities into Teatro Nacional de Catalunya . In 1939, to the beginning of the pro-Franco dictatorship, it turned over to the former owners with the old statute.

Liceu knew two Incendie S which destroyed it completely. The first the April 14th 1861, which completely destroyed the room and the scene, and which obliged to hold closed the theater, in order to rebuild it, during one year and six days.

After the second on January 31st, 1994, it was rebuilt and improved, by respecting its decoration and style originals, persons in charge of its excellent acoustics, but with important technological improvements which converted it into one of the most modern theaters of the world.

The fire of 1994

Between ten hours and half and eleven hours minus the quarter of the morning, on January 31st, while two workmen worked with the repair of the steel curtain which, in the event of fire, was to prevent that fire passes from the scene in the room (another irony of the destiny), the sparks of their blowtorch took fire in the folds of the fixed curtains in three parts which hid the high part of the scene. A few ignited pieces of fabrics fell on the ground, and although the workers hastened to extinguish them and that the steel curtain was lowered, all was useless: the flames had already gained the velvet curtain and went up until the clotheshangers and to the roof.

Fire was already unverifiable when the firemen arrived a few minutes after eleven hours. They was can be a little too late, because, the workers had tested, so that it seems, to extinguish fire with the means with their range, instead of calling the first-aid organizations immediately.

The fire caused a great emotion in the Catalan company and the world of the opera in general. Thanks to the support of the institutions, with the patronage of the companies, and the donations of private individuals, it was rebuilt in record time, being able to reopen its doors in 1999.

Ring of Liceu

Little month afterwards, the November 20th 1847, was created the Círculo del Liceo (Circle of Liceu), according to the date of inscription of the 125 founders whom the first book of the register of the members contains. The first article of the statutes known as:

the Circle of Liceu is an association which has the aim of providing to its members the pleasures and pastime of the good company and it is foreign with any action having a political character .

The Circle of Liceu is a private club, on the English model, whose only the men or their widows can be members. With the recent inauguration after the fire of 1994 rose a strong polemic about the prohibition always in force of the access to the club of any woman. In 2001, two heads of Catalan undertakings, Adela Subirana and Magda To shoe-Dalmau, made approve their inscription, becoming the first women to belong to the Circle of Liceu.

Currently, the Circle counts 1100 members.

After the fire of Liceu on January 31st, 1994, the club closed almost a year, but then were open its living rooms and the restaurant. One benefitted from this period to restore his dependences.

As a club of leisure, there remained out of phase compared to the changes of the practices and the offer of entertainment which the Catalan company in last times knew. But the history of the Circle made it possible the institution to have a phenomenal artistic inheritance.

It has more a library than notable. In the major part of his dependences, one can admire a modernistic decoration. There are four bays with stained glasses representing of the scenes of operas of Richard Wagner in the lower hall which are a direct testimony of the strong influence of the Wagnérisme in the Catalan culture at the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to furniture and architecture of interior, the Circle is a splendid museum of sculptures and art of the Marqueterie; it has a gallery of enamels, engravings, etchings and oils of the best Catalan artists of the time, like Alexandre de Riquer, Santiago Rusiñol, Modest Urgell Inglada and Francesc Miralles, inter alia.

The most famous work of the Circle of Liceu is the mural unit, of twelve oils on fabric, ordered from Ramon Casas and installed in famous Rotonde of the Circle.

The twelve ceilings, the most ambitious work of Put according to its studies, are inspired each one by a musical topic.

The Circle of Liceo opened its rooms with the Catalan public on rare occasions.

External bonds

Large Theater of Liceu of Barcelona

Site of the Association of the Friends of Liceu

Site of the Circle of Liceo

Site of the Academy of Liceu

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