Barcelona’s opera house is an emblematic building in the city and with more than 150 years it’s situated at the same level of main opera houses in the world. For decades, it has been a symbol of culture and art as well as a meeting point for Catalan aristocracy and bourgeoisie. Created in 1847, “El Gran Teatre del Liceu” is situated in “Rambla de Barcelona” and every year has international known artists.
The first building was inaugurated in 4 April 1847 and its construction was ordered to the architect Miquel Chaparral Roca who was helped by Josep Oriol Mestres. In order to finance the project, Society of “El Gran Teatre del Liceu” was created. Their members had building’s actions what means that they own most of the future seats and boxes of the opera house. Finally in 1980 government of Catalonia decide to create with the city council of Barcelonaand the Society of Liceu a Consortium that manages the opera house.
Unfortunately, on 31 January1994, abig fire affects several parts of the building which obligate the Consortium to reconstruct a big part of the opera house. During this changes the Society of “El gran teatre del Liceu” gave all his properties to the public administration.
The new building reconstruction was done by Ignasi de Solà-Morales. The objective of the reform was keeping the form but now with a new technique infrastructure more advanced. Finally, “El Gran Teatre del Liceu” as we know nowadays opened its doors in 7 of October in 1999.
Text: Mar Mampel