The Gran Teatre del Liceu (, English: Great Theatre of the Lyceum), known as ''El Liceu'', is an
opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets.
While some venues are constructed specifically for o ...
in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. Located in La Rambla, it is the oldest running theatre in Barcelona.
Founded in 1837 at another location, El Liceu opened at its current location on 4 April 1847. The theatre was rebuilt after two fires in 1861 and 1994 and reopened on 20 April 1862 and 7 October 1999, respectively. On 7 November 1893, on the opening night of the season, an anarchist threw two bombs into the stalls, and some twenty people were killed and many more were injured.
Between 1847 and 1989, the Liceu was the largest opera house in Europe by capacity, with its 2,338 seats at the time.
Since 1994, the Liceu has been owned and managed by a public foundation, whose Board of Trustees comprises members representing the
Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to:
*Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania)
*Ministry of Culture (Algeria)
*Ministry of Culture (Argentina)
* Minister for the Arts (Australia)
*Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)
* Ministry of ...
of the
Government of Spain
gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua
, image =
, caption = Logo of the Government of Spain
, headerstyle = background-color: #efefef
, label1 = Role
, data1 = Executive power
, label2 = Established
, da ...
, the
Generalitat de Catalunya
The Generalitat de Catalunya (; oc, label=Aranese, Generalitat de Catalonha; es, Generalidad de Cataluña), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia politically organizes its self-government. It is formed b ...
, the
Provincial Deputation of Barcelona
The Provincial Deputation of Barcelona (Catalan: ''Diputació Provincial de Barcelona''; Spanish: ''Diputación Provincial de Barcelona'') is the local body charged with the government and administration of the province of Barcelona, Spain.
Being ...
and the
City Council of Barcelona
The City Council of Barcelona (Catalan: ''Ajuntament de Barcelona''; Spanish: ''Ayuntamiento de Barcelona'') is the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. In terms of political structure, ...
. The theatre has its own choir, the Cor del Gran Teatre del Liceu; symphonic orchestra, the Orquesta Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu; and college of music, the
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu () is a music college in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was created in 1837 with the name ''Liceo Filo-dramático de Montesión''.
In 1847 the institution inaugurated the opera house Gran Teatre del Lic ...
.
History
Origins (1837–1847)
In 1837, the '' Liceo Filodramático de Montesión'' (Philodramatic Lyceum of Montesión, now named ''Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu'') was founded in Barcelona to promote musical education (hence the name "Liceo", or
lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Generally in that type of school the th ...
) and organize scenic representations of opera performed by Liceo students.
A theatre was built in the convent building — named ''Teatro de Montesión'' or ''Teatro del Liceo de Montesión'' — and plays and operas were performed, the first of which was
Vicenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was a Sicilian opera composer, who was known for his long-flowing melodic lines for which he was named "the Swan of Catania".
Many years later, in 1898, Gius ...
's ''
Norma Norma may refer to:
* Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Astronomy
*Norma (constellation)
* 555 Norma, a minor asteroid
*Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy
Geography
*Norma, Lazi ...
'' (3 February 1838). The repertoire was Italian, the most performed composers being
Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
Zampa
''Zampa'','' ou La fiancée de marbre'' (''Zampa, or the Marble Bride'') is an opéra comique in three acts by French composer Ferdinand Hérold, with a libretto by Mélesville.
The overture to the opera is one of Hérold's most famous works an ...
'' was held here.
In 1838, the society changed its name to ''Liceo Dramático Filarmónico de S. M. la Reina Isabel II'' (Dramatic Philharmonic Lyceum of H.M. Queen Isabel II). Lack of space, as well as pressures brought to bear by a group of nuns (who were the former proprietors of the convent and had recovered rights to return), motivated the Liceu to leave its headquarters in 1844. The last performance there was on 8 September.
The Trinitarian convent building located in La Rambla, in the centre of the city, was purchased. The managers of the Liceu entrusted Joaquim de Gispert d'Anglí with a project to make the construction of the new building viable. Two different societies were created: a "building society" and an "auxiliary building society". Shareholders of the building society obtained the right of use ''in perpetuity'' of some theatre boxes and seats in exchange for their economic contributions. Those of the second society contributed the rest of the money necessary in exchange for property of other spaces in the building including some shops and a private club called the ''Círculo del Liceo''.
In contrast to many other European cities, where the monarchy took on the responsibility of the building and upkeep of opera houses, the Liceu was funded by private shareholders of what would become the ''Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu'' (Great Liceu Theatre Society), organized similarly to a trading company or ''societat''. This is reflected in the building's architecture; for example, there is no royal box. The Queen did not contribute to the construction, so the name of the society was changed to ''Liceo Filarmónico Dramático'', removing the Queen's name from it.
With
Miquel Garriga i Roca Miquel may refer to:
* the Catalan form of the given name Michael
* Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (1811–1871), a Dutch botanist
* Gérard Miquel (born 1946), a member of the Senate of France
* Ignasi Miquel (born 1992), a Spanish football player
...
as the architect, construction began on 11 April 1845. The theatre was inaugurated on 4 April 1847.
Opening, fire and rebuilding (1847–1862)
The inauguration presented a mixed program including the
premiere
A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.
A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...
s of José Melchior Gomis' musical
ouverture
Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overtu ...
, a historical play ''Don Fernando de Antequera'' by Ventura de la Vega, the ballet ''La rondeña'' (''The girl from Ronda'') by Josep Jurch, and a
cantata
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.
The meaning of ...
''Il regio himene'' with music by the musical director of the theatre
Marià Obiols
Marià Obiols (26 November 1809 – 10 December 1888), also known as Mariano Obiols, was a Catalan composer, conductor, and professor of music. He served as the music director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona from its founding in 1847 unt ...
. The first complete opera,
Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
's ''
Anna Bolena
''Anna Bolena'' is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's ''Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena'' and Alessandro Pepoli's ''Anna Bolena'', both ...
'' was presented on 17 April.
At this point, Liceu was the biggest opera house in Europe, with 3,500 seats. Other operas performed in the Liceu during the first year were (in chronological order): '' I due Foscari'' (Verdi), ''Il bravo'' (Mercadante), ''Parisina d'Este'' (Donizetti), ''
Giovanna d'Arco
''Giovanna d'Arco'' (''Joan of Arc'') is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, who had prepared the libretti for ''Nabucco'' and ''I Lombardi''. It is Verdi ...
'' (Verdi), ''Leonora'' (Mercadante), ''
Ernani
''Ernani'' is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the 1830 play ''Hernani (drama), Hernani'' by Victor Hugo.
Verdi was commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice in V ...
'' (Verdi), ''Norma'' (Bellini), ''
Linda di Chamounix
''Linda di Chamounix'' is an operatic ''melodramma semiserio'' in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on 19 May 1842.
Performance history
''Li ...
'' (Donizetti) and ''
Il barbiere di Siviglia
''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...
'' (Rossini).
The building was severely damaged by fire on 9 April 1861, but it was rebuilt by the architect Josep Oriol Mestres and re-opened on 20 April 1862, performing Bellini's ''
I puritani
' (''The Puritans'') is an 1835 opera by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the young composer had become friends. The music was set to a libretto ...
''. From the old building, only the facade, the entrance hall and the
foyer
A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or an entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc. ...
(Mirrors Hall) remained.
Bombing and civil war (1862–1940)
On 7 November 1893, on the opening night of the season and during the second act of Rossin's opera, ''Guillaume Tell'', two
Orsini bomb
The Orsini bomb was a terrorist improvised explosive device built by and named after Felice Orsini and used as a hand grenade on 14 January 1858 in an unsuccessful attack on Napoleon III. The weapons were somewhat commonly used by anarchists in ...
s were thrown into the stalls of the opera house. Only one of the bombs exploded; some twenty people were killed and many more were injured. The attack, carried out by
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
Santiago Salvador
The Liceu bombing attack, in which an anarchist threw two bombs from the balcony of Barcelona's Liceu opera house, killed 20 people on November 7, 1893.
The bombing was in response to the 1893 execution of Paulí Pallàs following his assassin ...
, deeply shocked Barcelona, becoming a symbol of the turbulent social unrest of the time. The Liceu re-opened its doors on 18 January 1894, but the seats occupied by those killed were not used for a number of years. The second bomb was displayed at the Van Gogh Museum in 2007 during an exhibition on ''Barcelona around 1900''.
In 1909, the auditorium ornamentation was renewed. Spanish neutrality during World War I allowed the Catalan textile industry to amass enormous wealth through supplying the warring parties. The 1920s were prosperous years and the Liceu became fully established as a leading opera house welcoming leading singers, conductors and companies such as
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...
's
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...
.
When the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...
was proclaimed in 1931, political instability meant that the Liceu suffered a severe financial crisis which was only overcome through subsidies from Barcelona City Council and the regional government of
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
. During the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
, the Liceu was
nationalized
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
and took the name the Teatre del Liceu – Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (Liceu Opera House – the National Theatre of Catalonia). The opera seasons were suspended. After the war, it was returned to its original owners in 1939.
"Silver Age" and crisis (1940–1980)
From 1940 to the 1960s, the seasons were high-quality ones. 1955, thanks to the creation of a special board, saw a historic event when, for the first time since its foundation, the
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...
was staged away from its normal venue. Performances of ''
Parsifal
''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...
'', ''
Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was compose ...
'' and ''
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
'' with innovative stage sets by
Wieland Wagner
Wieland Wagner (5 January 1917 – 17 October 1966) was a German opera director, grandson of Richard Wagner. As co-director of the Bayreuth Festival when it re-opened after World War II, he was noted for innovative new stagings of the operas, depa ...
were enthusiastically received.
In the 1970s, an economic crisis affected the theatre and the privately based organisation could not afford the increasing budgets of modern opera productions and general quality declined.
New direction and second fire (1980–1994)
The death of in 1980 revealed the need for the intervention of the official bodies if the institution was to remain a leading opera house. In 1981, the
Generalitat de Catalunya
The Generalitat de Catalunya (; oc, label=Aranese, Generalitat de Catalonha; es, Generalidad de Cataluña), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia politically organizes its self-government. It is formed b ...
, with Barcelona's City Council and the Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu, created the Consorci del Gran Teatre del Liceu (Consortium of the Great Liceu Theater) responsible for the theatre's management.
The Deputation of Barcelona and the Spanish Ministry of Culture joined the Consortium in 1985 and 1986 respectively. The Consortium managed to quickly attract the public back to the Liceu owing to a considerable improvement in its artistic standard. This included a more complete and up-to-date perspective of the very nature of an opera performance, a great improvement in the choir and orchestra, careful casting, and attracting the interest of the public to other aspects of productions besides the leading roles alone. This approach, coupled with the new economic support and a more demanding and discerning public, resulted in a high standard of productions.
The seasons organised by the Consortium maintained high standards in casting, production and public loyalty, as measured by public attendance, but all this came to a halt with a fire on 31 January 1994. The building was destroyed by a fire caused by a spark that accidentally fell on the curtain during a routine repair. At this time,
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...
's ''
Mathis der Maler
''Mathis der Maler'' (''Matthias the Painter'' is an opera by Paul Hindemith. The work's protagonist, Matthias Grünewald, was a historical figure who flourished during the Reformation, and whose art, in particular the Isenheim Altarpiece, inspi ...
'' was performing at the theatre and the following opera to be performed was
Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long lin ...
's ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is "Nessun dorma", whi ...
''.
Public and institutional response was unanimous on the need to rebuild a new opera house on the same site with improved facilities. The new Liceu is the result of a series of actions to preserve those parts of the building unaffected by the fire, the same ones as had survived the fire in 1861. The auditorium was rebuilt with the same layout, except for the roof paintings which were replaced with new art works by
Perejaume
Pere Jaume Borrell i Guinart, known as Perejaume, (born in 1957 in Sant Pol de Mar, Catalonia) is a Spanish contemporary artist.
Of self-taught formation he takes clear influences of authors like Joan Brossa, with whom he will share work mixi ...
, and state-of-the-art stage technology.
To rebuild and improve the theatre, it became public. The ''Fundació del Gran Teatre del Liceu'' (Liceu Great Theater Foundation) was created and the Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu handed over the ownership of the building to the Foundation. Some owners disagreed with the decision, which was unsuccessfully challenged in court.
Reopening (1994–present)
From 1994 until its reopening in 1999, the opera seasons in Barcelona took place in
Palau Sant Jordi
Palau Sant Jordi (, en, St. George's Palace) is an indoor sporting arena and multi-purpose installation that is part of the Olympic Ring complex located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, it was ...
arena (some large-scale performances in 1994),
Palau de la Música Catalana
Palau de la Música Catalana (, en, Palace of Catalan Music) is a concert hall in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed in the Catalan '' modernista'' style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it was built between 1905 and 1908 for O ...
, and Teatre Victòria. The rebuilt, improved and expanded theatre opened on 7 October 1999, with
Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long lin ...
's ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is "Nessun dorma", whi ...
'', the opera that had been next on the program at the time of the 1994 fire. The new venue had the same traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium as before but with greatly improved technical, rehearsal, office and educational facilities, a new rehearsal hall, a new chamber opera and small performances' hall, and much more public space. Architects for the rebuilding project were
Ignasi de Solà-Morales
Ignasi de Solà-Morales Rubió (Barcelona 1942 - Amsterdam 2001) was an architect, historian and philosopher from Catalonia, Spain.Surtitles, projected onto a screen above the proscenium, are used for all opera performances and some
lieder
In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French sp ...
concerts. The electronic libretto system provides translations (into English, Spanish or Catalan) onto small individual monitors for most of the seats.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
in 2020, the opera house marked Spain's lifting of regulations by playing for an audience of 2,292 plants. The event was livestreamed on social media. Each plant was then donated to healthcare workers at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona.
Opera house building
The theatre is in La Rambla, in downtown Barcelona. The building has only two facades as the other two sides were limited, until 1994, by residential buildings.
Some parts of the first building remain:
*The main facade in la Rambla (1847).
*The hall and the staircase (1861), with a Vallmitjana's statue of the Music (1901).
*The foyer (Saló de Miralls or Mirrors Hall) (1847). It preserves romantic ornamentation with round paintings of musicians, singers and dancers from that time of
Pasta
Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils, are som ...
,
Rubini Rubini is a surname of Italian origin. Notable people with the surname include:
* Cesare Rubini, Italian basketball player
* Gabriele Rubini, Italian television presenter
* Giambattista Rubini, Italian Catholic cardinal
* Giovanni Battista Rubini ...
,
Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the ...
,
Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni, Comtesse de Voisins (23 April 1804 – 22 April 1884) was a Swedish-born ballet dancer of the Romantic ballet era partially of Italian descent, a central figure in the history of European dance. She spent most of her life in th ...
. It was partially redecorated in 1877 by Elies Rogent and the roof painting, with the
Parnassus
Mount Parnassus (; el, Παρνασσός, ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is and historically has been especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers ...
, is from this period.
The auditorium was rebuilt after the 1994 fire; it is a faithful recreation of the 1861 auditorium, with some improvements. It has a seat capacity of 2,292, making it one of the largest opera houses in Europe. It is a typical Italian horseshoe-shaped theatre. Maximum length and width are 33 and 27 metres. There is a platea (main floor) and five tiers (or balconies). Boxes, with small rooms attached, are in the fore stage, in the platea and in some galleries. There is no significant physical divisions among boxes: only a low screen separates one box from another. No columns are in the theatre apart from inside the platea giving the appearance of the galleries of a golden horseshoe without visual interruptions. Another peculiarity is in the first gallery where the ''amfiteatre ubicare'' is located. This is a projecting part of this gallery, with a less pronounced horseshoe shape, that allows three ranks of seats to be located there and are considered the best in the theatre.
Building expenses were covered by the sale of boxes and seats. Boxes were lavishly decorated by their owners but they disappeared in the 1994 fire. Upper balconies (4th and 5th tiers) are the cheapest seats and are called the ''galliner'' (literally "henroost").
The fore stage, or proscenium, reproduces the old one which was rebuilt in 1909. It has a big central arch with two Corinthian columns on both sides and, among the columns, four tiers of boxes parapets with the wider and more luxurious boxes in the theatre being called ''banyeres'' (literally "bathtubs").
The auditorium ornamentation reproduces that of 1909: sumptuous with golden and poly chromed plaster moldings, as usual in 19th-century European theatres. Lamps are of brass and glass in the shape of a drake. Armchairs on the main floor are made of strained iron and red velvet.
In the rebuilding some modern features were introduced. The eight circular paintings in the roof, and the three in the fore stage, were all lost in the fire and have been re-created by contemporary artist
Perejaume
Pere Jaume Borrell i Guinart, known as Perejaume, (born in 1957 in Sant Pol de Mar, Catalonia) is a Spanish contemporary artist.
Of self-taught formation he takes clear influences of authors like Joan Brossa, with whom he will share work mixi ...
. The stage curtain is a work of the Catalan designer . The new hemispheric lamp in the center of the roof is a platform for technological facilities (lighting, sound and computer).
Other technological facilities are control and projecting cabins in some balconies, a "technical floor" over the roof, and high-tech equipment to record and broadcast performances. With computerized cameras, the auditorium could also be used as a television set. Stage facilities are among the most modern and allow quick scene changes and to perform four different sets simultaneously.
A new foyer has been built under the main auditorium. It is a room where the main bar and the restaurant are located and is also used to stage concerts, small format performances, lectures, cultural activities, and meetings etc.
The adjacent
Liceu metro station
Liceu is a Barcelona Metro station situated under the La Rambla, Barcelona, La Rambla between Gran Teatre del Liceu and La Boqueria, Mercat de la Boqueria in the Barri Gòtic, part of Barcelona's district of Ciutat Vella. It is served by Transport ...
of the
Barcelona Metro
The Barcelona Metro (Catalan and Spanish: ) is an extensive network of rapid transit electrified railway lines that run mostly underground in central Barcelona and into the city's suburbs. It is part of the larger public transport sys ...
producing house
A producing house is a theatre which ‘manufactures' its own shows in-house (such as plays, musicals, opera, or dance) and perhaps does everything from honing the script, building the set, casting the actors and designing and making the costum ...
, with two or three new productions staged each year. The Liceu company consists of a permanent
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
and
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
and some singers for the supporting roles. Leading roles are usually sung by guest singers.
Stagecraft
Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; and p ...
is in part produced internally by the theatre (alone or together with other opera houses) and also rented from other external houses. Until the 1990s, Liceu had its ballet company which was at its best in the 1920–1930s under Joan Magriñà.
Most of the performed operas were from the Italian and German schools of the 19th century:
Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
,
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
,
Belcanto
Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing.
The phrase was not associat ...
authors and in more recent times
Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long lin ...
,
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
and
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
are included.
The history of Liceu premieres is a good instance of the evolution of European opera tastes. At first opera was only a part of the artistic activities and opera alternated with other forms of performance such
zarzuela
() is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of ...
(Spanish light opera), classical dance (''
Giselle
''Giselle'' (; ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (, ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet (" ballet-pantomime") in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, ...
'' was given its first Barcelona performance in 1847), theatrical performances, magic shows and numerous activities which today might appear more appropriate for a variety concert or a music hall.
The first performed operas,
Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
's ''
Anna Bolena
''Anna Bolena'' is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's ''Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena'' and Alessandro Pepoli's ''Anna Bolena'', both ...
'' and Verdi's '' I due Foscari'', are symptomatic of the taste for belcanto and Italian romantic melodrama:
Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi etc. They are still in the repertory, and Verdi is by far the most performed composer.
The first operas by non-Italian composers which were put on in the Liceu were
Ferdinand Hérold
Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold (28 January 1791 – 19 January 1833), better known as Ferdinand Hérold (), was a French composer. He was celebrated in his lifetime for his operas, of which he composed more than twenty, but he also wrote ballet mus ...
's ''Zampa'' (1848),
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his opera ...
's ''
Der Freischütz
' ( J. 277, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 181 ...
'' (1849), Giacomo
Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...
's ''Robert le diable'', Auber's ''La muette de Portici'' (1852) and ''Fra Diavolo'' (1853). These were sung in Italian as was the custom of the time.
The first performances of ''
Il trovatore
''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...
'' (1854) and ''
La traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...
'' (1855) led to the crowning of
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
as the king of opera. In 1866 Mozart was staged at the Liceu for the first time with ''Don Giovanni''.
1883 is a landmark when
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's ''
Lohengrin
Lohengrin () is a character in Germany, German Arthurian literature. The son of Percival, Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which fi ...
'' is first performed. From there, and especially from the 1880s to 1950s, Wagner become one of the most beloved and highly regarded composers at Liceu. The theatre had the first staged performance of ''
Parsifal
''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...
'' outside
Bayreuth
Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...
on 31 December 1913, after the Bayreuth monopoly ended (although performance started 30 minutes before the deadline of 00:00 on 1 January 1914) with Francesc Viñas in the title role and conducted by Franz Beidler. In 1955, the
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...
company visited the theatre and performed three operas.
Verismo
In opera, ''verismo'' (, from , meaning "true") was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini.
''Verismo'' as an ...
, especially Puccini, is an esteemed school from the end of 19th century. The first Russian opera was given in 1915 with a great success;
Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...
,
Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...
and
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
being often performed. The first years of the 20th century saw
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
conducting his works. In 1904,
Siegfried Wagner
Siegfried Helferich Richard Wagner (6 June 18694 August 1930) was a German composer and conductor, the son of Richard Wagner. He was an opera composer and the artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival from 1908 to 1930.
Life
Siegfried Wagner ...
conducted a concert and a year afterwards
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni (7 December 1863 – 2 August 1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece ''Cavalleria rusticana'' caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the ' ...
conducted a work.
In 1915,
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
Hist ...
Mestres Calvet broadened the repertory and introduced composers such as Mozart, Richard Strauss,
de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first hal ...
,
Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...
, etc. It was a golden age for Russian and German operas which were now sung in their original language. Mestres also was closely associated with the success commencing in 1917 with the ballets of
Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...
, with Nijinsky, Massine, Lopokova, Chernicheva and other great figures. Years later another famous dancer,
Anna Pavlova
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th ...
, was also to perform here.
In 1947, the directing company changed and came into the hands of Arquer and Pàmias. In contrast with the preceding years, which had been marked by the almost exclusive programming of the great repertory works, the first season of the new directorship saw a special renewal of the repertoire featuring the first performances in Barcelona of some 100 works by numerous composers. Various revivals featured Donizetti's ''
Anna Bolena
''Anna Bolena'' is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's ''Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena'' and Alessandro Pepoli's ''Anna Bolena'', both ...
'', which had first been staged in the Liceu one hundred years earlier. For 33 years, Pàmias was the leading figure of the Liceu's activity during a period when it seemed that it would be impossible to maintain the opera house without any official aid.
From the 1950s to the present, the repertory has largely comprised the most performed titles in the world, including practically all the great 20th-century composers: Bartók, Honegger, Gershwin, Berg, Janáček, Weill, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Britten,
Schönberg Schönberg (german: beautiful hill) may refer to:
Places Austria
*Schönberg im Stubaital, a municipality in the district of Innsbruck-Land, Tyrol
* Schönberg am Kamp, a town in the district of Krems-Land, Lower Austria
Belgium
* Schönber ...
,
Hindemith
Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ' ...
, etc., along with
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered ...
,
Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...
and
Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the ...
.
Ballet seasons are an important part of the theatre's activities with some of the best known companies in the world performing, including Diaghilev and
Béjart
Béjart is the name of several French actors of the 17th century.
Family
The four actors listed here were children, and grandchildren, of Marie Hérve and Joseph Béjart (died 1643), the holder of a small government post. There were 10 children ...
.
Most performed operas
Most performed operas in the history of Liceu are (in January 2009):
*Verdi's ''
Aida
''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December ...
'', with 442 performances from 1877 to 2008.
*Verdi's ''
Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had cont ...
'' with 359 performances from 1853 to 2005.
*Gounod's ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
'' with 297 performances from 1864 to 1988.
*Donizetti's ''
Lucia di Lammermoor
''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel ''The Bride of Lammermoor''.
...
'' with 274 performances from 1849 to 2007.
*Donizetti's ''
La favorita
''La favorite'' (''The Favourite'', sometimes referred to by its Italian title: ''La favorita'') is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play ''Le comte ...
'' with 263 performances from 1850 to 2002 (last 10 performances are from the French version)
*Verdi's ''
Il trovatore
''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...
'' with 259 performances from 1854 to 1993.
*Wagner's ''
Lohengrin
Lohengrin () is a character in Germany, German Arthurian literature. The son of Percival, Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which fi ...
'' with 241 performances from 1883 to 2006.
*Puccini's ''
La bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions ''quadri'', ''tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe G ...
'' with 238 performances from 1898 to 2001.
*Rossini's ''
Il barbiere di Siviglia
''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...
'' with 233 performances from 1847 to 1991.
*Verdi's ''
La traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...
'' with 231 performances from 1855 to 2002.
*Meyerbeer's ''
Les Huguenots
() is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer and is one of the most popular and spectacular examples of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work suc ...
'' with 228 performances from 1856 to 1971 (mostly in Italian version).
*Bizet's ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' with 205 performances from 1888 to 1993.
*Boito's ''
Mefistofele
''Mefistofele'' () is an opera in a prologue and five acts, later reduced to four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera with music by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito (there are several completed operas for which he was libret ...
'' with 195 performances from 1880 to 1988.
*Meyerbeer's ''
L'Africaine
''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is an 1865 French ''grand opéra'' in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title ''L'Africaine'', bu ...
'' with 191 performances from 1866 to 1977 (mostly in Italian version).
*Wagner's ''
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
'' with 182 performances from 1899 to 2008.
Premieres at the theatre
As a prominent theatre the Liceu has been the location for the premieres of several works of theatre and music, and for the Spanish premieres of many musical works. Among these premieres are:
*1847 (4 April) Ventura de la Vega's history play ''Don Fernando de Antequera''.
*1851 (June) ''El granuja'',
zarzuela
() is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of ...
with music by N. Gardyn.
*1853 (8 January)
Temistocle Solera
Temistocle Solera (25 December 1815 – 21 April 1878) was an Italian opera composer and librettist.
Life and career
He was born in Ferrara. He received his education at the Imperial College in Vienna and at the University of Pavia. Throughou ...
's Spanish opera ''La hermana de Pelayo''; ''La tapada del retiro'', Nicolau Manent's zarzuela; ''Sueño y realidad'', zarzuela with music by
Felipe Pedrell
Felip Pedrell Sabaté (Spanish: Felipe) (19 February 1841 – 19 August 1922) was a Catalan composer, guitarist and musicologist.
Life
Pedrell was born in Tortosa (Catalonia), and sang as a boy soprano at Tortosa Cathedral from age 9, where he ...
.
*1854 (16 February) J. Freixas' opera ''La figlia del deserto''.
*1857 (23 May) Nicolau Manent's opera ''Gualtero di Monsonís''.
*1858 Pujadas' Catalan
zarzuela
() is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of ...
''Setze jutges'' (''Sixteen judges''), the first all-Catalan language play performed at Liceu.
*1858 ''Juan Garín, o, Las peñas de Montserrat'', music by Mariano Soriano Fuertes, Nicolau Manent and Francisco Porcell
*1859 (12 May) Nicolau Guanyabéns' opera ''Arnaldo d'Erill''.
*1859 Josep Anselm Clavé's Catalan
zarzuela
() is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of ...
''L'aplec del Remei''.
*1867 (23 March) Francesc Sánchez Gavagnach's opera ''Rahabba''.
*1874 (28 January) Marià Obiols' opera ''Editta di Belcourt''.
*1874 (14 April)
Felipe Pedrell
Felip Pedrell Sabaté (Spanish: Felipe) (19 February 1841 – 19 August 1922) was a Catalan composer, guitarist and musicologist.
Life
Pedrell was born in Tortosa (Catalonia), and sang as a boy soprano at Tortosa Cathedral from age 9, where he ...
's opera ''L'ultimo Abenzerraggio''.
*1878 (27 November) Salvatore Auteri-Manzocchi's opera ''Il negriero''
*1885 (6 June) Manuel Giró's opera ''Il rinnegato Alonso García''
*1885 (12 June) Antoni Baratta's opera ''Lo desengany'', first Catalan language opera sung at Liceu.
*1889 (10 July) Francesc Sánchez Gavagnach's opera ''La messagiera''.
*1892 (14 May)
Tomás Bretón
Tomás Bretón y Hernández (29 December 1850 – 2 December 1923) was a Spanish conductor and composer.
Biography
Tomás Bretón was born in Salamanca. He completed his musical studies at the School of Fine Arts in his hometown, where he ea ...
's opera ''Garín''.
*1895 (8 May)
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...
's opera ''Henry Clifford''.
*1896 (5 January)
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...
's opera ''Pepita Jiménez''.
*1902 (4 January)
Felipe Pedrell
Felip Pedrell Sabaté (Spanish: Felipe) (19 February 1841 – 19 August 1922) was a Catalan composer, guitarist and musicologist.
Life
Pedrell was born in Tortosa (Catalonia), and sang as a boy soprano at Tortosa Cathedral from age 9, where he ...
Joan Manén Joan may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters
*:Joan of Arc, a French military heroine
*Joan (surname)
Weather events
*Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multiple ...
's opera ''Acté''.
*1906 (20 January) Enric Morera's opera ''Empòrium''.
*1906 (21 April) Enric Morera's opera ''Bruniselda''.
*1907 (21 January)
Joan Lamote de Grignon
Joan Lamote de Grignon i Bocquet (; 7 July 1872 – 11 March 1949) was a Catalan Spanish pianist, composer and orchestra director.
Life
Joan Lamote de Grignon was born and died in Barcelona, the son of parents of French descent, Lluis Lamote de ...
's opera ''Hesperia''.
*1912 (17 January) Enric Morera's ''Titaina'', with libretto by
Àngel Guimerà
Àngel Guimerà y Jorge (6 May 1845 or 6 May 1847 or 1849 – 18 July 1924), known also as Ángel Guimerá, was a Spanish Nobel-nominated writer in the Catalan language. His work is known for bringing together under romantic aspects the main el ...
.
*1913 (15 January)
Jaume Pahissa
Jaume Pahissa i Jo (also Jaime; October 8, 1880 – October 27, 1969, in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a Spanish-born composer and musicologist.
From an article published in Le Figaro March 16, 1913: "We note the great success at the Liceo theater ...
's first opera ''Gal·la Placídia''.
*1913
Jesús Guridi
Jesús Guridi Bidaola (25 September 1886 – 7 April 1961) was a Spanish Basque composer who was a key player in 20th-century Spanish and Basque music. His style fits into the late Romantic idiom, directly inherited from Wagner, and with a stron ...
's opera ''Mirentxu'' (premiered as zarzuela in 1910, at Bilbao, and revised as opera by the author)
*1916 (18 January) Enric Morera's opera ''Tassarba''.
*1919 (15 February)
Jaume Pahissa
Jaume Pahissa i Jo (also Jaime; October 8, 1880 – October 27, 1969, in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a Spanish-born composer and musicologist.
From an article published in Le Figaro March 16, 1913: "We note the great success at the Liceo theater ...
Jaume Pahissa
Jaume Pahissa i Jo (also Jaime; October 8, 1880 – October 27, 1969, in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a Spanish-born composer and musicologist.
From an article published in Le Figaro March 16, 1913: "We note the great success at the Liceo theater ...
's ''Marianela''.
*1924 (20 December) A. Marqués' opera ''Sor Beatriu''.
*1927 (12 January) Facundo de la Viña's opera ''La espigadora''.
*1928 (28 February)
Jaume Pahissa
Jaume Pahissa i Jo (also Jaime; October 8, 1880 – October 27, 1969, in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a Spanish-born composer and musicologist.
From an article published in Le Figaro March 16, 1913: "We note the great success at the Liceo theater ...
's ''La princesa Margarida''.
*1929 (12 February)
Ricard Lamote de Grignon
Ricard Lamote de Grignon i Ribas (; 25 September 1899 – 5 February 1962) was a Catalan Spanish composer and orchestral conductor.
Ricard Lamote de Grignon was born and died in Barcelona. He was the only son of the composer Joan Lamote de Grign ...
's ballet ''Somnis''.
*1929 (14 December) Jose Maria Usandizaga's opera ''Las golondrinas'' (premiered as
zarzuela
() is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of ...
in 1914 and revised as opera by Ramón Usandizaga)
*1932 (3 March)
Joan Manén Joan may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters
*:Joan of Arc, a French military heroine
*Joan (surname)
Weather events
*Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multiple ...
's opera ''Neró i Acté''.
*1935 (15 January) Joan Gaig's opera ''El estudiante de Salamanca''.
*1938
Salvador Bacarisse
Salvador Bacarisse Chinoria (12 September 18985 August 1963) was a Spanish composer.
Bacarisse was born in Madrid and studied music at the Real Conservatorio de Música there, as a student of Manuel Fernández Alberdi (piano) and Conrado del Camp ...
's ballet ''Corrida de feria''.
*1948 (10 January)
Xavier Montsalvatge
Xavier Montsalvatge i Bassols (; 11 March 1912 – 7 May 2002) was a Spanish composer and music critic. He was one of the most influential music figures in Catalan music during the latter half of the 20th century.
Biography
Life
Montsalvatge ...
's children opera ''El gato con botas''.
*1948 (10 January)
Carlos Surinach
Carlos Lund (or Carles Suriñach) i Wrokona (; March 6, 1915 – November 12, 1997) was a Spanish-born 's opera ''El mozo que casó con mujer brava''.
*1950 (14 December)
Conrado del Campo
Conrado del Campo y Zabaleta (28 October 1878 – 17 March 1953) was a Spanish composer, violinist and pedagogue.
Career
Del Campo was born in Madrid and became professor at the Real Conservatorio de Música in Madrid in 1915, where he was an ...
's opera ''Lola la Piconera''.
*1952 (12 December)
Joan Manén Joan may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters
*:Joan of Arc, a French military heroine
*Joan (surname)
Weather events
*Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multiple ...
's opera ''Soledad''; his ballet ''Rosario la Tirana''.
*1953 (21 May) Antoni Massana's ''Canigó'', the first Catalan-language opera after the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
.
*1955 (17 December) Ángel Barrios' opera ''La Lola se va a los puertos''.
*1955 (19 December)
Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquess of the Gardens of Aranjuez (; 22 November 1901 – 6 July 1999), was a Spanish composer and a virtuoso pianist. He is best known for composing the ''Concierto de Aranjuez'', a cornerstone of the classical gui ...
's ballet ''Pavana real''.
*1956 (28 April)
Frederic Mompou
Frederic Mompou Dencausse (; alternatively Federico Mompou; 16 April 189330 June 1987) was a Spanish and Catalan composer and pianist. He is remembered for his solo piano music and songs.
Life
Early years
Mompou was born in Barcelona to the ...
and
Xavier Montsalvatge
Xavier Montsalvatge i Bassols (; 11 March 1912 – 7 May 2002) was a Spanish composer and music critic. He was one of the most influential music figures in Catalan music during the latter half of the 20th century.
Biography
Life
Montsalvatge ...
's ballet ''Perlimplinada''.
*1959 (1 January) Joan Altisent's opera ''Amunt!''.
*1960 (17 November)
Ricard Lamote de Grignon
Ricard Lamote de Grignon i Ribas (; 25 September 1899 – 5 February 1962) was a Catalan Spanish composer and orchestral conductor.
Ricard Lamote de Grignon was born and died in Barcelona. He was the only son of the composer Joan Lamote de Grign ...
's opera ''La cabeza del dragón'' (written in 1939).
*1960 (1 May)
Cristóbal Halffter
Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina (24 March 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a Spanish classical composer. He was the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter and is regarded as the most important Spanish composer of the gener ...
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first hal ...
and
Ernesto Halffter
Ernesto Halffter Escriche (16 January 19055 July 1989) was a Spanish composer and conductor. He was the brother of Rodolfo Halffter and part of the ''Grupo de los Ocho'' ( en, Group of Eight), which formed a sub-set of the ''Generation of '27''. ...
Xavier Montsalvatge
Xavier Montsalvatge i Bassols (; 11 March 1912 – 7 May 2002) was a Spanish composer and music critic. He was one of the most influential music figures in Catalan music during the latter half of the 20th century.
Biography
Life
Montsalvatge ...
's opera ''Una voce in off''.
*1969 (1 February)
Joan Guinjoan
Joan Guinjoan i Gispert (28 November 1931 – 1 January 2019) was a Catalan composer and pianist.
Life
Born in Riudoms, Guinjoan studied at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona. In 1954, he moved to Paris and continued h ...
's ballet ''Els cinc continents''.
*1974 (19 January) Matilde Salvador's opera ''Vinatea''.
*1975 (29 November) J. Ventura Tort's opera ''Rondalla d'esparvers''.
*1986 (22 May) Josep Soler's opera ''Oedipus et Iocasta'' (premiered as oratorio at
Palau de la Música Catalana
Palau de la Música Catalana (, en, Palace of Catalan Music) is a concert hall in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed in the Catalan '' modernista'' style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it was built between 1905 and 1908 for O ...
Leonardo Balada
Leonardo Balada Ibáñez (born September 22, 1933) is a Catalan American classical composer, who is noted for his operas and orchestral works.
Life
Balada was born in Barcelona, Spain. After studying piano at the Conservatori Superior de Mús ...
's opera ''Cristóbal Colón''.
*2000 (2 October) José Luis Turina's opera ''D.Q., Don Quijote en Barcelona'', with settings by
La Fura dels Baus
La Fura dels Baus () is a Spanish theatrical group founded in 1979 in Moià, Barcelona (Spain), known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries between audience and actor. "La Fura dels Baus" in Catalan mea ...
.
*2004 (3 November) Joan Guinjoan's opera ''Gaudí''.
*2006 (6 April)
Josep Mestres Quadreny
Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny (4 March 1929 – 18 January 2021) was a Spanish composer.
Biography
He studied sciences at the University of Barcelona, taking lessons in composition from Cristòfor Taltabull Cristòfor Taltabull (28 July 1888 - 1 ...
's camera opera ''El ganxo''.
*2009 (20 April) Enric Palomar's opera ''La cabeza del Bautista''.
=Spanish opera premieres
=
The Liceu has also been the location for the Spanish premieres of prominent operas. Among them are:
*1847
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
's ''Giovanna d'Arco'' (1845).
*1848
Saverio Mercadante
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 179517 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond ...
's '' Orazi e Curiazi'' (1846).
*1849
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his opera ...
's ''Der Freischütz''(1821); Giuseppe Verdi's ''Alzira'' (1847);
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
's ''Les martyrs'' (1840, in Italian).
*1853 Daniel-François Auber's ''Fra Diavolo'' (1830).
*1854 Giuseppe Verdi's ''Il trovatore'' (1853).
*1856 Giuseppe Verdi's ''Les vepres siciliennes'' (1855, 1856), in Italian;
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...
's ''Les huguenots'' (in Italian) (1836).
*1861 Giuseppe Verdi's ''Un ballo in maschera'' (1859).
*1862 Giuseppe Verdi's ''Simon Boccanegra'' (1857).
*1863
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...
's ''Le prophète'' (in Italian) (1849).
*1864
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
's ''Faust'' (1859).
*1868
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...
's ''Dinorah'' (in Italian) (1859).
*1870 Giuseppe Verdi's ''Don Carlos'' (1868, Italian version 1869).
*1875 Giuseppe Verdi's ''Requiem'' (1874);
Ambroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas (; 5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896) was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas ''Mignon'' (1866) and ''Hamlet'' (1868).
Born into a musical family, Thomas was a student at the Conservatoire de ...
's ''Mignon'' (1866).
*1876 Carlos Gomes' ''Il guarany'' (1870).
*1880
Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito (; 24 February 1842 10 June 1918) (whose original name was Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito and who wrote essays under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Tobia Gorrio) was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, librettist and composer, best ...
's ''Mefistofele'' (1868, rev. 1875).
*1883
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli (, ; 31 August 1834 – 16 January 1886) was an Italian opera composer, best known for his opera ''La Gioconda''. He was married to the soprano Teresina Brambilla.
Life and work
Born in Paderno Fasolaro (now Paderno Ponchiell ...
's ''La Gioconda'' (1876).
*1885
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni (7 December 1863 – 2 August 1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece ''Cavalleria rusticana'' caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the ' ...
's ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (1890).
*1894 Pietro Mascagni's ''L'amico Fritz'' (1891);
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
's ''Manon'' (1884).
*1897
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
's ''Samson et Dalila'' (1877).
*1898
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long li ...
's ''La bohème'' (1896);
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 186712 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.
He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples. His first opera, ''Marina ...
's ''Andrea Chénier'' (1896).
*1899 Richard Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'' (1865);
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
's ''Werther'' (1892).
*1900
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 186712 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.
He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples. His first opera, ''Marina ...
's ''Fedora''(1898); Pietro Mascagni's ''Iris'' (1898);
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's ''Siegfried'' (1876);
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...
's ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' (1779).
*1901 Richard Wagner's ''Götterdammerung''(1876); Engelbert Humperdinck's ''Hänsel und Gretel'' (1893).
*1903
Francesco Cilea
Francesco Cilea (; 23 July 1866 – 20 November 1950) was an Italian composer. Today he is particularly known for his operas ''L'arlesiana'' and ''Adriana Lecouvreur''.
Biography
Born in Palmi near Reggio di Calabria, Cilea gave early indicatio ...
's ''Adriana Lecouvreur'' (1902).
*1904
Gustave Charpentier
Gustave Charpentier (; 25 June 1860 – 18 February 1956) was a French composer, best known for his opera ''Louise''.Langham Smith R., "Gustave Charpentier", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.
Life and ca ...
's ''Louise'' (1900).
*1905
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
's ''Thaïs'' (1894); Richard Wagner's ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' (1868).
*1907 Pietro Mascagni's ''Amica'' (1905).
*1908
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
's ''Les barbares''(1901).
*1910
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
' ''Salome'' (1905);
Eugen d'Albert
Eugen (originally Eugène) Francis Charles d'Albert (10 April 1864 – 3 March 1932) was a Scottish-born pianist and composer.
Educated in Britain, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to stud ...
's ''Tiefland'' (1903) (sung in Catalan).
*1911
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
's '' L'Enfant prodigue'' (1884).
*1913 Richard Wagner's ''Parsifal'' (1883).
*1915 Giacomo Puccini's ''La fanciulla del West'' (1914);
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...
's ''Boris Godunov'' (1869).
*1916
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (born Ermanno Wolf) (January 12, 1876 – January 21, 1948) was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as '' Il segreto di Susanna'' (1909). A number of his works were based on plays by ...
's ''Il segreto di Susanna'' (1909);
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (1786).
*1919
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
's ''Le jongleur de Notre-Dame'' (1902); Pietro Mascagni's ''Guglielmo Rattcliff'' (1895)
*1920 Pietro Mascagni's ''Isabeau'' (1911).
*1921 Richard Strauss' ''Rosenkavalier'' (1911);
Vincent d'Indy
Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the Par ...
's ''L'étranger'' (1901).
*1922
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...
's ''Schneguroschka'' (1885);
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin ( rus, link=no, Александр Порфирьевич Бородин, Aleksandr Porfir’yevich Borodin , p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr pɐrˈfʲi rʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈdʲin, a=RU-Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin.ogg, ...
's ''Prince Igor'' (1890);
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
''Pikovaia dama'' (1890).
*1923
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...
's ''Khovanshchina'' (1886, 1913 first Western performance).
*1924
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...
's ''Rusalka'' (1900);
Bedřich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana ( , ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival." He has been regarded i ...
's ''Prodaná nevesta'' (1866, The bartered bride);
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera '' ...
's ''Les contes d'Hoffmann'' (1881);
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
's ''Hérodiade'' (1881).
*1925
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 186712 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.
He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples. His first opera, ''Marina ...
's ''La cena delle beffe'' (1924); Richard Strauss' ''Intermezzo'' (1924);
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's ''Die Zauberflöte''(1791).
*1926
Riccardo Zandonai
Riccardo Zandonai (28 May 1883 – 5 June 1944) was an Italian composer.
Biography
Zandonai was born in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, then part of Austria-Hungary. As a young man, he showed such an aptitude for music that he entered the Pesaro Conserv ...
's ''Francesca da Rimini'' (1914);
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...
's ''The legend of the invisible city of Kitezh'' (1907), (first performance out of Russia), ''Pskovityanka'' (1873, 1892) and ''May night'' (1879).
*1927
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music ed ...
's ''Háry János suite'' (orchestral suite from opera ''Háry János'')
*1928
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's ''Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail'' (1782).
*1929
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
's ''Don Quichotte'' (1910).
*1930
Italo Montemezzi
Italo Montemezzi (August 4, 1875 – May 15, 1952) was an Italian composer. He is best known for his opera ''L'amore dei tre re'' (''The Love of the Three Kings''), once part of the standard repertoire. It is now seldom performed.
Biography
M ...
's ''L'amore dei tre re'' (1913).
*1933 Igor Stravinsky's ''Oedipus rex'' (1927).
*1936
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...
's ''Jakobin'' (1897, rev.).
*1939
Enric Granados
Pantaleón Enrique Joaquín Granados y Campiña (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916), commonly known as Enric Granados in Catalan or Enrique Granados in Spanish, was a composer of classical music, and concert pianist from Catalonia, Spain. ...
's ''Goyescas'' (1916).
*1943 Richard Strauss' ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' (1912).
*1948 Giacomo Puccini's ''Il trittico'' (1918);
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions r ...
's ''
La fiamma
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
'' (1934); Igor Stravinsky's ''Le rossignol'' (1914).
*1949 Richard Strauss' ''Elektra'' (1909);
Édouard Lalo
Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo (27 January 182322 April 1892) was a French composer. His most celebrated piece is the ''Symphonie espagnole'', a five-movement concerto for violin and orchestra, which remains a popular work in the standard reper ...
's ''Le roi d'Ys'' (1888).
*1951 Richard Strauss' ''Die Frau ohne Schätten'' (1918).
*1952
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept h ...
's ''The consul'' (1950).
*1953
Riccardo Zandonai
Riccardo Zandonai (28 May 1883 – 5 June 1944) was an Italian composer.
Biography
Zandonai was born in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, then part of Austria-Hungary. As a young man, he showed such an aptitude for music that he entered the Pesaro Conserv ...
's ''I cavalieri di Ekebù'' (1925).
*1954
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept h ...
's ''Amelia al ballo'' (1937);
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...
Ildebrando Pizzetti
Ildebrando Pizzetti (20 September 1880 – 13 February 1968) was an Italian composer of classical music, Musicology, musicologist, and Music criticism, music critic.
Biography
Pizzetti was born in Parma in 1880. He was part of the "Generation ...
's ''Debora e Jaele''(1921);
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
's ''Porgy and Bess''(1935);
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
's ''Eugene Onegin'' (1879).
*1956
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer.
Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...
's ''Dido and Aeneas'' (1689).
*1957
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions r ...
's ''Maria Egiziaca'' (1932);
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept h ...
's ''The saint of Bleecker Street'' (1955).
*1958 Ildebrando Pizzetti's ''Assassinio nella catedrale'' (1958);
Carl Orff
Carl Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata ''Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education.
Life
Early life
Car ...
's ''Die Kluge'' (1943).
*1959
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kno ...
's ''Dialogues des Carmelites''(1959);
Franco Alfano
Franco Alfano (8 March 1875 – 27 October 1954) was an Italian composer and pianist, best known today for his opera ''Risurrezione'' (1904) and for having completed Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' in 1926. He had considerable success with several o ...
's ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' (1936).
*1962 Richard Strauss' ''Arabella'' (1932).
*1963
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's ''La clemenza di Tito'' (1791).
*1964
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...
's ''Wozzeck'' (1925);
Georg Friedrich Haendel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...
's ''Giulio Cesare'' (1724).
*1965
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
's ''Katerina Izmailova'' (1956);
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...
's ''Jenůfa'' (1904).
*1966
José Pablo Moncayo
José Pablo Moncayo García (June 29, 1912 – June 16, 1958) was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. "As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican nationalis ...
's ''La mulata de Córdoba'' (1948);
Luis Sandi
Luis Sandi Meneses (22 February 1905, Mexico City – 1996), was a musician, teacher and composer.
Biography
The complete name is Luis Sandi Meneses. Born February 22, 1905 in Mexico City, the only child of Genaro Sandi and María Meneses. ...
's ''Carlota''; Salvador Moreno's ''Severino'';
Alfredo Keil
Alfredo Cristiano Keil (3 July 1850 – 4 October 1907) was a Portuguese romantic composer and painter.
Keil was born in Lisbon, the son of Johann Christian Keil (son of Johann Georg Keil and wife Elisabeth ...) and wife (m. Lisbon, 30 A ...
's ''A serrana'' (1899); Francis Poulenc's ''La voix humaine'' (1959);
Henri Busser
Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry.
People with this given name
; French noblemen
:'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.''
* Henri I de Montm ...
's ''La carrosse du Saint-Sacrement'';
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo ( , , ; 23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Although he produced numerous operas and other songs throughout his career it is his opera '' Pagliacci'' (1892) that remained hi ...
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...
's ''Lulu'' (1938);
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka ( rus, link=no, Михаил Иванович Глинка, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka., mʲɪxɐˈil ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡlʲinkə, Ru-Mikhail-Ivanovich-Glinka.ogg; ) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recogni ...
's ''One life for the Tsar''.
*1971
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...
's ''Mahagonny''.
*1972
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav ( uk, Богуслав, yi, באָסלעוו or ''Boslov'') is a city on the Ros River in Obukhiv Raion, Kyiv Oblast (province) of Ukraine. Population: . It hosts the administration of Bohuslav urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukra ...
's ''A Greek Passion'';
Bedřich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana ( , ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival." He has been regarded i ...
's ''Dalibor''.
*1973
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...
's ''Katia Kabanova'';
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
's ''Caterina Cornaro''.
*1975
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
's ''Billy Budd'' (1941);
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
's ''Il cappello di paglia di Firenze'';
Gian Francesco Malipiero
Gian Francesco Malipiero (; 18 March 1882 – 1 August 1973) was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.
Life Early years
Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gia ...
's ''Il capitano Spavento''; Igor Stravinsky's ''Mavra''.
*1976
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...
's ''From the Dead House''.
*1977
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
's ''War and Peace'';
Hector Berlioz
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
's ''Benvenuto Cellini'';
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini ( ; ; 8 or 14 SeptemberWillis, in Sadie (Ed.), p. 833 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the gre ...
's ''Medea''.
*1985
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
's ''Moses und Aaron''.
*1987
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...
's ''Lulu'' (
Friedrich Cerha
Friedrich Cerha (born 17 February 1926) is an Austrian composer, conductor and music educator.
Education and Career
Cerha was born in Vienna, Austria, and educated at the Viennese Music Academy (violin with Váša Příhoda, composition with A ...
's completed version, 1979);
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's ''Lucio Silla''.
*1991 Richard Strauss' ''Capriccio'' (1942).
*1992
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
' ''Einstein on the Beach'' (1976); János Vajda's ''Mario and the magician''.
*1994
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...
's ''Mathis der Maler'' (1938).
*1999
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...
's ''Vec Makropoulos''.
*2000
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (born Ermanno Wolf) (January 12, 1876 – January 21, 1948) was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as '' Il segreto di Susanna'' (1909). A number of his works were based on plays by ...
's ''Sly''.
*2001
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
's ''Gloriana''.
*2002
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
's ''Lady Macbeth de Mtsenk'' (original version) (1934);
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
's ''La favorite'' French version (1850).
*2003
Philippe Boesmans
Philippe Boesmans (17 May 1936 – 10 April 2022) was a Belgian pianist, composer and academic teacher. He studied to be a pianist at the Royal Conservatory of Liège, and was self-taught as a composer, influenced by the Liège Group of Henri Pou ...
' ''
Wintermärchen
' is an opera by Philippe Boesmans to a libretto by Luc Bondy and after Shakespeare's ''The Winter's Tale''. It was premiered on 10 December 1999 at La Monnaie in Brussels. The German premiere followed in 2001 at the Staatstheater Braunschweig. ...
'' (1999).
*2004
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
's ''Cléopâtre'' (1914).
*2005
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
Gioacchino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...
's ''La gazzetta'' (1816).
*2006
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and compo ...
's ''Die tote Stadt'';
Georg Friedrich Haendel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...
's ''Ariodante'' (1735).
*2007
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as t ...
's ''Boulevard Solitude''(1952);
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
's ''Le portrait de Manon'' (1894); Giuseppe Verdi's ''Don Carlos'' French original version (1868).
*2008
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
's ''Death in Venice''; ''L'ape musicale'' (1789),
pasticcio
In music, a ''pasticcio'' or ''pastiche'' is an opera or other musical work composed of works by different composers who may or may not have been working together, or an adaptation or localization of an existing work that is loose, unauthorized, o ...
by
Lorenzo da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte (; 10 March 174917 August 1838) was an Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: ''The Marr ...
with music by
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
,
Vicente Martín y Soler
Anastasio Martín Ignacio Vicente Tadeo Francisco Pellegrin Martín y Soler (2 May 175430 January or 10 February 1806) was a Spanish composer of opera and ballet. Although relatively obscure now, in his own day he was compared favorably with his ...
,
Giuseppe Gazzaniga
Giuseppe Gazzaniga (5 October 1743 – 1 February 1818) was a member of the Neapolitan school of opera composers. He composed fifty-one operas and is considered to be one of the last Italian opera buffa composers.
Biography
Born in Verona, Ga ...
,
Domenico Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa (; 17 December 1749 – 11 January 1801) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan school and of the Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is ''Il matrimonio segreto'' (1792); most of his ...
, Giordani and Tarchi.
*2009
Karol Szymanowski
Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 6 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Szymanowski's early works show the inf ...
's ''Król Roger'' (1926); Héctor Parra's ''Hypermusic prologue'' (2009).
*2010 George Benjamin's ''Into the little hill'' (2006).
*2011 Agustí Charles ''Lord Byron: un estiu sense estiu'' (2011);
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" ...
's ''
Le Grand Macabre
''Le Grand Macabre'' (1974–1977, revised version 1996) is the only opera by Hungarian composer György Ligeti. The opera has two acts, and its libretto—based on the 1934 play ''La balade du grand macabre'' by Michel de Ghelderode—was wri ...
'' (1978).
*2013
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...
general director
A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals''
) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a government ...
or
intendant
An intendant (; pt, intendente ; es, intendente ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In ...
(''empresari'' or ''administrador''). From 1980 there is also an
artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...
The theatre has had its own orchestra from its foundation in 1847, the Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu. It is the oldest still working orchestra in Spain. Its first conductor was Marià Obiols.
Orchestra music directors and chief conductors:
* Ernest Xancó (1959–1961)
* Eugenio Marco (1981–1984)
* Uwe Mund (1987–1994)
*
Bertrand de Billy
Bertrand de Billy (born Paris, 11 January 1965) is a French conductor.
He attended a Jesuit school, but only started serious musical studies when he was around 14–15; he studied piano and violin.
(1999–2004)
*
Sebastian Weigle
Sebastian Weigle (born 1961, in East Berlin) is a German conductor and horn player. He is currently ''Generalmusikdirektor'' of the Oper Frankfurt and principal conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.
Biography
Weigle is a nephew of ...
(2004–2008)
*
Michael Boder
Michael Boder (born 9 November 1958) is a German conductor of opera and concert who works internationally. The chief conductor of the Royal Danish Theatre, he has conducted regularly at the Vienna State Opera, including the premieres of Cerha's ' ...
(2008–2012)
*
Josep Pons
Josep Pons (born Josep Pons i Viladomat; 1957) is a Spanish conductor.
Biography
Pons was born in Puig-reig, Berguedà. He received his musical training at L'Escolania de Montserrat and continued his musical studies in Barcelona with such teac ...
(2012–present)
The current music director of the company is
Josep Pons
Josep Pons (born Josep Pons i Viladomat; 1957) is a Spanish conductor.
Biography
Pons was born in Puig-reig, Berguedà. He received his musical training at L'Escolania de Montserrat and continued his musical studies in Barcelona with such teac ...
, since 2012. In November 2017, the Liceu announced the extension of Pons' contract through the 2021–2022 season.
Choir conductors
The choir was consolidated during the 1960s by its conductor Riccardo Bottino (1960–1982). From 1982 the choir conductors were (1982–1993), with Vittorio Sicuri (1982–1990), and Andrés Máspero (from 1990). The present choir conductor is William Spaulding.
Stage directors and stagecraft
During the second half of the 19th century, a school of stagecraft and theatrical scenery was developed at the Liceu. After the beginnings with Joan Ballester, well known for his setting for
L'Africaine
''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is an 1865 French ''grand opéra'' in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title ''L'Africaine'', bu ...
, the leading scenographer was Francesc Soler i Rovirosa, working in the 1880–1900s. The style was very realistic using painted paper flats and curtains. Settings and costumes were made in the theatre workshops. From the 1900s to 1930s the school is represented by scenic painters including Maurici Vilomara, Fèlix Urgellés, Salvador Alarma and Oleguer Junyent. The last of these painters was Josep Mestres Cabanes who painted sceneries in the 1930–1950s.
Singers
Many famous singers have sung at the Liceu. Composer
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
, when visiting the Liceu, once said: "Ils aiment trop the ténor" (They
he Liceu public
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
love tenors too much). In brackets are the dates of the house debuts and final/most recent performances of prominent singers who have appeared at the Liceu:
*1800s: Manuela Rossi-Caccia (1847), (1860/1862),
Giuseppe Mario
Giovanni Matteo De Candia, also known as Mario (17 October 1810 – 11 December 1883), was an Italian opera singer. The most celebrated tenor of his era, he was lionized by audiences in Paris and London. He was the partner of the opera singer Giul ...
(1863),
Roberto Stagno
Roberto Stagno (; 18 October 1840 ome sources give 1836 as his birth year – 26 April 1897) was a prominent Italian opera tenor. He became an important interpreter of verismo music when it burst on to the operatic scene during the 1890s; ...
(1867), Rosa Vercolini,
Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno (28 December 1850 – 31 August 1905) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America.Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 782 pages, On 5 February ...
Julián Gayarre
Sebastián Julián Gayarre Garjón (9 January 1844 in Roncal, Navarre, Spain – 2 January 1890 in Madrid, Spain), better known as Julián Gayarre, was a Spanish opera singer who created the role of Marcello in Donizetti's '' Il Duca d'Alba'' ...
(1881/1888),
Victor Maurel
Victor Maurel (17 June 184822 October 1923) was a French operatic baritone who enjoyed an international reputation as a great singing actor.
Biography
Maurel was born in Marseille. Educated in music and stagecraft at the Paris Conservatory, ...
,
Francesc Viñas
Francesc Viñas i Dordal (27 March 1863 – 14 July 1933) was a Spanish operatic tenor. He is also known by the Spanish version of his name, Francisco Viñas and the Italian version, Francesco Vignas. He was particularly known for his performance ...
(1888/1913),
Hariclea Darclée
Hariclea Darclée (née Haricli; later Hartulari; 10 June 1860 – 12 January 1939) was a celebrated Romanian operatic soprano who had a three-decade-long career.
Darclée's repertoire ranged from coloratura soprano roles to heavier Verdi roles, ...
(1894),
Luisa Tetrazzini
Luisa Tetrazzini (June 29, 1871 in Florence – April 28, 1940 in Milan) was an Italian dramatic coloratura soprano of great international fame. Tetrazzini "had a scintillating voice with a brilliant timbre and a range and agility well b ...
(1896),
Geneviève Vix
Geneviève Vix (née Brouwer, December 31, 1879 – August 25, 1939) was a French soprano. She was a descendant of the Dutch painter Adriaen Brouwer.Gourret J. ''Dictionnaire des cantatrices de l'Opéra de Paris.'' Editions Albatros, Paris ...
, (1896),
Maria Barrientos
María Alejandra Barrientos Llopis (4 March 1884 - 8 August 1946) was a Spanish opera singer, a light coloratura soprano.
Biography
Barrientos was born in Barcelona on 4 March 1884. She received a thorough musical education (piano and violin ...
(1898/1918),
Rosina Storchio
Rosina Storchio (19 January 1872 – 24 July 1945) was an Italian lyric coloratura soprano who starred in the world premieres of operas by Puccini, Leoncavallo, Mascagni and Giordano.
Biography
Born in Venice in 1872, Storchio studie ...
(1898).
*1900s: In 1904
Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ...
(in his only Liceu appearance) participated in two performances of ''Rigoletto''.
Gemma Bellincioni
Gemma Bellincioni (born Matilda Cesira Bellincioni) (; 18 August 1864 – 23 April 1950) was an Italian soprano and one of the best-known opera singers of the late 19th century. She had a particular affinity with the verismo repertoire and ...
played the title role in a ''Salomé'', the Catalan singer
Conchita Supervía
Conchita Supervía (8–9 December 1895 Steane (2003) – 30 March 1936) was a highly popular Spanish mezzo-soprano singer who appeared in opera in Europe and America and also gave recitals.
Early life
Supervía was born in Barcelona to an o ...
made her debut. Success was recorded by other performers such as:
Mario Sammarco
(Giuseppe) Mario Sammarco (13 December 1868, although some sources say 1867 – 24 January 1930) was an Italian operatic baritone noted for his acting ability.
Biography
Sammarco was born in Palermo, Sicily, and studied locally with Antonio Can ...
(1902),
Adamo Didur
Adam Didur or Adamo Didur (24 December 18747 January 1946) was a famous Polish operatic bass singer. He sang extensively in Europe and had a major career at New York's Metropolitan Opera from 1908 to 1932.
Career
He was born on 24 December 187 ...
(1905),
Mattia Battistini
Mattia Battistini (27 February 1856 – 7 November 1928) was an Italian operatic baritone, referred to as the "King of Baritones" in multiple publications.Steane, J.B., 1998. Singers of the Century, vol. 2. Amadeus Press, Portland, pp.&nbs ...
(1906),
Graziella Pareto
Engràcia Pareto Homs (6 May 1889 – 1 September 1973), better known as Graziella Pareto, was a Catalan soprano leggiero, one of the leading sopranos of the inter-war years. She is considered one of the great coloratura sopranos of the "Spa ...
(1906/1928),
Giuseppe Anselmi
Antonio Giuseppe Anselmi (6 November 1876, Nicolosi - 27 May 1929, Zoagli) was an Italian operatic tenor. He became famous throughout Europe during the first decade of the 20th century for his stylish performances of lyric roles. He never sang in ...
(1907),
Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo (9 June 1877 – 5 July 1953), born as Ruffo Cafiero (double forename) Titta, was an Italian operatic baritone who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone" ("voice of the lion"), he was greatly admi ...
(1908/1926),
Riccardo Stracciari
Riccardo Stracciari (June 26, 1875 – October 10, 1955) was a leading Italian baritone. His repertoire consisted mainly of Italian operatic works, with Rossini's Figaro and Verdi's Rigoletto becoming his signature roles during a long and dis ...
(1909/1939)
*1910s–1920s:
Elvira de Hidalgo
Elvira Juana Rodríguez Roglán (December 28, 1891 – January 21, 1980), known professionally as Elvira de Hidalgo, was a prominent Spanish coloratura soprano, who later became a teacher and vocal coach. Her most famous pupil was Maria Ca ...
(1911),
Ebe Stignani
Ebe Stignani (10 July 1903 – 5 October 1974) was an Italian opera singer, who was pre-eminent in the dramatic mezzo-soprano roles of the Italian repertoire during a stage career of more than thirty years.
Career
Born in Naples in 1903 (some so ...
,
Conchita Supervía
Conchita Supervía (8–9 December 1895 Steane (2003) – 30 March 1936) was a highly popular Spanish mezzo-soprano singer who appeared in opera in Europe and America and also gave recitals.
Early life
Supervía was born in Barcelona to an o ...
(1912/1928),
Hipólito Lázaro
Hipòlit Lázaro (September 13, 1887 – May 14, 1974), better known as Hipólito Lázaro, was a Catalan people, Catalan-Spanish opera singer. He was active as an operatic tenor for four decades from 1910 through 1950.
Biography
Lázaro was born i ...
(1914/1945),
Giovanni Zenatello
Giovanni Zenatello (22 February 1876 – 11 February 1949) was an Italian opera singer. Born in Verona, he enjoyed an international career as a dramatic tenor of the first rank. Otello became his most famous operatic role but he sang a wide r ...
,
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi (11 December 1892 – 17 March 1979) was an Italian tenor with a lyric voice of exceptional range and technical facility. He performed throughout Europe and the Americas in a top-class career that spanned 40 years.
Caree ...
(1922/1945 and 1972)
Miguel Fleta
Miguel Burro Fleta (28 December 1897, in Albalate de Cinca, Province of Huesca, Aragon – 29 May 1938, in A Coruña) was a Spanish operatic tenor.
Despite his short stage career, lasting from 1919 to 1935, Fleta has been described as one of the ...
(1925/1933),
Toti Dal Monte
Antonietta Meneghel (27 June 189326 January 1975), better known by her stage name Toti Dal Monte, was a celebrated Italian operatic lyric soprano . She may be best remembered today for her performance as Cio-cio-san in Puccini's ''Madama Butterf ...
(1925/1934),
Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn}; April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass v ...
(1927/1934),
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior (20 March 1890 – 18 March 1973) was a Danish-American opera singer. He was the preeminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and has come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type. Late in his career, Me ...
(1927/1930), Tina Poli Randaccio, Lily Hafgren, Carlo Galeffi,
Gilda Dalla Rizza
Gilda Dalla Rizza (12 October 18925 July 1975) was an important Italian soprano.
Born in Verona, she made her operatic debut in Bologna (the Teatro Verdi) in 1912, as Charlotte in ''Werther''. Especially acclaimed in the verismo repertory, she w ...
,
Georges Thill
Georges Thill (14 December 1897 – 17 October 1984) was a French opera singer, often considered to be his country's greatest lyric-dramatic tenor. Born in Paris, his career lasted from 1924 to 1953, peaking during the 1930s.
Career
A pupil of ...
, Giannina Arangi Lombardi and
Gina Cigna
Gina Cigna (6 March 1900 – 26 June 2001) was a French-Italian dramatic soprano.
Biography
Gina Cigna was born in Angers, department of Maine-et-Loire, to parents of Italian origin. She trained as a pianist at the Paris Conservatory studying w ...
.
*1940s:
Giulietta Simionato
Giulietta Simionato (born Giulia Simionato; Forlì, Romagna, 12 May 1910 – Rome, 5 May 2010) was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned the period from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966.
Life
As a girl she studied in a boardin ...
(1945/1951),
Victoria de los Ángeles
Victoria de los Ángeles López García (1 November 192315 January 2005) was a Catalan Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid- ...
(1945/1968 and 1994),
Giuseppe Di Stefano
Giuseppe Di Stefano (24 July 19213 March 2008) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. Called Pippo by both fans and friends, he was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voic ...
(1946/1970 and 1986),
Maria Caniglia
Maria Caniglia (5 May 1905 – 16 April 1979) was one of the leading Italian spinto sopranos of the 1930s and 1940s.
Life and career
Caniglia was born in Naples and studied at the Music Conservatories of Naples with Agostino Roche. She made ...
(1947/1954),
Gianni Poggi
Gianni Poggi (October 4, 1921 – December 16, 1989) was an Italian tenor, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.
Biography
Born in Piacenza, Poggi studied first in Bologna with soprano Valeria Manna, and later in Milan with baritone ...
(1947/1963),
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casaz ...
(1949/1952),
Hans Hotter
Hans Hotter (19 January 19096 December 2003) was a German operatic bass-baritone. He stood 6 ft 4 in and his appearance was striking. His voice and diction were equally recognisable.
Early life and career
Born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, ...
Boris Christoff
Boris Christoff ( bg, Борис Кирилов Христов, Boris Kirilov Hristov, ; 18 May 1914 – 28 June 1993) was a Bulgarian opera singer, widely considered one of the greatest basses of the 20th century.
Early life
He was born i ...
(1951/1952),
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi ( , ; 1 February 1922 – 19 December 2004) was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period, and especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala, San Carlo and, especially, the Metropolitan Opera. O ...
(1953/1959), Giuseppe Taddei (1953/1986), Wolfgang Windgassen (1954/1959), Walter Berry (bass-baritone), Walter Berry (1954/1985), Anton Dermota (1955/1966), Gianna D'Angelo (1957/1965), (1957/1992), Fedora Barbieri, Margherita Carosio, Astrid Varnay (1955/1957), Gertrude Grob-Prandl, Birgit Nilsson (1957/1958), Régine Crespin (1958/1966), Carlo Bergonzi (tenor), Carlo Bergonzi (1958/1982), Alfredo Kraus (1958/1994).
*1960s: Joan Sutherland (1960/1989), Piero Cappuccilli (1961/1994), Fiorenza Cossotto (1961/1994), Montserrat Caballé (1962/2007), Virginia Zeani (1963/1977), (1964/1989), Plácido Domingo (1966/2015), Jaume Aragall (1964–1997), Vicente Sardinero (1964/1997), Richard Tucker (tenor), Richard Tucker (1965/1975), Grace Bumbry (1966/1988), Anja Silja (1966/2000).
*1970s: Mirella Freni (1970/1994), José Carreras (1958, as child, and 1970/2008), Joan Pons (1970/2006), Elena Obraztsova (1970/1984), Agnes Baltsa (1971/1992), Edita Gruberová (1977/2008)
*1980s: Simon Estes (1981/1997), Matti Salminen (1981/2004), Ewa Podleś (1981/2007), Martti Talvela (1982/1989), Franco Bonisolli Éva Marton (1982/2006), Gwyneth Jones (soprano), Gwyneth Jones (1985/1997), Nicolai Ghiaurov (1985/1992), Rockwell Blake (1986/1996), Dolora Zajick (1988/2008).
*1990s & 2000s: (1992/2007), Deborah Polaski (2000), Angela Denoke (2002), Natalie Dessay, Juan Diego Flórez (2002/2008), Rolando Villazón (2005/2008), Peter Seiffert or Fiorenza Cedolins (2005/2007), Nina Stemme (2004–2005/2008–2009).
Conservatori de Música del Liceu
Linked to the theatre is the
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu () is a music college in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was created in 1837 with the name ''Liceo Filo-dramático de Montesión''.
In 1847 the institution inaugurated the opera house Gran Teatre del Lic ...
, a music college founded in 1837 which is part of the same corporation.
Círculo del Liceo
The ''Círculo del Liceo'' is an exclusive private club located in the Liceu building. The ''Círculo'' opened in November 1847, a few months after the Liceu opera house, with 125 founding members, according to its earliest records. The club's facilities include numerous elegant lounges, conference rooms, a restaurant, a library and other services.
For the society's first 150 years, only men were permitted to become members; women were allowed access solely as guests of male society members. In 2001, following public controversy over the club's exclusively male membership, the club's constitution was amended and ten women (including renowned soprano Montserrat Caballé and several family members of existing members) were permitted to apply for membership for the first time. All ten women were initially turned down, then later admitted after a subsequent vote by members, with a final vote of 373 votes in favor and 279 against their admission. At present, the society has around one thousand members.
The ''Círculo del Liceo'' is the oldest club in Spain which retains its original location. The club's long history has enabled it to accumulate a unique heritage of artistic works. Many of its rooms are decorated in an Art Nouveau style. Four large windows in the low foyer serve as a testimony to the influence of Wagner controversies, Wagnerism in Catalan culture at the beginning of the 20th century.
In addition to the furniture and decor, the club retains a collection of sculptures, marquetry, enamels, engravings, etchings and paintings by Catalan artists: Alexandre de Riquer, Santiago Rusiñol, Modest Urgell Inglada and Francesc Miralles i Galaup, Francesc Miralles, among others. The most notable work belonging to the club is a set of twelve oils on fabric, commissioned to Ramon Casas and installed in the rotunda of the club. Each of the twelve paintings, Casas' most ambitious work, is inspired by a musical topic.
The Liceu in fiction, cinema, etc.
Fiction: novels, plays, etc.
* 's satirical comedy ''"Liceístas" i "cruzados"'' (1865), about the quarrels among the fans of the Liceu and fans of the Teatre Principal (Barcelona), Teatre Principal, the two main opera houses as there was a great rivalry among them in Barcelona during the 19th century.
* Narcís Oller's novel ''La febre d'or'' (1892).
* Artur Masriera's sketch book ''Los buenos barceloneses: hombres, costumbres y anécdotas de la Barcelona ochocentista (1850–1870)'' (1925).
* 's novels: ''Mariona Rebull'' (1944) and ''El viudo Rius'' (1945), where the 1893 bomb at Liceu is narrated.
* Eduardo Mendoza Garriga, Eduardo Mendoza's novel ''La ciudad de los prodigios'' (1986). However the film based on it was filmed at Teatre Fortuny at Reus, not at Liceu.
* 's short stories book ''El dia que es va cremar el Liceu'' (''The day the Liceu was burnt'') (1995).
Films
* ''Mariona Rebull (film), Mariona Rebull'' (1947), directed by José Luis Sáenz de Heredia
* ''Gayarre'' (1958), by Domingo Viladomat, a biopic about
Julián Gayarre
Sebastián Julián Gayarre Garjón (9 January 1844 in Roncal, Navarre, Spain – 2 January 1890 in Madrid, Spain), better known as Julián Gayarre, was a Spanish opera singer who created the role of Marcello in Donizetti's '' Il Duca d'Alba'' ...
, performed by Alfredo Kraus.
* ''Circus World (film), Circus World'' (1964), directed by Henry Hathaway, with John Wayne and Claudia Cardinale; some circus scenes are filmed inside the Liceu theatre.
* ''Romanza final'' (1986), directed by José María Forqué, a film about
Julián Gayarre
Sebastián Julián Gayarre Garjón (9 January 1844 in Roncal, Navarre, Spain – 2 January 1890 in Madrid, Spain), better known as Julián Gayarre, was a Spanish opera singer who created the role of Marcello in Donizetti's '' Il Duca d'Alba'' ...
's life with Josep Carreras.
* ''Un submarí a les estovalles'' (1990), directed by Ignasi Pere Ferré.
* ''La febre d'or'' (1993), directed by Gonzalo Herralde, with Fernando Guillén, Rosa Maria Sardà, Rosa M. Sardà and Àlex Casanovas, with fragments of a performance of Gounod's ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
''.
* ''The Life of David Gale'' (2003), directed by Alan Parker, with Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet.
See also
*
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu () is a music college in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was created in 1837 with the name ''Liceo Filo-dramático de Montesión''.
In 1847 the institution inaugurated the opera house Gran Teatre del Lic ...
*List of theatres and concert halls in Barcelona
References
Notes
Sources
*Alier, Roger, ''El gran llibre del Liceu''. Barcelona: Carroggio, DL 1999.
*Alier, Roger, ''El Gran Teatro del Liceo: historia artística''. Barcelona: Francesc X. Mata, 1991.
*Alier, Roger, ''Historia del Gran Teatro del Liceo''. Barcelona: La Vanguardia, 1983.
*''Anuari 1947–1997 del Gran Teatre del Liceu''. Recerca i recopilació: Pau Nadal. Barcelona: Amics del Liceu: Àmbit, DL 1997.
*Artís, Josep, ''El Gran Teatro del Liceo''. Col·lecció Barcelona histórica y monumental. Barcelona: Aymá, 1946.
*''Crònica il·lustrada del Gran Teatre del Liceu: 1947–1997''. Barcelona: Amics del Liceu : Àmbit, DL 1997.
*Lloret, Teresa, ''Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona''. [Barcelona: Fundació Gran Teatre del Liceu], cop. 2002.
*''Òpera Liceu: una exposició en cinc actes: Museu d'Història de Catalunya, 19 setembre de 1997-11 de gener de 1998, Barcelona''. [Barcelona]: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Cultura : Proa : Fundació Gran Teatre del Liceu, DL 1997.
*Radigales, Jaume, ''Els orígens del Gran Teatre del Liceu: 1837–1847: de la plaça de Santa Anna a la Rambla: història del Liceu Filharmònic d'Isabel II o Liceu Filodramàtic de Barcelona''. Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, 1998.
*Subirá, José, ''La ópera en los teatros de Barcelona: estudio histórico cronológico desde el siglo XVIII al XX ''. Monografías históricas de Barcelona, 9. Millà. 1946.
*Tribó, Jaume, ''Annals 1847–1897 del Gran Teatre del Liceu''. Barcelona: Amics del Liceu: Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2004.
External links
*
{{authority control
Opera houses in Spain
Theatres and concert halls in Barcelona
Ciutat Vella
La Rambla, Barcelona
Catalan music
Theatres completed in 1847
Music venues completed in 1847
Theatres completed in 1862
Music venues completed in 1862
Theatres completed in 1999
Music venues completed in 1999
1837 establishments in Spain
1847 establishments in Spain
Tourist attractions in Barcelona
Liceu