The Festival Grec de Barcelona (or Grec Festival of Barcelona) is an international theatre, dance, music and circus festival. Over the course of its history, this long-standing event has become a major summer attraction 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 ...
.
The festival takes its name from its main venue: an open-air theatre (the Teatre Grec) built on
Mount Montjuïc. The theatre was built in 1929 by the
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
Ramon Reventós in the style of the
ancient Greek theatres as part of the
1929 Barcelona International Exposition
The 1929 Barcelona International Exposition (also 1929 Barcelona Universal Exposition, or Expo 1929, officially in Spanish: ''Exposición Internacional de Barcelona 1929'' was the second World Fair to be held in Barcelona, the first one being i ...
. By 1976, the theatre had fallen into a semi-abandoned state. The first Grec Festival both salvaged the theatre and achieved considerable public success. At first, the Grec was the only venue used for festival productions, but today, the festival utilizes several venues throughout the city of Barcelona.
The festival pursues a two-fold mission: to stage the most outstanding works by Catalan artists and companies and to present other interesting shows from Spain and the rest of the world.
Artists who have appeared at the Festival include
Dario Fo
Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. I ...
,
Lindsay Kemp
Lindsay Keith Kemp (3 May 1938[British Film Institute entry for Lindsa ...](_blank)
, the
Martha Graham Dance Company
The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in 1926, is known for being the oldest American dance company. Founded by Martha Graham as a contemporary dance company, it continued to perform pieces, revive classics, and train dancers even after Graham's ...
,
Jan Fabre
Jan Fabre (born 14 December 1958) is a Belgian multidisciplinary artist, playwright, stage director, choreographer and designer.
Conviction for sexual assault and harassment
In September 2018, twenty former members of Fabre's performing ar ...
,
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shak ...
,
Sasha Waltz
Sacha, Sasha, Sascha, or ''variant'' may refer to:
People
* Sasha (name), includes list of people with the name and the variants Sascha or Sacha
Musicians
* Sasha (DJ) (born 1969), born Alexander Coe
* Sasha (German singer) (born 1972), born Sas ...
,
Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
,
Robert Lepage
Robert Lepage (born December 12, 1957) is a Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and stage director.
Early life
Lepage was raised in Quebec City. At age five, he was diagnosed with a rare form of alopecia, which caused complete hair lo ...
,the
Cloud Gate Dance Theater
Cloud Gate Dance Theater () is a modern dance group based in Taiwan. It was founded by choreographer Lin Hwai-min in 1973, and later he shared its management with his late protégé, choreographer Lo Man-fei. The troupe was inactive from October 1 ...
of Taiwan,
Paco de Lucía
Francisco Sánchez Gómez (21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (;), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flame ...
,
Cristina Hoyos
Cristina Hoyos Panadero (born 13 June 1946) is a Spanish flamenco dancer, choreographer and actress, born in Seville, Spain. After a successful worldwide career, she opened her own dance company in 1988 that premiered at the Rex Theatre in Paris ...
,
Carles Santos
Carles Santos (; 1 July 1940 – 4 December 2017) was a Spanish artist who began his career as a pianist and later worked in many other creative disciplines, including musical composition, filmmaking, screenwriting, acting, scenic musical shows ...
,
Nacho Duato
Juan Ignacio Duato Bárcia, also known as Nacho Duato (born 8 January 1957) is a Spanish modern ballet dancer and choreographer. Since 2014, Duato is artistic director of the Berlin State Ballet.
Career
Nacho Duato studied at the Rambert Sc ...
,
Àlex Rigola,
Calixto Bieito
Calixto Bieito (Miranda de Ebro, 2 November 1963) is a Spanish theater director known for his radical interpretations of classic operas.
Biography
Born in the small town of Miranda de Ebro, Bieito moved to Barcelona with his family when he was ...
,
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
,
Manhattan Transfer,
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...
,
Celia Cruz
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during t ...
,
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
, and
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
.
References
External links
Grec Festival of Barcelona website
See also
ulture of Barcelona
ist of contemporary amphitheaters
1976 establishments in Spain
Recurring events established in 1976
Festivals in Spain
Culture in Barcelona
Tourist attractions in Barcelona
Buildings and structures completed in 1929
Theatres and concert halls in Barcelona
Theatres in Catalonia
Sants-Montjuïc
World's fair architecture in Barcelona
1929 Barcelona International Exposition
Amphitheatres in Spain
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