12 Facts About Liceu

Gran Teatre del Liceu, or Liceu for short, is an opera house on La Rambla in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

The managers of the Liceu entrusted Joaquim de Gispert d'Angli with a project to make the construction of the new building viable.

In contrast with 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, organized similarly to a trading company or societat.

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 1920s were prosperous years and the Liceu became fully established as a leading opera house welcoming better singers, the orchestra leaders of the time and companies such as Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

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In 1981, the Generalitat de Catalunya, with Barcelona's City Council and the Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu, created the Consorci del Gran Teatre del Liceu responsible for the theatre's management.

The Consortium managed to quickly attract the public back to the Liceu owing to a considerable improvement in its artistic standard.

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 Fundacio del Gran Teatre del Liceu was created and the Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu handed over the ownership of the building to the Foundation.

At present, the Liceu is both a receiving and producing house, with two or three new productions staged each year.

Liceu'story of Liceu premieres is a good instance of the evolution of European opera tastes.

Liceu has been the location for the Spanish premieres of prominent operas.