Book Tickets
On May 5, 1959 at 7:00 p.m. in Barcelona, our visitor enjoyed a pleasant temperature of 17 degrees. Just three hours later a unique event would take place, the debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu of the renowned diva Maria Callas. But what was life in Barcelona at the time really like? What else was happening in the city? What places did the singer visit?
That night in Barcelona…
We travelled on a Tuesday in the month of May. More than ten theatres in the city had different performances scheduled. At the Apolo Theatre the frivolous musical revue ¡Tócame, Roque! with star Queta Claver. At the Comedy Theatre, Aurora Bautista’s company performed “Cat on a hot tin roof” by Tennessee Williams. There were also performances planned at the Teatro Romea or the Teatro Victoria. All these performances had 2 sessions, at 6:15 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. The cultural life of the city went on till very late.
As well as the theatrical programme, cinematographic entertainment was not far behind. At the Capitol Cinema the film “Secretaria para todo” with Carmen Sevilla as the protagonist was triumphing. At the Tivoli Cinema you could enjoy the international hit, “Designing Woman”” with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall. And in the now-defunct Cinema Alexandra, the Italian comedy “Adorable and a Liar” by Nunzio Malasomma was being screened. Although this cinema does not exist today you can still visit the space that the projection room occupied and imagine what those sessions would have been like. The room is to be found in a famous clothing store on Rambla de Catalunya with c/Mallorca.
Tebaldi or Callas?
The opera going public in Barcelona at that time was devoted to the voice and style of the soprano Renata Tebaldi. The singer’s relationship with Barcelona was idyllic and she was considered the true queen of the Liceu. Despite the rivalry between Tebaldi and Callas fans, the insistence of the theatre entrepreneur Joan Antoni Pàmies led him to realise one of the greatest ambitions at that moment, Maria Callas singing on the Catalan stage.
As Pàmies himself explained to a journalist, he had been trying to convince Callas for three years and obtained the singer’s agreement just a month before the concert. In this same interview, the theatre entrepreneur stated “I have La Callas in my pocket.” In the theatre’s effort to close the contract, very high figures were on the table, $6,500 in cash for the performer. As a consequence the price of tickets increased, being set at between 50 pesetas (the same as the cost of an iron for clothes) and 500 pesetas (the cost of a two-day stay on the Costa Brava or a first communion dress).
Arrival at El Prat Airport
Three days before the concert, Maria Callas had planned to arrive in Barcelona. Apparently the singer intended to spend a few days in the city to get to know the public to understand “how to address the message of her art to them.” In the event, Callas finally arrived at El Prat Airport just one day before the concert. She had only just inaugurated the opera season at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. She arrived with extensive luggage and a briefcase loaded with jewellery valued at 20 million lire. Callas was accompanied by her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini and her teacher and discoverer, Elvira Hidalgo (from Teruel). The controversial journalist Elsa Maxwell also came on the same plane and accompanied the singer on her visits and outings in Barcelona.
Maria Callas’ arrival on Catalan soil was quite the event, she had a great reception on the runway. She was presented with a bouquet of gardenias, which greatly pleased the singer. Among the ‘reception committee’ was the famous tenor Alfredo Kraus. We know that she stayed at the Ritz Hotel, now the Palace Hotel, and that four hours before her arrival, eight men had taken a piano to the hotel’s royal suite.
The performance at the Liceu
Despite the high price for seats, the theatre was full. Tickets sold out very quickly and even resale prices were very high. The Barcelona public, although fans of La Tebaldi, were eager to hear La Callas.
The concert repertoire comprised arias from different operas, Don Carlo by Verdi, Mefistofele by Boito, the famous “Una voce poco fa” from The Barber of Seville by Rossini, Musetta’s waltz from La Boheme by Puccini, the final scene from the 2nd act of Il Pirata by Bellini and the very famous “Visi d’arte” from Tosca by Puccini. Just at that moment, shouts of “Viva Tebaldi” were heard from the audience.
The orchestra of the Liceu Opera directed by Nicola Rescigno accompanied the Callas. They also performed the overtures to Weber’s Der Freischutz, Verdi’s “La forza del destino” and Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri”.
The public seemed somewhat deflated until, in the second half of her performance, Callas had them in her pocket.
When the Liceu closes, the night continues.
The cultural and social life of Barcelona continued late into the night. After the opera and theatre the public would go to various elegant spaces in the city that became “Meeting Points on leaving the Liceu”. This text appears on a La Pérgola poster, the fashionable restaurant for Barcelona’s upper class. In 2014 it was demolished after falling out of use. It was located next to the current Caixa Forum in Montjuïc, in front of the Font Màgica. Another of the city’s famous restaurants remembers that Callas visited them. This is the Les 7 Portes restaurant, located in front of the Lonja de Mar where you can still eat today.
To be continued…
Ah, we have clues that in 1974 Callas visited Barcelona again but this time incognito. Apparently she wanted to accompany her great friend and singer Giuseppe di Stefano to a recording made with Montserrat Caballé. But that is another story.
