Book Tickets
We love ranking everything, citing the first time something happened or was achieved has always interested us. Barcelona’s relationship with opera goes back many years, in this article we are going to discover details about the first operas in Barcelona.
The first of the first?
On July 24, 1708, the HMS Prince George arrived in Mataró, a 1,421-ton ship with 3 decks and 98 cannons. On board was Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Archduke Charles of Austria’s new wife. They had married by proxy, and a big celebration was being prepared in Barcelona. A few days later, on August 1, the Catholic wedding took place in Santa María del Mar and after that day, the festivities continued in the Lonja del Mar building in Barcelona. There, an Italian opera commissioned specifically for the occasion, Il più bel nome nei festeggiarsi il Nome Felicissimo di Sua Maestà Cattolica Elisabetta Cristina Regina delle Spagne, was presented for the first time in the city. Researchers cannot confirm that it was the first opera to be performed in Barcelona, but all indications are that this could be the case.
The first time in a theatre
Il piu bel nome premiered at the Lonja Real, not in a theater.despite the city already having one, considered among the oldest theatres not only in Barcelona, but also in Spain, the Teatre de la Santa Creu. Open since the second half of the 16th century it was in operation and it seems that in 1730 it staged the Italian opera “La folla real”. If this is so then it could be the first opera performed in Barcelona outside of the court, in a theatre.
The first opera by Mozart or Rossini to be heard in Spain
In 1790 Mozart’s Così fan tutte premiered in Vienna. Just 8 years later, the opera arrived in Spain, premiering at the Teatre de la Santa Creu. Since 1750 there was already a stable Italian opera company in the theatre, but the fact that this score arrived so soon in Barcelona demonstrates the importance that the musical life of the city had at that time. In 1815, Rossini’s opera Italiana in Algeri was heard for the first time in Spain. From then on, La Cenerentola, The Barber of Seville, La gazza ladra and Turco en Italia were heard in future seasons.
Everyone wants to be the first
In 1840, the first theatre in Barcelona changed its name to Teatre Principal, subject to a full marketing campaign of the time. This was to distance it from the competition that was beginning to emerge on the Rambla with the creation of the Teatre Nou. Just a few years later, in 1848, this new theatre closed its doors just as another new theatre raised its curtain on the same street, this was the Liceu Opera Barcelona. From that moment on, the continuing rivalry between the two theatres served to enrich the operatic life of Barcelona. This rivalry extended to their audiences, who formed two tribes, the ‘High school students’ and the ‘Crusaders’.
The first opera at the Liceu
On April 4, 1847, the Liceu Opera Barcelona was inaugurated. On that first date no opera was played. The music that accompanied the evening was a musical overture by the composer Josep Melcior Gomis, the ballet La Rondeña by Josep Jurch and the cantata Il regio imene by Marià Obiols. It was more than one week later that the first opera was finally staged in the theatre. Donizetti’s Anna Bolena was chosen. In that first Liceu season operas that are well known to us today such as Ernani by Verdi, Norma by Bellini, The Barber of Seville by Rossini, Don Pasquale and L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti were also performed.
The first flames
Theatres and fire are not a good combination. The further back in time we go, the more likely it was that the temples of operas ended up in flames. The Gran Teatre del Liceu has not caught fire once, but twice, most recently in 1994. This is still fresh in the memory and many of the current audience remember exactly where they were the day the Ramblas filled with smoke. The first time that flames devastated the Theater happened more than a century before, on April 9, 1861. Fire broke out on the fourth floor in the tailoring workshop. There was no time to use the water tanks and the fire spread very quickly. Just one year later the Theater was reopened and Bellini’s opera I Puritani was played for the first time within those walls.
The first opera written by a woman
The 1893-1894 season would have been historic, for the first time in, a female composer would premiere an opera at the Liceu. But it was not to be! Maria Lluïsa Casagemas had planned to present her opera Schiava e Regina to the public, but the anarchist attack of 1893 frustrated everything.
In 1978 almost a century later we finally saw an opera written by a woman on stage for the first time. This was the work Vinatea by the composer from Castellón, Matilde Salvador.
The 21st century has already seen the premiere of another opera composed by a woman. Raquel García Tomás, had the privilege of taking Alexina B‘s story on stage.
