Reconstruction of memory: Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceo

Abstract

Like a phoenix, the Liceo Theatre, once the biggest opera venue in Europe, has overcome its turbulent past to become a historic site for Barcelona’s cultural scene. The Liceo was opened on April the 4th, 1847, after the Spanish Crown took many lands off the Church and sold them to businessmen in order to create private infrastructure. The theatre is found at the Rambla dels Caputxins —which at the time was walking away from its role as a marginalized side street to become a grand avenue— and its plan was designed, as customary, following Italian trends. After only fourteen years of operation, the theatre was burnt down by a fire which left only the horseshoe-shaped layout and its arched proscenium largely untouched. This was the first of many fires that would consume the theatre, the last being on January the 31st, 1994. After this, the question of whether to reopen the theatre was posed. About the importance of rebuilding it, Aldo Rossi said the city should be understood as a recipient of its history: “[…] the city is the locus of collective memory”. The project, under Solà-Morales’s supervision, did not only improve the theater’s technical conditions, but was also an answer to its historical and social needs. With reconstruction, restoration, and modernization in mind, the new building kept the same basic concept as the original: a horseshoe-shaped plan with two distinct areas, one for the audience and one for the stage. While the new additions respect the original feeling of the theatre, they do not compete with its traditional decoration and establish a dialogue between past and present. This project was brought to light in order to pay homage to memory, both to the site and to the unaccountable efforts made throughout the century to save the building. The project shows continuity and resurgence, for it welcomes its visitors into the heart of Barcelona, a cosmopolitan city that breathes evolution without forgetting the past, and the Liceo is an important part of this process.