The Gran Teatre del Liceu, which opened in 1848, ranks among the world’s largest opera houses with its 2292 seats. The Liceu opened in 1848 and has a history marked by tragedy. The opera house was buit in Barcelona at the initiative of the association called the Barcelona Phiharmonic-Dramatic Lyceum. It commissioned the management of the works to the architect Francesc d’Assis Soler, who was replaced one year later, in 1845, by the architects Josep Oriol Mestres and Miquel Garriga i Roca.
The building was structured like the italian theatres and had a capacity of 4000 people, but it was devastated by a fire in 1861. The reconstruction was carried out by one of the architects who had designed the original building: Josep Oriol, who had the collaboration of two of the best realist painters of Barcelona: Martí Alsina and Rigalt i Caba. In 1893, the anarchist Santiago Salvador threw a bomb that killed 20 people, whose seats were not occupied again for several years. On 31 jenuary 1994, another fire broke out that destroyed part of the Teatre del Liceu once again.
The second reconstruction was completed in record time on 11 Octuber 1999, thanks to the support of institutions, companies and private donations. The new Liceu was inagurated with a performance of Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot”.
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