A documentary made by the club itself, which addresses its 175-year history; a special issue of its magazine dedicated to the event; a gala, yesterday, with the exceptional visit of the Kings and the delivery of four Gold Medals of the entity...
The Cercle del Liceu celebrates its anniversary with the elegant sumptuousness that corresponds to a referential institution of the Catalan bourgeoisie, one that at the time, promoted by industrialists and aristocrats, was involved in the promotion of emblematic spaces for the city, such as the Gran Teatre del Liceu that was born that same 1847, and with which it still maintains close ties today. The entity equally embraced culture, leisure and social relations, and welcomed – still welcomes – illustrious visitors: from members of European royalty to artists and writers of the day. The history of an era has been written in a Circle.
Through these halls that woke up resplendent yesterday, ready for the gala that would take place between the Saló dels Miralls del Liceu and the club's facilities, with the connecting doors fully open, have walked prominent figures of Modernisme such as Ramon Casas, who in 1902 and for Commissioned by the club, he designed the Rotonda room, which houses his own paintings, a set of 12 canvases with music as a connecting link. But also monarchs such as Isabel II –that of Spain–, who in 1860 attended the performance of I Martiri by Donizetti. Or Alfonso XIII, who, when the Teatro Real in Madrid was closed, longed for the opera and attended a performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia in 1923.
All of them, in addition to great musicians –Richard Strauss, Manuel de Falla...– have stamped their signature in the institution's Book of Honor. An almanac in which from today they appear, for the first time being Kings, Felipe VI and Doña Letizia.
Both the club and the Gran Teatre, which celebrated its own birthday just half a year ago, have their origins in the so-called Liceo Filarmónico, the current Conservatori del Liceu, which emerged to help finance the chairs. All this from Barcelona and thanks to the initiative of people linked to the emerging bourgeoisie.
In fact, when the entity was created in 1847, the people of Barcelona were experiencing an unprecedented economic boom and prosperity which, together with the emerging industry, led to a commitment to a business city model like Marseille or Amsterdam. As the historian José Enrique Ruiz-Domènec explains, many of them bet on the colonial world in the Caribbean and South America, others did it for real estate, medicine or the pharmaceutical industry. "The time had come to take the risk of creating a city where business prevailed over income, in the manner of Marseille or Amsterdam, even if that meant a change in attitude towards family life."
The decades following its foundation, the club experienced the political and social evolution of the country, seeking in tradition the strength to project itself towards modernity. And always with music as a backdrop. Because looking back at the history of the Circle is looking at that of the opera. Presences such as Montserrat Caballé, who was the first woman to become a member of the club in 2001, after a disputed vote to allow – well into the 21st century – women to also be members, remain in its annals for posterity. Nine years later, the conference room was baptized with her name and she was awarded the Gold Medal. A decoration with which Plácido Domingo, Josep Carreras and Jaume Aragall have been honored.
There have been no important voices in the city that have not been invited to the club: Cecilia Bartoli or Renée Fleming, today, but also the legendary Sicilian tenor Giuseppe Anselmi in the past. Or the composer Camille Saint-Saëns, who on the occasion of the Spanish premiere of his opera Les barbares, stamped his signature in the Book of Honour, like the children of Richard Wagner when the city was experiencing the Wagnerian fever.
Through its luncheons-colloquium and its conferences, this high culture agora -in the words of its president, Francisco Gaudier- and forum for citizen debate invites personalities from politics, the economy and society. But in terms of art, there is none that is alien to him.
Over time, he has been creating a collection of paintings and sculptures that, although it began in a haphazard way – in 1876 the Bassols gallery supplied him with a work that corresponded to him by lottery – and with more decorative than collector's spirit, it did not take long to become important. In the nineties of that nineteenth century, the club began to buy, first with a predilection for the bourgeois realist style, then for the representatives of Modernisme. His furniture became an anthology of the decorative arts.
Without going any further, Josep Pascó, an omnipresent artist in the period, was entrusted with the launch of the Pecera, the only room in the club that can be seen from the street through the windows, hence the name of the living room. The ceramics, the stained glass windows, the mosaics, the metalwork... give the room personality, "a certain perfume of Nordic medievality", according to the historian Francesc Fontbona. In the room, the mural paintings by Oleguer Junyent stand out, reminiscent of the immense view of the city of Barcelona with the smoke from the distant factories... those owned by the partners who at that time sat in the comfortable seats.
Yesterday, the King and Queen toured some unique rooms that, among other jewels, hold the stained glass windows of the Wagnerian Tetralogy or a library with illustrated copies, for example, by Alexandre de Riquer, who in turn fully decorated one of the club rooms, from the wallpaper to furniture enamels. A cultural luxury within the reach of a thousand members and their companions.
