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The missing Calvo – Vico theater, which was located on the corner of Gran Vía and Roger de Llúria, was located on a site where the Ritz Hotel, current Hotel Palace, was later built.
It was built by the Andalusian artists Rafael Calvo and Antonio Vico, who saw in that empty lot from the end of the 19th century, near Paseo de Gracia, an ideal place for a theater and to inaugurate it on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition that would be held in Barcelona in 1888.
It was designed by the architect Tiberio Sabater i Carné, who in 1881 had built the Mercantil or Bolsín Casino, on Avinyó Street and, in 1887, built the Palau Marcet, the former Comedia cinema on Paseo de Gracia.
The new theater had a modest appearance and like most theaters of that time it was built of wood. The interior, however, was quite spacious with a lobby that faced Gran Vía and another door for the actors and staff that was located on Roger de Llúria street that had direct access to the stage.
On the day of the premiere, La Vanguardia published on page 3:
White, green and red light bulbs decorated the façade of the new coliseum; Modest, but beautiful, such lighting was; How beautiful and modest is the room where today the most select of the public who are friends of the national theater will gather, to see, hear and applaud Vico and Calvo.
The inauguration took place on June 20, a month after the inauguration of the Exhibition, which had been on May 20, 1888. For its premiere, Calvo and Rico performed the Gran Galeoto, a work by José Echegaray, and the comic toy Turning the Key. .
On Sunday, March 20, 1892, La Vanguardia, on its billboard and on a poster in the theater itself, announced that to facilitate the purchase of tickets, it was making a box office available to spectators in the old Chocolatería El Mallorquín, currently Café de la Opera.
Rafael Calvo died in 1892, he was replaced by his brother Ricardo who performed at the venue, which kept the name Calvo Rico until the end of the summer of 1893.
On Sunday, February 5, 1893, the venue hosted a meeting of liberal and free-thinking students that ended up causing serious disturbances in the street.
The reason was due to the large number of people who wanted to enter and could not enter due to lack of capacity and gathered in the street. Among those who could not enter was Teresa Claramunt, an anarchist agitator along with other significant libertarian figures who, faced with their impediment to entry, began a non-peaceful protest.
Naturally, that ended with destruction that was repressed with police charges, a violent response from the anarchists, attacks, injuries and arrests. The municipal orchestra, which played in the surrounding area, was also affected by the street incidents.
This fact was interpreted differently by some of the press at the time. Proof of this is in the article in the Madrid newspaper El Liberal, which reported its version of the events that occurred.
Since we all never think the same thing even if we believe we are right, La Tramontana, a satirical magazine of the time, interpreted the incidents that occurred that day in a different way.
These incidents led that same year to the departure from the management of the old Calvo Rico company and the entry into the theater management of the Castellano-Catalan Company directed by Antoni Tutau, who had exclusively hired the first actress, Carlota de Mena.
From that moment on, the Calvo Rico theater became the Granvía Theater. Tutau's first action was to try to provide greater comfort to the spectators, for which he hired Miquel Madorell to carry out a thorough renovation of the interior and provide comfort to the spectators who came to the premises.
For this Miquel Madorell counted on the collaboration of the decorator Olivella Ràfols, the painter Ballera and the carpentry of Madalena.
The Granvía Theater was inaugurated on Saturday, October 14, 1893, with the four-act drama by Ferrerol. In the advertisement published by La Vanguardia on page 6, it commented:
GRANVIA THEATER (Formerly Calvo-Vico) Once the major renovations that this Theater has undergone have been completed, today, Saturday, the opening of the season will be held by the Company directed by the first actor Mr. Tutau and of which the first actress is a part Mrs. Mena, with the drama in 4 acts, FERREOL and the Catalan piece, LA BALDIRONA.-At 8.30. Admission 50 cents. The Casa de Caridad band will liven up the intermissions in the rest room with the best pieces from their repertoire.
During this stage the theater had Amadeo Vives as its favorite authors, along with Vicente León and Balbastre. Again, in 1909, it was renovated by the architect Joaquim Raspall. The reform had only one objective, to begin to make its first steps with the cinematography that was becoming all the rage among viewers.
The Granvía theater ended its journey of offering shows to spectators in 1918, since the land had been acquired by César Ritz to build one of his emblematic hotels.
The Ritz Hotel was inaugurated thanks to the pressure exerted by the Catalan politician Francesc Cambó on César Ritz, who convinced him that Barcelona at that time was the right place to inaugurate one of his hotels in 1919.
