Would the Liceu de Tots have been possible without the figure of Manuel Bertrand? How would the negotiations between the then owners of the theater and the administrations have ended to create the historic consortium in 1980? Would the agreement to transfer the property have been reached after the 1994 fire to make its reconstruction possible?
The man who was president of the Association of Owners for 35 years died suddenly on August 5, leaving those who knew him devastated. Because, as detailed yesterday in the halls of the Cercle del Liceu, whose members wanted to pay tribute to him, Bertrand practiced kindness, loyalty, gentleness and honesty throughout his life. And not just because his brother José said it about him: they were qualities that he practiced in all areas.
Positive, always smiling... Manuel Bertrand Vergés (Barcelona 1944-2023) was the living example of the calm, serenity and desire for harmony necessary to, as president of the company, reach unusual agreements. This member of a lineage of music enthusiasts – his grandfather Eusebio Bertrand y Serra chaired the board of the Rambla theater – dared to put on the table a far from easy proposal: “To the owners, who had the merit of having endured the house, they were proposed to enter the new times in which the Liceu wanted to be reflected in the state-owned theaters. It was necessary to engage the administrations in its management. And he made everyone agree,” Josep Caminal recalled yesterday. Then, after the fire of 1994, with Caminal as general director of the theater, the great pact between the public Administration and the Societat del Gran Teatre arrived. It would be a public theater that would maintain the real right of personal servitude over the boxes and seats for the members.
“Without him I would not have achieved it,” added Caminal. He had a serene and knowing look that generated empathy. And it was key when that night, which is almost thirty years old, this city and this house entered an emotional state of deep pain.”
Miquel Lerín, president of the Francesc Viñas Foundation; lawyer Josep Maria Coronas; the notary Carlos Cuatrecasas; the president of the Liceu, Salvador Alemany, or the current president of the Gran Teatre Society, Manuel Busquets, corroborated his contribution. "It was difficult for him, but if we can enjoy the Liceu today it is because of him", said the first. "It laid the foundations for public-private collaboration in force", added the latter.
In love with music and opera in particular, it was his son Hugo, visibly moved, and also Adela Rocha, former head of protocol at the Liceu, who shared adventures dressing up as opera characters, who drew the most human likeness.
“The Liceu was his first home, and music was his greatest happiness,” his son noted. His great frustration was not being a baton. At home he put us in the living room and each cousin was an instrument and he took us out... And we laughed, you saw that he entered his world and it was impossible to get him out. He tried to hide it, but he was captivated by music and theater. He always found a parallel to extract a verse from a tenor, from a soprano... Talking to him you never knew if it was in La bohème or in La traviata... ".
