The Liceu closes the 2020-21 season with 90% occupancy

The Gran Teatre del Liceu has closed the 2020-21 season, marked by the complications experienced due to restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic, with "budgetary balance", the attendance of 123,500 spectators, 91% of tickets sold, and 133 performances staged, 79% of all initially programmed works.

The theater on La Rambla was forced to suspend 36 performances out of the 166 planned in the program, 21%, although the public was able to continue enjoying the voices of great international names such as Sondra Radvanovsky, Piotr Beczala, Anna Netrebko, Gustavo Dudamel, Lisette Oropesa, Pretty Yende, Ermonela Jaho, Katie Mitchell, Nadine Sierra, or Javier Camarena.

The Board of Trustees of the Fundació del Gran Teatre del Liceu, chaired by Salvador Alemany, highlights in the balance of the past season the acceptance that works such as the contemporary opera Lessons in Love and Violence have had, directed by maestro Pons and with stage direction by Katie Mitchell, which marked the premiere of the work in Spain; and the debut of Barcelona-born Serena Sáenz at the Liceu, with the opera Lucia di Lammermoor.

Economically, the continued interest in the opera, dance, and concert season has translated into a "budgetary balance", with ordinary revenues of 38.4 million euros and total expenses of 38.3 million, according to the Barcelona venue. The institution's officials attribute the season's balance "to the commitment of public administrations and the support of patrons and subscribers".

Companies and benefactors have maintained their contributions at 6.3 million euros, a figure that for the theater demonstrates the "trust and support" that these agents place in culture and the Liceu's artistic project. Likewise, public administrations have made ordinary contributions of 22.6 million euros and extraordinary contributions of 2.2 million. The institution also designed a savings plan that was applied to all items of the general budget.

Ordinary revenues were 5.5 million below forecast, as the initial budget estimated a 50% capacity until November 2020, and then progressively an increase in capacity until reaching June 2021 with 100% occupancy of the hall. Forecasts that, due to the evolution of the pandemic, did not come true. Thus, 55% of the total performances maintained a limited capacity to a maximum of 1,000 people, 20% could be performed with an expanded capacity to 70%, 9% were performed with a capacity of 50% at the beginning of the season and 5% with only 500 seats for sale.

The Gran Teatre del Liceu, which in the current season commemorates the 175th anniversary of its founding, values the fact that it has been able to "keep its doors open, raise its voice to generate safe culture and maintain an excellent artistic program."

The musical institution hopes to close the current season successfully and is about to present the 2022-2023 program, led by its current artistic director Víctor Garcia de Gomar. It also recalls that, among the various events planned to commemorate 175 years since its inauguration, it is finalizing the celebration of an event next April 4, coinciding with the date of the anniversary. This year also commemorates 35 years since the creation of the private association Amics del Liceu.

The Liceu, which celebrates 175 years since its founding, is studying the Liceu Mar project, a second headquarters for the cultural institution

In its season review, the Board of Trustees also highlights that the Gran Teatre del Liceu, since September 2019, "began a new artistic project where the Liceu rethinks itself to, with opera as its main subject, aspire to become a center for the arts and reflection". Within this line, the theater on La Rambla recently announced that it will study the viability of carrying out the Liceu Mar project, a multipurpose space open to the public, to expand its current capabilities and which would be located in the space occupied by the old Imax Port Vell.