Add a review of the Catalan National Theater in Barcelona

The National Theater of Catalonia in Barcelona positions itself as "a theater open to new theatrical languages", and this is entirely justified. But at the same time in this theater there are wonderful performances of Spanish classics, some of the best in Barcelona. The National Theater of Catalonia was opened in 1996 as a public theater created to maintain the national Spanish culture (which is why it is so well and so much put classics here).

It is formed according to the model of the London Royal Opera: in the theater there are two halls - a large one and smaller, and besides them there are several small studio rooms, in which many different small events take place simultaneously: student performances in a variety of genres, concerts (mostly innovative or non-formal), master classes and many others

Come here if you want to see something completely new for yourself, very Spanish, but unknown in Russia.

The troupe is purely stage, it does not put opera and ballet here. The guest performers are also small. The specialization of the theater is Spanish drama. Sometimes there is a world classics, but it's not enough.

Program

The basis of the program of this theater is the plays of Spanish authors, both classic and modern, but modern, perhaps more. They usually go in the author's versions. Also the theater accepts a lot of invited directors with modernistic performances.

In addition to performances, there are a lot of other events. Concerts are few, but there are a lot of film screenings - mostly old black and white films, or avant-garde films, or something highly intellectual. There are a lot of documentary films (usually very beautifully shot).

There are a lot of different things going on in small studio halls - you can choose almost any taste and you can not buy tickets for them in advance. Also there are exhibitions, mainly related to the Spanish culture, they are usually small, but good. Most often these are exhibitions of paintings, photographs or sculptures, but there is also something more unusual.

Building

This theater has a unique building. It was built especially for him by the famous Spanish architect-postmodernist Ricardo Bofil. In his project, it was conceived to combine modernism and classicism.

As a result, a completely unique structure, combining glass walls and classical Greek columns, was combined. It looks modern and classic at the same time. Inside the 3 large halls (Sala Grande, Sala Pequena and Sala Talleres) and many studios, outside the theater is surrounded by a beautiful park.

Come here if you want to see something completely new for yourself, very Spanish, but almost unknown in Russia. When planning, it is worth considering that there are many small halls in this theater, if you choose to do this, you need to pay attention, otherwise you risk getting to the event much smaller than you expected.

The building of the National Theater of Catalonia

Practical information

Official address: Placa de les Arts, 1, Teatre Nacional de Catalunya. It is surrounded by metro stations: Monumental, Marina and Glories are the closest.

Ticket prices are quite low: from 6 to 28 EUR (for the winter of 2014).