Barcelona's opera house, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, was founded on the Rambla in 1847 and has continued over the years to fulfil its role as a culture and arts centre and a veritable symbol of the city. Today it is publicly-owned (by the Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council and the Spanish Ministry of Culture) and administered by the Fundació del Gran Teatre del Liceu which, in addition to the aforementioned bodies, incorporates the Patronage Council and the Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu (the old society of owners).The Liceu evolved out of the Sociedad Dramática de Aficionados (Society of theatre-lovers) which soon became the Liceo Filármonico Dramático Barcelonés de S.M. la Reina Isabel II (Barcelona Dramatic and Philharmonic Lyceum of HM Queen Isabel II). In addition to its theatrical activities, this new organization cultivated Italian-style singing and music. A new and more ambitious theatre was founded in 1847 by members of the Barcelona bourgeoisie when the Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu, known as the “Societat de Propietaris” (Society of Owners), was set up. Shares in this society were put on sale with the result that many of the boxes and seats came under private ownership. This Society was in sole charge of the Liceu from 1855 onwards. The theatre was actually operated by impresarios, who were given a concession to stage productions in exchange for the proceeds from the sale of tickets not reserved for the Societat itself. Eventually this management system ceased to be viable. In 1980, to avert the danger of the disappearance of an institution of such international cultural prestige, the Catalan government set up a consortium called the Consorci del Gran Teatre del Liceu, which also included Barcelona City Council, the Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu and  later on  Barcelona Provincial Council and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.  From then on the Consortium took over operation of the theatre.Following the fire that broke out on 31 January 1994, the emblematic building had to be rebuilt and improved and a new legal framework was needed to put it under public ownership. In 1994 the aforementioned bodies set up the Fundació del Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Societat del Gran Teatre del Liceu surrendered its property rights to the public authorities.The basic aims of the Gran Teatre del Liceu are the creation of works of art that use music as their primary language and the dissemination of this art to the widest possible audience. The main tool for attaining these goals is the artistic programme defined in the “Programme Contract” between the government institutions and the theatre.

The fundamental lines of the Gran Teatre del Liceu’s artistic project are as follows:

- To maintain a balance – for financial and artistic reasons, as is the practice in the foremost European theatres – between two basic components: works by new composers, with a view to providing as complete a range of operatic art as possible, and works from the classical repertoire which enjoy an established tradition and are highly popular with the audience.

- To guarantee consistently top-quality performances by its orchestra and chorus. This important goal conditions the Liceu’s artistic discourse, the success of its programme, and its international prestige. These factors in turn determine the success of many essential initiatives aimed at disseminating its artistic activities, such as invitations to perform elsewhere and the publication of audiovisuals.

- To ensure that productions continue to attract artists of worldwide prestige in line with the Liceu's widely-acknowledged tradition. In order to limit expenditure on fees, it is important to contract soloists well in advance (as has been done until now) and to secure the necessary rights to make dissemination of the works viable. The Liceu must also continue to afford young singers opportunities for training and promotion by means of both “small-format” and full-scale performances that assist them in consolidating their reputation.

- Dramaturgy and the personality of stage directors are factors that have acquired noteworthy importance in opera all over the world. Despite occasional controversies, the artistic policy adopted in this respect has decisively contributed to the popularity and success of the new Liceu. The chosen criteria have been as follows: to bring the most prestigious stage directors in Europe to the Liceu; to associate some of the finest stage directors in the country with the Liceu; to alternate traditional productions with others in which a literal interpretation of the stage directions is replaced by a new idiom which nevertheless respects the meaning of the work. Artistic and financial considerations make these new interpretations unavoidable. However productions featuring literal interpretations must alternate with innovative ones so as to guarantee a varied programme to satisfy an audience which, fortunately, is itself highly diverse.  The decisive criterion, in any event, is the aesthetic quality of the proposed production, in other words the fidelity of the mise en scene to the meaning of the work.

- The Liceu offers a wide range of productions for children and families. These performances must take the form of regular seasons and must enable the Liceu to stage its productions in other places, in line with the inter-institutional agreement defining it as a collective undertaking.