Our Prima donna

This Sunday, March 8, we want to celebrate all the Prima donna of our home, the Liceu.

Not only those who have shone under the spotlight, but also all the women who, from within, have opened paths, taken spaces where there were once no role models, and helped shape the Liceu into what it is today. Each of them was a beginning. A first step. An open door.

This is a journey through some of the pioneers who have left their mark on our history.

Xesca Llabres | First Head of Stage Management (1988–2023)

Xesca Llabres recently retired after 35 years at the Liceu as Head of Stage Management. More than three decades of operas, productions, nerves before the curtain rises and emotions shared backstage. She has lived through intense moments in the theatre’s recent history and has been both a witness to —and a protagonist of— profound transformations. Her gaze, always attentive to every detail, is part of the living memory of the stage.

Montse Navalpotro | First Stage Mechanic at the Liceu

Montse Navalpotro was the first stage mechanic at the Liceu. Trained as a set designer, she broke ground in a traditionally male-dominated field. Her career has gone far beyond the theatre: film, exhibitions, design, staging… She also created the Digital Theatre Words project, launched in 2011, which collects technical theatre terminology in nine languages.

Maria Domènech | First Lighting Designer

Continuing on stage, we remember Maria Domènech, the first lighting designer at the Liceu. Originally from Alicante, she balanced her professional practice with teaching at the Institut del Teatre, IED, and Artidi. In the 1993–94 season, she worked as an assistant lighting designer on several theatre productions.

Elizabeth Martirena | First Props Master

From La Plata to Barcelona, Elizabeth Martirena became the first props master at the Liceu. Her training and artistic curiosity have also taken her to film, exhibition design, and the creation of sets and costumes. At the Liceu, she showed that every object on stage tells its own story.

Sara Gràcia | First Audio and Video Technician

In the more contemporary technical field, Sara Gràcia has become a reference as the first Audio and Video Technician at the Liceu, demonstrating that talent and passion for technology can pave the way in the theatre’s audiovisual work. The sound and image of the present.

Rosa Cullell i Muniesa | First General Director (2005–2008)

In February 2005, she was appointed General Director, becoming the first woman to hold this position at the Liceu. During her tenure, she promoted projects that modernized the theatre’s management and strengthened its international profile.

Christina Scheppelmann | First Artistic Director (2014–2019)

Originally from Hamburg, with an international career, she was the first Artistic Director of the Liceu and led innovative projects there. She is currently the General and Artistic Director of La Monnaie (Belgium), further strengthening her international profile.

Aline Reçon | First Harpist (1846)

Moving to the first women in the orchestra, we see that, as often happened in musical history, the first to join were harpists. Indeed, according to the Liceu’s records, in 1846 Aline Reçon became part of the orchestra. A student of the renowned harpist Antoine Prumier (1794–1868), she brought the French harp school to Barcelona.

Conxita Garcia | First Chorus Director (2015–2021)

Appointed Chorus Director in 2015, she led it until 2021, when she became Assistant to the Theatre’s Musical Direction. Trained at the Conservatori Superior Municipal de Música de Barcelona with Enric Ribó and Salvador Mas, she graduated in Orchestral Conducting, Choir Conducting, and Voice.

Oksana Lyniv | First Guest Conductor (2017)

Maestro Lyniv came to the theatre during the 2016–2017 season to conduct the opera Der fliegende Holländer by Richard Wagner. Born in Brody to a musical family, she began her studies in Lviv at the Liudkevych Music School, and later at the Mykola Lysenko National Music Academy.

Matilde Salvador (1918–2007) | First Composer Presented at the Liceu

Finally, it is important to highlight the composers at the Liceu. The first work scheduled to premiere was Schiava e regina by Lluïsa Casagemas in 1893, but a bomb attack prevented its debut. The first composer actually presented was Matilde Salvador (1918–2007), with the ballet El segoviano esquivo (1960) and the opera Vinatea (1974). More recently, the opera Alexina B. by Raquel García-Tomás premiered at the Liceu in 2023.

Maria Lluïsa Cortada | First Concertmaster (1969)

To find the first concertmaster, however, we must wait until 1969. According to the Liceu’s records, that year Maria Lluïsa Cortada (1938–2020) appears as the first concertmaster, in addition to playing the harpsichord in the production of Il barbiere di Siviglia. Maria Lluïsa Cortada was the leading Catalan harpsichordist for decades and also a recognized musicologist, particularly for her studies on Anselm Viola.

Ala Voronkova | First Concertmaster Violinist (2004)

Originally from Kyiv, she graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Yuri Yankelevich and then earned her doctorate at the Gnessin Institute with Nelly Shkolnikova.

We remember these Prima Donna, as well as all the other women who have inspired and paved the way in our theatre. May their example continue to inspire future generations.

Because the history of the Gran Teatre del Liceu is also written in the feminine.