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At the end of the 19th century, Barcelona had two theaters with the name of Nuevo Retiro, one on the corner of Rambla de Catalunya and Ronda de Universidad, inaugurated in 1889, and another with two entrances, one on Gran Vía and the other on Diputación, between Rambla de Catalunya and Balmes.
Despite having both entered history in their own right as Barcelona theaters, neither of them had extraordinary theatrical importance.
The original Martorell station had been located on the site where the first Nuevo Retiro was built, inaugurated in 1854 and put out of service in 1882.
The municipal problems of that time and the disagreements between the political parties kept the station without service and without being demolished for two years, which prevented the opening of the Ronda de Universidad and the urbanization of Rambla Catalunya.
This inability to solve the problem prevented the opening of the Ronda de Universidad, so in 1884 the station was closed. Given the administrative negligence again, in 1886, the State expropriated it and began to urbanize the area and the opening of the Ronda Universidad.
The Nuevo Retiro was built on the corner of Rambla de Catalunya, with Ronda de Universidad. The theater was designed by Claudi Duran i Ventosa, former architect of the diocese of Solsona and municipal architect in San Juan de Horta. It was built by the master builder Domingo Valet. The decoration was carried out by the painters Moragas and Urguellés.
Subsequently, Duran went on to carry out work in the city of Sant Martí de Provençals and from there he joined the Barcelona City Council, at which time he carried out the construction of the New Retreat. He was one of the pioneers in the use of the reinforced cement construction system in architectural works.
The venue had a semicircular lobby, an attached cafe and a stall 20 meters wide and 13 meters high, with 16 boxes on the sides. In other words, it was a great venue for those times, since it had a capacity of more than 2,500 spectators.
The city newspapers praised the speed of the work, since it took only 20 days for the members of the Domingo Valet team to build the building.
The venue was officially inaugurated on August 5, 1889. La Vanguardia, on the billboard, only had five theaters at that time. Those were times when this way of promotion was not widely used by entertainment companies.
The Nuevo Retiro presented the company that had performed so successfully at the Eldorado Theater last winter season. The programming was basically dedicated to the representation of zarzuelas and operas.
First of all, it announced a program of zarzuelas: 1º La Gran Vía; 2º Two coffee canaries; 3rd With the husband’s permission and 4th The Illuminated (parody of The Witch).
An unpleasant event led to the change of name of the premises. The great tenor Julián Gayarre died in Madrid on January 2, 1890, after suffering an accident in full performance.
Some sources commented that the death had been due to suicide, given his despair due to the loss of voice, and not an accident.
Due to the loss of the tenor, the Nuevo Retiro theater company, together with the new owners who acquired the premises, decided to change its name and turn it into the Teatro Gayarre.
The new Gayarre Theater opened its doors on Saturday, January 10 with the presentation of an Italian opera company, with the representation of Fausto.
Subsequently, variety shows were performed at the venue in which numbers with animals were not lacking. On one of those nights when the lions intervened, one of the lionesses gave a strong claw blow to the tamer Mr. Fritz, who had to be assisted and which was echoed the next day by La Vanguardia.
The urbanization of the Plaza and Rambla de Catalunya and the need to carry out spectacular constructions that would give packaging to the place, led to the closure of the theater in 1907.
The disappearance of the Gayarre theater led to the construction of the Casa Agustí Manaut, which despite time and reforms continues to resist through the centuries.
