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The history of the Teatro Condal, in the old Calle del Marqués del Duero 93 – 95, begins in 1904, at the same time that the history of its predecessor, the Gran Teatro Onofri, ends.
The Onofri, owners of the theater that was disappearing at that time, were an Italian-Marseillaise family that had come to Barcelona hired by the Circo Ecuestre de la Plaza de Catalunya, as La Troupe Onofri.
He performed a comic-mimic show. It was made up of the father and seven children, whose real names were anonymous, since they appeared on stage with mythological names: the father Themistocles and the children: Otello, Aquile, Poliuto, Telemaco and Orestes; and the daughters Andromache and Argia.
The success of the troupe was so spectacular in the different places where they performed, that the first businessman who had brought them to Spain, Manuel Suñer i Sucarrats, proposed that they build a theater with their name in the Paralelo so that they could perform alone, without the need to to change places.
It was built on the corner of Tapioles and Marqués del Duero by Andreu Audet i Puig, an architect specializing in entertainment venues. He designed a modern venue, with an audience with a capacity of 580 seats in the center and 32 boxes on the sides. At the end of the stalls there was a stage 20 meters deep by 23 meters wide, designed so that the Onofri could develop their different numbers.
The first amphitheater was dedicated exclusively to boxes for those spectators who preferred, even when they were alone, to go a little unnoticed from the gaze of the people, and a second floor for the general public.
It opened its doors on May 7, 1903, with a capacity for 3,000 spectators, presenting the great pantomime of the Onofri titled: Innocent?.
Manuel Suñer and the Onofri soon realized that despite the fact that the show had achieved extraordinary success, it was not the same to fill a place where the artists perform at the foot of the dance floor with a participatory audience, than a place with a capacity for 3,000 spectators. that they must remain silent throughout the performance.
Suñer, attentive to the setback of the entry of spectators, soon took steps to keep the premises in continuous movement, taking advantage of that troubled time to organize rallies, worker assemblies and some kind of show.
At the beginning of July 1903, he organized a series of concerts performed by the Orfeo Català, directed by its director Lluis Millet.
On July 3 in its afternoon edition, La Vanguardia, on page 3, commented on the second concert of the Orfeo Catalá.
The Onofri’s understood that it was not the same to work on a track with a close audience, than to have them at a certain distance and that mime was going into a certain decline, which caused a break between Suñer and the Onofri.
They said goodbye to the theater that bore their name with a special program on June 11, 12 and 13, 1904, with the representation of The Sea by the Tomb or the Blind Admiral.
On Saturday the 11th they made the last announcement in La Vanguardia, announcing their farewell and that the performance that day would benefit the brothers (something that companies did to their actors in those days). With the performance on Sunday, the Onofri disappeared from the Spanish scene.
The Onofri had already left the theater, but it was not resigned to its closure, since it opened its doors on the 18th to celebrate a festival organized by the Fraternitat Republicana del Poble-Sec society, dedicated to the residents of the neighborhood.
On June 22, just 10 days later, the venue, after a small adaptation, opened its doors again as the Gran Teatro Condal, but that is another story…
