It’s a monument of superlatives. The most visited monument in Spain, with more than three million visitors a year, an indissociable emblem of the city of Barcelona (like the Eiffel Tower in Paris), but also a colossal construction project lasting 150 years (longer than the Pyramids of Egypt!), the Sagrada Familia fascinates and dazzles.
It took all the mad talent of one man to build such a basilica. Born in 1852, Antoni Gaudí laid the foundation stone in 1882 for a church that would become the masterpiece of a lifetime. Sadly, it is said that by the time he died in 1926, the Catalan architect had completed only a third of what he had planned. Knowing he was running out of time, he had nevertheless made a large plaster model a few years earlier, allowing future builders to continue with his original plan. Originally scheduled for completion in 2026, the centenary of Gaudí’s death, the Sagrada Familia still awaits six new towers, the tallest of which, at 172 metres, promises to be the tallest religious tower in Europe! It’s a safe bet that the man himself wouldn’t have minded the slight delay, since when talking about his building, designed to the glory of God, he said that his ‘client was in no hurry’… Gaudí is also buried in one of the church’s underground chapels.
When you visit the Sagrada Familia, the outside is as dazzling as the inside. Its three façades – Nativity, Passion and Glory – illustrate the life of Christ, from birth to resurrection, and are sculpted masterpieces of Baroque imagination. The interior is nothing short of singular: with its colourful stained glass windows and arches whose curves are inspired by natural phenomena, it’s like stepping into the belly of a gigantic animal and admiring one of the highest expressions of contemporary modern genius.
Accompanied by an experienced guide, your group of Runaways will take advantage of anecdotes and previously unpublished information to better understand and appreciate this ‘Holy Family’, which has already become the stuff of legend. You will also visit Casa Vicens, the first building signed by Gaudí in Barcelona.
At 6pm, at the Palau de la Música Catalana :
MADAME BUTTERFLY, by G. Puccini
NovAria Philharmonic Orchestra, Choir and Ballet
Adolf Gassol : Conductor
Sergi Giménez : Staging
Puccini literally fell in love with the story of this young Japanese girl of fifteen, the victim of a sham marriage to an American lieutenant, to the point of enthusiastically studying the customs and language of the Land of the Rising Sun. The opera premiered on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan and was a resounding failure, being immediately withdrawn from the bill before being drastically reworked by the composer himself and performed a year later in Brescia. The world then discovered a relentless summit of dramatic tension, a shattering opera that was to become one of the most popular pillars of the entire operatic repertoire. Today, the figure of Cio-Cio-San is the role that every soprano dreams of playing. It is this absolute masterpiece that the NovAria ballet, chorus and orchestra perform in the sublime Art Nouveau setting of the Palau de la Música Catalana (surely one of the most beautiful halls in the world!).
