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Entertainment
A
s you would expect from a city of this size, Barcelona has a busy enter-
tainment calendar – throughout the year there will always be
something worth catching, whether it’s a rock gig, cabaret show or
night at the opera. The
music
scene is particularly strong, with jazz,
rock and flamenco to the fore. Catalans like their
cinema
and
theatre
, and
even if you don’t speak Catalan or Spanish there’s no need to miss out since
many cinemas show films in their original language. Catalan performers have
always steered away from the classics and gone for the innovative, so the city
boasts a long tradition of street and performance art. Barcelona excels in the
visual arts
, too – from traditional exhibitions of paintings to contemporary
photography or installation works – and dozens of arts centres and galleries put
on varied shows throughout the year.
A useful first stop for tickets and information is the
Palau de la Virreina
,
Ramblas 99 (Mon–Sat 10am–8pm, Sun 11am–3pm;
T
933 161 000;
M
Liceu).
ServiCaixa
(
T
902 332 211,
W
www.servicaixa.com) and
TelEntrada
(
T
902
101 212,
W
www.telentrada.com)are the main advance booking agencies for
music, theatre, cinema and exhibition tickets.There’s also a handy ticket desk on
the ground floor of
FNAC
(Mon–Sat 10am–10pm), the books and music
megastore in El Triangle shopping centre, Plaça de Catalunya.
The main clubs, concert halls and venues are listed below, but for up-to-date
art, music and culture information, the city council’s Institute of Culture
website,
W
www.bcn.cat/cultura
, is invaluable – it covers every aspect of art
and culture in the city, with links to daily updated arts stories and a compre-
hensive calendar of events. Otherwise, the best
listings magazines
are the
weekly
Guía del Ocio
(
W
www.guiadelociobcn.com) and
Time Out Barcelona
(
W
www.timeout.cat), online or from any newspaper stand. There’s also a free
monthly “Cultural Agenda” guide in English available from tourist offices and
the Palau de laVirreina.
The year’s big arts and culture festival is the summer
Festival de Barcelona
Grec
, featuring a wealth of music, theatre and dance. Other specific festivals are
highlighted in the relevant sections below – for full details turn to the festival
calendar in Chapter 15.
Classical, contemporary and opera
Most of Barcelona’s
classical
music concerts take place in the
modernista
Palau
de la Música Catalana or at the purpose-built, contemporary L’Auditori, while
opera
is performed at its traditional home, the Gran Teatre del Liceu on the
Ramblas. Many of the city’s churches, including the cathedral and Santa María
J
ENTERTAINMENT
|
Classical, contemporary and opera