Lluís Graner

The musical visions

Influenced by the theories of total art, he decided to abandon painting in 1904 in order to offer shows that would represent a synthesis of all of the arts. He began, at the age of 40, to learn how to play the piano and read music. His interest in chiaroscuro in painting was then transferred to experimentation with electric lighting on the theatrical stage. As artistic director of his theatrical shows, he experimented with the mixture of colors and intensities of stage lighting and with the recreation of natural phenomena on stage, a clear example of which is the case of La matinada, a work commissioned to Felip Pedrell, which recreates the sunrise on stage through the gradual increase of the lighting.

With Adrià Gual as stage director of his theatrical companies, he revived the theory of the "popular song harmonized for the stage" that the playwright Gual had essayed in 1897 with Blancaflor and adapted it to present his own proposal of the "musical visions". This genre of Catalan lyric theater aimed to stage pieces from Catalan folklore (songs, legends and tales) as performances of short duration, symbolist aesthetics and great impact and visual suggestion. These "musical visions" were the main stage repertoire of the sala Mercè and their success made Lluís Graner rent the Teatro Principal of Barcelona when it was put out to auction in 1905 in order to accommodate more spectators for his shows.

The sala Mercè

The sala Mercè, the first theatrical space directed by Graner (as manager, owner and artistic director), was inaugurated in 1904. It was located on what is now the Rambla, near Plaça Catalunya, and Gaudí was commissioned to design the space and its decorations. It was a performance hall that aimed to combine various artistic languages, from the cinematograph to the dioramas and visual attractions located in the caves of the Mercè hall. Since its opening, the project counted on the collaboration of important figures related to the Catalan culture of the time: Antoni Gaudí, Adrià Gual, Salvador Alarma, Enric Morera, Josep Carner, Joan B. Lambert and many others were linked, at various times in its existence and to varying degrees of intensity. The project operated between 1904 and 1910, when Graner announced the transfer of the business.

In 1904, Graner commissioned the architect Antoni Gaudí to design a single-family house in Bonanova, a neighborhood in the upper part of Barcelona. For the so-called Graner villa, the architect designed a project halfway between the Batlló house and the porter's lodge in Park Güell. Two sketches of the plan and elevation of the building are preserved from the project, published by Josep Francesc Ràfols in his 1929 biography of the architect. The house was not finished due to the financial ruin of the owner due to his theatrical business. Only the foundations of the building and the garden gate were built, made of masonry and with three openings, one for pedestrians, one for carriages and a circular hole above the pedestrian door that Gaudí called "door of the birds". This door remained standing for several years —a 1927 photo taken by Marino Canosa is preserved— until it was demolished.

That same year, he commissioned Gaudí to design the decoration of the sala Mercè, on the Rambla dels Estudis, one of the first cinemas in Barcelona. The room imitated a grotto, inspired by the Drach caves of Mallorca. Together with Gaudí, the set designers Salvador Alarma, Fèlix Urgellès and Maurici Vilomara were involved. The hall closed in 1910 due to the bankruptcy of the owner and his exile to America in order not to pay the outstanding debts.