Figaro, the faithful servant, who facilitated his master the Count’s marriage against tough odds, is now preparing to marry his beloved Susanna, the Countess’s handmaid. Problem is the Count, who has developed a roving eye and decided that he should exert his droit de seigneur and rob Susanna of her virginity before the marriage night. The Countess, meanwhile, sad and neglected, turns for solace, though not seriously, to a young boy, Cherubino (a so-called 'trouser role' because it is sung by a woman). All manner of misunderstandings ensue and are all masterfully disentangled in an exquisite finale.

So, why was it that I felt depressed throughout the performance? Because I felt sadly let down by an opera house that has frequently thrilled me, and at the same time, I understood its dilemma, which is being shared by cultural institutions around the world: lack of money.

Until very recently, the Liceu was proudly world-class. It is a house that is not satisfied with just continuing the norms; it needs to innovate, to create and to excavate. The season’s repertoire regularly consisted of star-driven favorites, ranging from Wagner’s Ring with Placido Domingo and Deborah Voigt to L’Elisir d'Amore with Rolando Villazon. Many of the productions were joint conceptions with other leading European opera houses; they frequently sparkled and occasionally went over the top. Like most of today’s companies (the Vienna Staatsoper is a buttoned-up exception), the Liceu refused to be classical and often tortured logic by performing in totally inappropriate time-frames just for the hell of being different. But the music was exquisite, the acting and stage-direction dynamic and the standard of everything generally very high.

In between the favorites were (and still are) little-known operas resurrected from the dead or moribund, activities to spark the interest of children and create a new generation of opera-goers and an assortment of oddities that were generally most interesting.

The Liceu is still struggling to offer all of this but, alas, the money problems are becoming very visible. The difficulties have obviously been coming on for some time, but 'la crisis' has aggravated every symptom. Now the house simply cannot afford to support topflight casts, except on rare occasions or in recital. The governments of both Spain and Catalunya have had to cut back their financial support and, sadly, there has never been the tradition of massive private donations from the nouveau-very-riche, as in the United States and England, to buy their way into society. Not the most appealing method of financing art, but certainly an effective one.