"The Cercle del Liceu is an extension of my home, that is why food has so much importance there"

BarcelonaErnestina Torelló (Barcelona, 83 years old), co-owner together with her children of the Torelló winery (Corpinnat), has just written a page of history: the Cercle del Liceu, the social club located wall-to-wall with the Liceu de Barcelona and inaugurated in 1847, has chosen her as its first female president. New times for an institution that is changing little by little: the black and white balls, the ones that were drawn to accept new members, like those in the film La bola negra by directors The Javis, are still stored in one of the lounges. They are no longer used; now, to get in, four members must vouch for you and you must pay an annual fee of one thousand three hundred euros.

The day Ernestina opens the door of the institution for us, made of noble wood with a golden knob that forms a slender swirl, a woman also enters with us because she has made an appointment with the manager of the Cercle del Liceu, Rubén Sales, to be able to become a member. She says she works for a well-known international pharmaceutical company and wants to have a reference place to spend time when she is in Barcelona. "Twenty-five years ago, the male members voted for women to also be able to be members, because until then, until before 2001, women could only enter as companions of men, but not as full members," explains Ernestina. If they wanted to participate in any of the activities organized by the Cercle, which are many, they could only do so as a "wife of", and that was the case until this century! Thanks to the new regulations of 2001, Ernestina Torelló joined as a member eighteen years ago and in the last eight years she has been vice president.

We leave on the right hand side the sofa lounge that faces the Rambla. "Since until 2001 only men entered the Cercle, all the lounges are the men's ones; we are changing all of this; this one, precisely, the one that faces the Rambla is The Fishbowl, because from the windows the members used to wait for their carriages. Now they wait for taxis to return home," he explains.

Today is show afternoon, is performed there Aida at the Liceu, and at the Cercle everything is ready. Members will enter through a door that connects to the Liceu's Hall of Mirrors: “We open the door from the Cercle towards the Liceu, but the Liceu must also open its door towards the Cercle. We do it at the same time, and that is when our members can enter,” explains Rubén, the manager. Before the performance, they will be able to have a glass of Corpinnat, a glass of cava, a soft drink, or water; during the intermission of the play, they will be able to have dinner. “People from outside the Cercle del Liceu have come to ask us how we manage to have our members dine, pay, and return to their seats in the theater within the half-hour break,” says Ernestina, who ensures that they have everything very well timed. “Look, right now it’s more than two hours until the play starts, and all the tables are already set, the glasses are ready, each person’s name is on the tables, and the orders are placed.” The chefs know what they have to prepare because the members have requested it in advance, so as soon as they sit down, their food will be served immediately. “And it will be hot!” emphasizes Ernestina. The meal is a simple dish that can be chewed in half an hour: bread with tomato and ham, croquettes, bikini sandwiches, recalls the president, but hot. “If there are two hundred members dining during the intermission, and all two hundred have ordered bikini sandwiches, believe me, all two hundred will be hot,” she says, adding that in a club like the Cercle del Liceu, “gastronomy is very important.”

At the Cercle del Liceu you go to eat and drink, to talk, to socialise but with food and drink in between. Gone are the days when people went there to gamble, when it was a casino (like the social club where one of the protagonists of the film La bola negra wanted to enter). From the era of the games, many stories have arrived that are told at the Cercle del Liceu, all of them vague: “These four Chinese vases in the room where we are now are the payment card of one of the players,” explains Rubèn. In the same room of the Chinese vases, there is a painting by Ramon Casas, which in a few days, along with others of a larger format, will go to an exhibition in Germany.

Ramon Casas' paintings of elegant women

Anyone observing the elegance of Ernestina Torelló for the first time would say it is similar to that of the women painted by the painter Ramon Casas. “I was born in Barcelona, but my family is linked to Gelida, to the Can Martí de Baix estate; that is where I work during the week,” says Ernestina. She is in charge of the finances, attends to visitors, and, often, also stays there to sleep. The night there was the tragic landslide of an embankment on the Gelida train tracks, she was the one who attended to the police, nurses, and the injured from the train, who were taken to her house. “I work in Gelida, and the Cercle del Liceu is an extension of my home, because a club must be that for its members: they must feel comfortable there, and that is why food is so important.” The Mantequerías Pirenaicas group is in charge of it, which has cooks and waiters assigned there, who work exclusively for the Cercle del Liceu, and they base themselves on the recipe book of Catalan cuisine.

When there is a performance at the Liceu, then, at the Cercle there is activity, but when there isn't, there is too. Ernestina Torelló presides over different committees, which organize their own program of activities, consisting of social and cultural conferences, current affairs, etc. "Each of the committees also holds their lunches and dinners with the speakers, so daily there is a lot of activity". In the past, from the first hours of the morning, the members were already there, at the Cercle. "Now it is experienced in a different way, and in the early hours no one comes to read the newspapers, although if they wanted to, they could do so".

Let's change the subject and talk about the day of the vote. The manager showed me the black and white balls that were used for the board to vote, which are kept in storage, so I ask him how it went. "My candidacy was the only one, so it was easy," she says with a smile. There was no vote, but there was a lot of excitement, because Ernestina likes culture, people. "I am very sociable, and I like to spread cultural knowledge as much as I can." It also moved her to think that she was the first woman to preside over an institution of more than one hundred and seventy years. "It is also a lot of responsibility because of the years of history, because I have to do it well; let's see if the first woman doesn't do it well and then they will compare me with all the previous men." To do everything very well, she has been working on it since she was elected at the end of June. "I want to bring to the Cercle del Liceu authorized voices that visit Barcelona so they can talk to us about current events; of course, music is also fundamental, therefore, we will continue to do all the cultural and social activities." In fact, Torelló maintains that the new members of the Cercle del Liceu have an interest in current affairs, which are the ones she wants to promote precisely.

Along with her work at the Cercle del Liceu, Ernestina has another job, at the Torelló winery. She defines her specific role as that of “the working mother”. And we could add the one who manages the financial side. Torelló has been making wines for six hundred and thirty-one years. "And we are very happy with the work done”, she says. This year they are celebrating fifty years since they released their first brut nature. “We have made a limited edition; of 1,500 bottles”, she says. Brut nature is the norm now, but fifty years ago it was not like that. Gradually, categories of sparkling wines that contained added sugars, such as dry or semi-dry, have been eliminated. “We don't even remember them anymore because they disappeared from the market”. And while she explains this, she comments that the two jobs she does, at the Cercle del Liceu and at the Torelló winery, are similar. At the very least, we could define them by the same concepts: tradition, continuity, and modernity.

“At the Cercle del Liceu, 30% of the members are women and currently the members are of all ages, including those under forty as well.” At the winery, she works with her children, who have divided up the tasks. And in both places, there are strict rules: at the Cercle del Liceu, you cannot enter wearing sneakers; at the family winery, they agreed that the children would work there only if they had first earned a university degree, traveled the world, worked in other companies, and spoke languages.

Ernestina is an elegant woman, who seems like an extension of those women in vaporous dresses by the painter Ramon Casas. She is intelligent; she measures the clear words she speaks. She is the woman who has just written a new page of history from the Cercle del Liceu.