The disparity is said to be justified because the Liceu also receives subsidies from Catalonia and local governmental authorities, but in the eyes of Catalonians that only exacerbates the imbalance between national taxes paid and revenue returned.

This month, the region’s counselor for culture, Ferran Mascarell, speaking in the Catalan Parliament, lambasted Madrid for failing to pay the Liceu what it was owed and called its culture policies “ideologically archaic” and “profoundly negligent and inefficient.”

By also stating that Madrid maintains “a liquidating attitude” toward Catalan culture, Mr. Mascarell gave voice to allegations in Catalonia that Madrid is out to do actual harm.

Mr. Guasch, who became director of the Liceu in 2013, declines to point a finger at Madrid, saying simply that the theater will work with the subsidies available to it. As he points out, the number of performances is increasing, with 80 performances of 12 operas expected for the current season. He also succeeded in avoiding subsequent closings of the theater by enacting cost-cutting measures, including importing a production of “Porgy and Bess.”

He emphasized the need for Spanish opera houses to become less dependent on subsidies and more reliant on sponsorship. Last year, a private-public foundation was set up to facilitate corporate donations to the Liceu, but Spain has no law granting significant tax benefits to donors to cultural institutions.

Image Christina Scheppelmann, the Liceu’s new artistic director, formerly of the Washington National Opera. “It is important for theaters to become more efficient at what they do without lowering quality,” she says. Credit... Antoni Bofill

Ms. Scheppelmann, who takes over in January, sees her task as maximizing artistic quality within the confines of financial realities. Born in Germany, she has spent most of her career in the United States, first at the San Francisco Opera starting in 1994 and since 2001 at the Washington National Opera, where she was artistic director. Following Plácido Domingo’s departure as director in 2011, she essentially ran the Washington company until her departure in December 2012.