Germany late Wednesday opened a spectacular concert house in Hamburg to the strains of Beethoven and Wagner that has been touted as a new global attraction, albeit after a cost explosion.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck joined 2,100 guests at the inaugural concert under tight security in the grand hall of the Elbphilharmonie, which has electrified critics with its audacious design and world-class acoustics.
The three-hour-long programme met with a long standing ovation.
Billed as a cultural monument ready to rival the Sydney Opera House, the building came in more than six years overdue and at 10 times the initial budget, with a cost to the venerable northern port city of 789 million euros ($829 million).
Gauck said he was “awed” by the “incredibly beautiful” architecture and its “wonderful sound” but acknowledged its turbulent beginnings.
“The Elbphilharmonie has been called a dream and a nightmare, a global star and a joke, an embarrassment and a wonder,” he said.
But the enormous project’s success would come from “the magic of its contrasts”, he said.
“The Elbphilharmonie can become what many people in Hamburg hope for: the symbol of a cosmopolitan metropolis that is open to the world, and a jewel in the crown of Germany as a nation of culture.”
Merkel, a passionate classical music fan, later told NDR public television the opening had been historic as the dawn of a national landmark.
“One day we will all be very proud that something was built in our lifetime that people will still refer to in 50 or 100 years, saying ‘look, that was what happened on January 11, 2017’.”
