New concert hall in Rio evokes discontent among residents

The architect of the building is Christian de Portzamparc.

Rio de Janeiro - The construction of a music center called the City of Music (Cidade da Música) has sparked a wave of criticism among the residents of Rio de Janeiro, known primarily for its carnival parades. One of the most ambitious projects since the establishment of the new Brazilian capital Brasília in the 1950s embodies its shape with the mountains surrounding Rio and the waves that the sea brings to its famous beaches. The enormous concrete structure boasts the largest concert hall in all of Latin America and is often compared to the famous opera house in Sydney, Australia, reports Reuters.
    The City of Music recently opened its doors with a celebratory concert featuring works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Strauss. The total construction costs amounted to 220 million dollars (4.3 billion CZK), and supporters argue that the new music center will enhance Rio’s image as the cultural capital of the entire country. However, several times the budget has been exceeded, the location is controversial, there are traffic problems, and the huge contrast between the magnificent project and rampant crime in Rio has turned many otherwise music-loving residents of the city into staunch opponents of the building.
    In Rio, where samba, bossa nova, and other Brazilian rhythms prevail, doubts exist about the appropriateness of spending five percent of the annual city budget on a building that will primarily feature classical music and opera.
    "The City of Music is a block of concrete that cost us a pile of money, and from which the residents of the city will gain nothing they truly need," said Marcos dos Santos, one of the residents of Rio.
    The building, with an area of 94,000 square meters, is indeed massive. The main concert hall, which can also be adapted for opera, accommodates 1,800 spectators. Inside the building, which will not be completely finished for another six months, there are cinemas, restaurants, and a number of classrooms. All of this is surrounded by a large park, and the City of Music thus appears as a massive yet airy structure standing on stilts.
    The site chosen for construction was the Barra neighborhood, located about an hour's journey from downtown Rio. This urban area, filled with a somewhat sterile collection of residential buildings and American-style shopping centers, is predominantly home to wealthier people. Proponents of the project argue that the new music center will provide the area with more public space and attract residents from poorer neighborhoods in the north and west of the city, which are most affected by immense crime.
    Information about spiraling construction costs has, however, made the center a target of media derision and an effective weapon against Rio's unpopular mayor Césaro Mai, the spiritual father of the entire project. According to these reports, the budget has increased up to six times compared to the original estimates, which city officials deny, pointing out that these initial figures pertained to only one part of the building. However, the City of Music does not have a metro station nearby, and ticket prices are high by local standards.
    "Even people with higher incomes from other parts of the city will not come to concerts here because of traffic problems," stated architect Ricardo Gouvea, a member of the human rights organization Bento Rubiao Foundation. He suggested that the money for construction would be better invested in traditional forms of music culture in Rio, such as popular samba schools that attract thousands of tourists to the city. These schools have been struggling in recent years due to a lack of funding for their operations.
    Other opponents of the center would prefer investments in the historic center of the city, which brims with a rich nightlife, featuring many bars and samba clubs. This area also contains parts that are literally deserted, filled with abandoned houses and beset by high crime rates.