Well, before we get to the music, the venue needs much comment. The entire space is enormous with a range of cavernous spaces for performance/rehearsal/scenery construction etc etc. The facilities look to be so fine that the awkward location fades into insignificance.
There is a lovely large open space when you enter dominated by a magnificent steam train - one of many references to this sites’ last iteration as a locomotive repair and building shop (and museum?)
The hall (Eiffel Art Studios) where the performance took place was remarkable. A very high-roofed structure with a strutted metal and glass roof (very like the ones top be found at Keleti and Nyugati). There was a stage at one end but no wings so performers had to enter from the rear and the seating is in three sections - one at floor level in the front, a set of tiered seats (where I was and which give the best view) and a much smaller section right at the back at balcony level Even though the venue was large, there was a sense of cramping for the performers; a section of the choirs had to stand on the steps that led up to the stage and when singing they, awkwardly, edged down to sit; not a great solution and rather distracting.
The sides of the hall consisted of heavy black drapes which suggest that this is a multi-purpose area whose size, to a degree, can be created according to the requirements of the performance and, as far as I could tell, gave good acoustics so that the massive climaxes were clear and well-balanced
But the most unusual feature was an enormous train and Pullman carriage on one side of the hall that stretched from the back of the stage to a little way down of the tiered seating. Never seen that in a concert hall before! A (lengthy and inexcusably unmasked) speech from the Director of the Opera preceded the performance and was delivered from what would have been the coal truck for the train!
But now the performance. This was my first experience of Mahler 8 live (understandably there are not many chances given its requirements) and I think it was a pretty sound one. The opening Veni Creator, which was the only section of which I had some knowledge , was not as overwhelming as I hoped/expected it was but I think the conductor made sure not to unleash full power in the opening bars/section as at the end, in the final pages, the power and cataclysmic majesty of the music was incomparable and it provided a true climax to the extraordinary work.
there was a screen right at the back of the stage, on one side for subtitles but I could not read it from where I was. At the back of the stage there were also several large glass panels which were periodically lit with various colours and in one section, most of the roof was illuminated in the same red. Not sure what represented but I did not feel it added anything and seemed a bit trite - rather like the use of light in the rather awful staging of Carmina Burana that I saw last season. However there was one moment as the final climax approached when several vast spotlights at the back of the stage came on in harsh white light which was directed towards the audience with increasing intensity - and this was pretty effective.
Quite an experience and am very glad to have had the experience. It will be interesting to see what the performance spaces are like for the two operas I am seeing there next week - Dead Man Walking (Jake Heggie) and Coronation of Poppea (Monteverdi)
Conductor
Soloists
Szilvia Rálik Éva Bátori Orsolya Sáfár Andrea Szántó Andrea Meláth Dániel Pataky Zsolt Haja András Palerdi
Featuring
Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Children’s Chorus