Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHTS
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
Gazing upon the Sydney Opera House with virgin eyes is a sure way to send a tingle down your spine. Overcome
with admiration, noted architect Louis Kahn said, 'The sun did not know how beautiful its light was until it was
reflected off this building.' Gloriously white, curvaceous and pointy, the Opera House perches dramatically at the
tip of Bennelong Point, waiting for its close-up. No matter from which angle you point a camera at it, it shame-
lessly mugs for the camera; it really doesn't have a bad side.
Design & Construction
Danish architect Jørn Utzon's competition-winning 1956 design is Australia's most recog-
nisable visual image. It's said to have been inspired by billowing sails, orange segments,
palm fronds and Mayan temples, and has been poetically likened to nuns in a rugby scrum,
a typewriter stuffed with scallop shells and the sexual congress of turtles. It's not until you
get close that you realise that the seemingly solid expanse of white is actually composed of
tiles - 1,056,000 self-cleaning cream-coloured Swedish tiles, to be exact.
The Opera House's construction was itself truly operatic - so much so, it was dramatised
as
The Eighth Wonder
, performed here by Opera Australia in 1995. The predicted four-year
construction started in 1959. After a tumultuous clash of egos, delays, politicking, death
and cost blow-outs, Utzon quit in disgust in 1966. The Opera House finally opened in
1973. Utzon and his son Jan were commissioned for renovations in 2004, but Utzon died in
2008 having never seen his finished masterpiece in the flesh.
Performances
Inside, dance, concerts, opera and theatre are staged in the
Concert Hall
,
Opera Theatre
,
Drama Theatre
and
Playhouse
, while more intimate and left-of-centre shows inhabit the
Studio
. The acoustics in the concert hall are superb; the internal aesthetics like the belly of
a whale. Most events (2400 of them annually!) sell out quickly, but partial-view tickets are
often available on short notice. The free monthly
What's On
brochure lists upcoming
events, including info on Kids at the House - a pint-sized entertainment roster of music,
drama and dance (including introductory ballet with Australian Ballet dancers).
