The Sydney Opera House
May 11, 2003 | 12:00am
Did you know that the Sydney Opera House, one of the greatest, most striking architectural wonders of the 20th century, took 14 years to build? The edifice actually occupies 1.8 hectares on a land area of 2.2 hectares. Joern Utzon’s uniquely imaginative design won him the prize of 5,000 English pounds. The initial estimated construction cost of $7 million (Australian) finally ran to $102 million.
There are 1,056,000 tiles on the roof shells, the highest being 67 meters above sea-level, and each year, 8,500 roof-edge tiles and 15,500 light bulbs are replaced. While the edifice was still under construction, famed black American singer Paul Robeson climbed on the scaffolding and "serenaded" the workers.
The Sydney Opera House, which is closed only on Christmas Day and Good Friday, has 214 permanent employees, besides casuals and seasonal staffers, running the complex consisting of the Concert Hall, Opera Theater, Drama Theater, The Studio and The Playhouse. In 1998-99, these five venues collectively presented 2,230 events for 1,860,307 ticket-buyers.
In 2000, people who went on group tours in a single day totaled 1,312. During my recent visit to Sydney, I was generously provided with an individual guide, the tall, personable actor-pianist-singer Thomas Adams who took me and my escort Irish Pascuzzo to view, at close range, each of the five exhibition halls.
That afternoon, how exciting it was to see a huge carousel at a standstill on the stage of the Drama Theater, and even more exciting to see the same carousel rapidly spinning that night for W. Congreve’s 1700 Restoration comedy "The Way of the World," with the players in their resplendent period costumes standing in frozen poses around the revolving carousel, as the curtains opened, thus introducing themselves to the audience. What a dazzling sight!
Since HM Queen Elizabeth II attended the inauguration of the Sydney Opera House in 1973, several world figures have delivered speeches at the 2,700-seat Concert Hall, e.g., Pope John Paul II, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, African leader Nelson Mandela (he spoke at the open-air Forecourt), and Hillary Clinton who discussed the role of women for the 21st century. Former President Bill Clinton jogged into Sydney Opera House and toured it. Michael Jackson received an award – 20 framed platinum albums and a 10-meter, one-ton statue that floated on a barge in front of the Sydney Opera House.
Eminent international artists and ensembles which have appeared in one or the other of its venues include the NY Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Olivia Newton John, Dame Janet Baker, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in a Beethoven Festival with Edo de Wart conducting Symphony No. 8 and Symphony No. 9, and earlier Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 under the baton of Stuart Challender.
From the above, one inevitably deduces that the architectural marvel called the Sydney Opera House is perhaps Australia’s biggest misnomer. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this October, it has served as venue not only for opera – not to mention international fora – but also for an incredible range and diversity of classic/contemporary theater, dance, music, pop entertainment, including cabaret, circus and hybrid art forms defying description!
In March, audiences heard in the Concert Hall symphonies by Mahler and Wagner, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony, and last February, South Africa’s Soweto Gospel Choir – an ensemble of 28 singers, musicians and drummers interpreting tribal, traditional and popular gospel music. The Opera Theater will present Rossini’s Cinderella, Verdi’s Rigoletto, the Peking Opera Company and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld.
In The Studio, Shep Huntley stars in a freak show, "a gasp-filled frenzy of excruciating entertainment"; in the riotous one-man comedy "D’Arranged Marriage," Tarun Mohambhai portrays the full cast of characters, including women, at an Indian wedding!
Indeed, the Sydney Opera House has inspired or attracted so many artists that one has written an opera about it; some have painted it or projected images on it; still others have performed on the open-air Forecourt and even on the sails!
But most significantly, extraordinary talents the world over have appeared in its auditoriums for the last 30 years, and will doubtless continue to do so to the resounding applause of millions from all cultural backgrounds through this millennium.
There are 1,056,000 tiles on the roof shells, the highest being 67 meters above sea-level, and each year, 8,500 roof-edge tiles and 15,500 light bulbs are replaced. While the edifice was still under construction, famed black American singer Paul Robeson climbed on the scaffolding and "serenaded" the workers.
The Sydney Opera House, which is closed only on Christmas Day and Good Friday, has 214 permanent employees, besides casuals and seasonal staffers, running the complex consisting of the Concert Hall, Opera Theater, Drama Theater, The Studio and The Playhouse. In 1998-99, these five venues collectively presented 2,230 events for 1,860,307 ticket-buyers.
In 2000, people who went on group tours in a single day totaled 1,312. During my recent visit to Sydney, I was generously provided with an individual guide, the tall, personable actor-pianist-singer Thomas Adams who took me and my escort Irish Pascuzzo to view, at close range, each of the five exhibition halls.
That afternoon, how exciting it was to see a huge carousel at a standstill on the stage of the Drama Theater, and even more exciting to see the same carousel rapidly spinning that night for W. Congreve’s 1700 Restoration comedy "The Way of the World," with the players in their resplendent period costumes standing in frozen poses around the revolving carousel, as the curtains opened, thus introducing themselves to the audience. What a dazzling sight!
Since HM Queen Elizabeth II attended the inauguration of the Sydney Opera House in 1973, several world figures have delivered speeches at the 2,700-seat Concert Hall, e.g., Pope John Paul II, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, African leader Nelson Mandela (he spoke at the open-air Forecourt), and Hillary Clinton who discussed the role of women for the 21st century. Former President Bill Clinton jogged into Sydney Opera House and toured it. Michael Jackson received an award – 20 framed platinum albums and a 10-meter, one-ton statue that floated on a barge in front of the Sydney Opera House.
Eminent international artists and ensembles which have appeared in one or the other of its venues include the NY Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Olivia Newton John, Dame Janet Baker, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in a Beethoven Festival with Edo de Wart conducting Symphony No. 8 and Symphony No. 9, and earlier Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 under the baton of Stuart Challender.
From the above, one inevitably deduces that the architectural marvel called the Sydney Opera House is perhaps Australia’s biggest misnomer. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this October, it has served as venue not only for opera – not to mention international fora – but also for an incredible range and diversity of classic/contemporary theater, dance, music, pop entertainment, including cabaret, circus and hybrid art forms defying description!
In March, audiences heard in the Concert Hall symphonies by Mahler and Wagner, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony, and last February, South Africa’s Soweto Gospel Choir – an ensemble of 28 singers, musicians and drummers interpreting tribal, traditional and popular gospel music. The Opera Theater will present Rossini’s Cinderella, Verdi’s Rigoletto, the Peking Opera Company and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld.
In The Studio, Shep Huntley stars in a freak show, "a gasp-filled frenzy of excruciating entertainment"; in the riotous one-man comedy "D’Arranged Marriage," Tarun Mohambhai portrays the full cast of characters, including women, at an Indian wedding!
Indeed, the Sydney Opera House has inspired or attracted so many artists that one has written an opera about it; some have painted it or projected images on it; still others have performed on the open-air Forecourt and even on the sails!
But most significantly, extraordinary talents the world over have appeared in its auditoriums for the last 30 years, and will doubtless continue to do so to the resounding applause of millions from all cultural backgrounds through this millennium.
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