The Sydney Opera House
This morning it is raining again. The forecast is such that we’ve decided to make the $5 investment in umbrellas, since the weather is to go progressively downhill through the weekend with a strong likelihood of showers continuing through the week thereafter.
Fortunately, the Opera House is just a short walk from our hotel.
This building stands next to the grand cathedrals of Europe as a structure that takes your breath away. We signed up for a one hour tour, which involved some 200 stairs (not all at once) and was sufficient to answer most of our questions. I’ll try not to relate all the details (I took enough notes that it made the tour guide somewhat nervous), but some of it is absolutely fascinating (to me, anyhow). As always, those that aren’t interested are welcome to blip on by.
Incidentally, tickets are $15.00 for the one hour tour, which is well worth it, especially if you can’t get into an event either because of the cost or because everything is sold out.
The Opera House is on a location originally called Danelong Point, which had first a fort and then a Tram Stop located there. In the 1940’s, Sydney’s art community started looking for a venue for a performance venue and came up with this location. Then, in 1955 they did a worldwide competition for potential designs.
The judges were from around the world, and the Finnish guy was late – they didn’t say why – but he insisted on reviewing all 250+ submissions that they’d already ruled out when he got there. He pulled the concept plans for the structure out and convinced the others that this was the winner, despite the fact that he violated a number of rules of the contest and that the submission was little more than pencil sketches on the back of an envelope.
He convinced the other judges to go along with him, and the design was approved. Interestingly enough, in those days before computers, they had no idea if they could actually build the design. It was supposed to be poured-in-place concrete shells, but after 4 years of work (who needs plans? We don’t need no stinkin’ plans – go pour a foundation!) they figured out that wouldn’t work. The architect, a Danish guy named Jorn Utzon, was a 38 year old with no prior major projects to his credit, took a lot of heat and finally figured out that he could make pre-stressed concrete “ribs” to do the domes, which could then be set in place with cranes. This is now called the “Spherical Solution” and is apparently a common architectural method.
The Opera house is actually made of three different buildings. It has 5 big theatres, and lots of other performance spaces, including halls, conference rooms, etc. The three smallest venues have between 365 and 544 seats and are very adaptable. We were taken into the smallest, where nothing is permanently attached. It’s a “theater in the round” and has 9 configurations available. The maximum price for an event here is $45.00 per ticket, to encourage attendance by everyone, and it’s thus suited for unknown artists.
Utzon was a sailor, and this impacted his design a great deal. As such, you can go “behind” the large theaters to look out the windows onto the harbour.
The main concert hall has 2679 seats, all natural materials – wooden floors, molded birchwood seats, etc – all beautifully done. It has 38,000 cubic Meters of space in it, and has these cool Pexiglass rings that float over the performance space to help with the acoustics. Interestingly enough, most things can be performed there without electronic amplification necessary for the audience, although sometimes it’s needed for the performers to hear themselves.
The smaller hall is the actual “Opera” space, it’s got 1550 seats and is a very intimate setting – no binoculars are really needed here! This is the busiest venue and keeps a 90% occupancy, which is pretty remarkable for a public space.
Because there is no amplification, it’d wear out the opera singers if they had to perform consecutively, so there are frequently multiple performance things happening on alternating nights. Thus, you can see 5 different operas in a week, plus 2 on Saturday! Because the stage is narrow, they store the sets overhead and below; thus, they go up and down to allow different sets to be kept in place for the different shows at the same time.
Oh, and because Opera is performed in the original language, there’s a white screen above with English translations. It’s an amazing space.
One final note about the facility – It has one of the largest mechanical pipe organs in the world in the main theatre. It’s got 10138 pipes, 36 bells, 5 keyboards, 209 ranks and 8 ft. of pedals which have to be operated by the player. They say it’s physically exhausting to play it. Incidentally, it was designed by an Australian organmaker and took 10 years to build and over 2 years to tune.
As with all public works projects, this one was not without it’s issues. There were significant cost and time overruns, and eventually a change in government forced the architect to withdraw. He returned to Denmark and never saw his completed project. In an interesting turn of events, though, he was later recognized for the genius that he was, he was re-engaged for renovations to the facility and has drawn plans that will allow the space to be adapted and upgraded for years to come. He unfortunately died in 2007, but his son acted as his emissary to bring things back and forth. Thus, the upgrade going on with the facility now is actually his concept and plans, and there are enough to keep them busy for the next many years.
OK, sorry for the epistle on the Opera – but it is an amazing building. Words and pictures don’t do it justice – when you’re in it – even empty – you’re just filled with awe and reverence at the space.
