The Sydney Opera House is without doubt the most representative man-made monument
of Australia and the most recognizable symbol of Sydney. It is a true masterpiece
of the modern architecture. This amazing building is famous in the entire world
and is treasured by the Australian people. The building was designed by the Danish
architect Jørn Utzon and is considered the most symbolic structure of the XX century
architecture.
Its unique design is composed by a series of large precast concrete shells, each
taken from a hemisphere of the same radius. These giant shells are the roofs of
the structure that hosts two main performance halls and a restaurant. The entire
building was designed to look like a boat sails billowing in the wind. Stabilizing
this unorthodox and complex structure required great innovations in construction
techniques. A characteristic of the Sydney Opera House is the ingenious use of platforms,
which are a typical feature of Utzon’s designs.
The two main halls of the Opera House run from north to south and have their long
axes, slightly inclined from each other. The auditoria faces to south and the stages
are between the audience and the city. The Opera House is a real freestanding sculpture
of spherical roofs sheathed in white ceramic tiles. The interiors are composed by
pink granite and plywood.
Besides, the Concert hall has the best acoustics of any building of its type in
the world and with its 2679 seats, is the home of the Sydney Symphony. On the other
hand, the Opera Theatre with 1507 seats is a beautiful proscenium that hosts opera
and ballet perfomances. But, this building is much more than an opera house; the
Sydney opera House is a performing arts complex; since, in addition to the two main
halls, it is composed by many playhouses and studios (like the Drama Theatre, the
Utzon room or the Forecourt), as well as several bars and restaurants.
Currently the Opera House is home of some of the most prestigious cultural performances
of Australia and the world such as The Australian Ballet, the Australian Chamber
Orchestra, the Bell Shakespeare Company, the Ensemble Theatre, Musica Viva Australia,
the Sydney Dance Company, the Opera of Australia, the Sydney Symphony and the Sydney
Theatre Company. It is the busiest performing arts centre in the world, hosting
around 3000 events per year with an audience of about 2 million people. The Sydney
Opera House opens 24 hours, every day; closing only on Christmas and Good Friday.
It can reach the Opera House by bus, ferry or using the city rail.
History
The first plans to construct the Sydney Opera House started in 1940s, because of
the insistent request made by Eugene Goossens, the Director of the New South Wales
State Conservatorium of Music to have a suitable venue for large theatrical productions;
since, the usual site used for these productions was the Sydney Town Hall, which
was too small to host great spectacles.
The Sydney Opera House
In 1954 the request of Goossens was heard and the Premier of the State, Joseph Cahill
decided to convene a competition to find the best designs for a dedicated opera
house. The site designated for the Opera House was the place known as Bennelong
Point; this place was also chosen by Eugene Goossens. The rules of the competition,
established that the building had to have a large hall seating 3000 people and a
small hall for 1200 people. Both halls had to be designed for multiple uses, such
as choral concerts, lectures, full-scale operas, orchestral concerts, ballet performances,
mass meetings, amongst others.
The contest was made in 1955 and the state administration received 233 designs from
32 countries. Finally in 1957 the judges chose the design submitted by the Danish
architect Jørn Utzon, who arrived to Sydney the same year to help in the supervision
of the project. Nevertheless, the construction began only in 1958, after the demolition
of the Fort Macquarie Tram Depot, which occupied the site chosen to build the opera
house.
The entire project was concluded in three stages. The first stage between 1958 and
1963 was employed to construct the Podium of the Opera House, which was completed
on August 31, 1962. Nevertheless, the project’s problems started early; since, the
podium columns were not strong enough to support the weight of the roof structures;
however, this problem was solved. The famous shells of the roofs were constructed
during the second stage of the project; nevertheless, the engineers faced huge problems
to find the final designs and technology needed to build the shells of the Utzon’s
design.
Many schemes were probed, including options with parabolas, ellipsoids and
circular ribs. The engineers had to use computers to solve the designs problems.
This was one of the first works of CAD (computer-aided design) of the world. Finally
in 1961 the design team found the definitive design, whose shells were created as
sections of a sphere. The shells were built by the Hornibrook Group Pty Ltd., which
used 2400 precast ribs and 4000 roof panels to construct the famous roofs of the
Sydney Opera House.
The third stage of the project included mainly the finishing of the building’s interiors.
In this stage Utzon decided to abandon the project, because of the
pressure from
the press and the political intrigues; then the control of the project was assumed
by the Ministry of Public Works. The works were also made by the Hornibrook Group
Pty Ltd. Nevertheless, it had to make many changes to the original design. In 1966
a report made by the acoustic advisor Lothar Cremer revealed that the design of
the main hall only allowed 2000 seats; 1000 seats less than the original specification.
Besides, this report also criticized the width of the stage, the location of the
dressing rooms, the facilities for artists, the sizes of the doors and lifts, the
location of the lighting switchboards and many other details.
Another change in the original design was the multipurpose opera concert hall, which
finally became only a concert hall; whereas the minor hall became an opera and ballet
hall. Most designs created by Utzon for the interiors were changed or abandoned.
But, despite all problems during the construction; the Sydney Opera House was formally
completed in 1973 and cost 102 millions dollars, an amount much higher than initial
budgeted amount.
The Opera House was officially opened on October 20, 1973. This opening was very
waited by many people in the entire world; therefore, it was televised. The opening
ceremony included fireworks and a performance of the Symphony Nº9 of Beethoven.
Since then, the Sydney Opera House has hosted the performances of the best artists
of the world. The building has been modified some times, including the creation
of an interior space in 2004, which was rebuilt, respecting the original design
of Utzon; this hall was named “The Utzon Room”, in honor to the creator of the Opera
House. In June 2007 the Sydney Opera House was included in the UNESCO’s World Heritage
List; since, this marvelous monument is considered one of the indisputable masterpieces
of human creativity of the XX century and all the history. Currently the interiors
of the Opera House are being reconstructed to put in practice what Jørn Utzon visualized.