We were up fairly early and set off for our 9am tour of the
Sydney Opera House. We were met by our
guide who reminded us that the land the Opera House is built on is sacred
Aboriginal territory. We then went
inside.
We watched a short video which
told us how Danish architect, JØrn Utzon,
won the original design competition.
The actual build was not without its problems, to put it mildly, culminating
in Utzon being removed from the project for being too demanding and too much of
a perfectionist. A classic case with an innovative building of creativity coming up against the harsh realities of how to engineer the design and finance it!
We were constantly
reminded that we couldn’t take photos of the actual performance areas as the
stage sets were subject to copyright and we couldn’t take photos if any staff
or rehearsing performers were present. As a result we haven’t got nearly as many as we might have.
We were initially taken into a small theatre
where the likes of Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Mel Gibson started out. We were then taken into the concert hall and
the Joan Sutherland theatre.
The happy
ending to the Utzon story is that his son is now involved in the considerable
(and - as always with the Sydney Opera House - very expensive!) refurbishments
and apparently he has many of his father’s characteristics – but hasn’t been
sacked off the project yet.
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| Our ship awaits! |
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| Where lots of Australian stars of stage and screen first hit the big time. |
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| Some great views on our tour from vantage points only open to those on the tour |
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| One of the bars |
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| Inevitably lots of concrete is involved |
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| Before the railings were installed, a lady walked into the concrete support on the left and was killed |
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| This area is affectionately known as the cleavage! |
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