Sydney Opera House Sydney. Sydney Opera House (Sydney, Australia)

- was created in 1973, the British director Eugene Goossens shared the idea. He arrived in Australia as a conductor, but was shocked to learn that there was no opera house in Australia. This was the beginning of the building, or rather the beginning of the dream of building an opera house. He searched areas where it was possible to build an opera house, and also convinced the deputies of this country about the importance of this building, after which it was decided to start a competition for the best project opera house. Unfortunately, however, Eugene Goosens' enemies set him up and he had to leave Australia without seeing the fruits of his dreams.

The competition continued and the winner of the best project was the Danish architect Jorn Utzon. Jorn Utzon became an innovator in the history of construction, since before that time there were no such buildings on earth. On the one hand, it was promising, but on the other hand, it was a risky project, which was to be built over the sea, in the Bennelong Point area there had previously been a tram depot. This project amazed the whole world and never ceases to amaze.

Construction began in 1959, the construction was planned to take 4 years, but everything did not go as smoothly as we would like and lasted for 14 years. The problem was mainly due to the roof (superstructure). Many call them sails, some fins or shells. The roof of the opera house consists of 2194 previously manufactured sections. The entire roof is covered with about one million matte or cream colors. In principle, the roof came out very smoothly, but the internal acoustics of the hall suffered; later this problem was solved at considerable expense, since it was necessary to demolish the current foundation and pour a new, strong foundation. Some details also needed to be redone.

Unfortunately, expenses increased, and construction time slowed down, so that even the money that was intended for construction was spent on other objects. Because of this, Utzon had to leave Sydney, as the estimated amount was seven million Australian dollars, but in fact it took about one hundred million dollars. A few years later, the Australians again asked Utzon to begin construction, but he categorically refused this idea. Then new architect Hall completed the operatic miracle. The exact date of the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973 with thunderous applause from numerous people and fireworks. Still, in 2003, Jorn Utzon, the chief architect of the opera house, received an award. The dramatic and difficult construction lived up to all these years of anticipation, it became a symbol of the Australian city. On June 28, 2007, the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites was expanded, and the beautiful Sydney Theater was added to this list.

The Sydney Opera House became a center of tourist accumulation, hotels, cafes, restaurants and the like began to be built. And if you look at the Opera House at night from the Harbor Bridge, it was an indescribable delight for tourists.

When entering the Sydney Opera House, which consists of quite a few halls, tourists first enter the concert hall.

Concert hall with the most large audience in this theater. This hall houses the largest organ, which has 10 thousand organ pipes. One of the highest quality musical instruments on the ground.

The hall seats 2,679 spectators. The opera hall accommodates 1,507 spectators, as well as 70 musicians on stage. The Drama Hall seats only 544 spectators.

Also the Play House hall, which seats 398 spectators. And the very last hall, which was inaugurated relatively recently in 1999, was called “Studio”. However, despite the fact that it opened last, it accommodates only 364 spectators.

In the opera house, namely in each hall, different art scenes were held, as well as opera, ballet, drama productions, dance scenes, miniature theater plays, as well as plays in the spirit of avant-garde.

Sydney Opera House has many advantages, namely:

• unusualness of the project;
• location;
• an ideal place for art lovers;

Many tourists come here to see the interesting architecture, as well as to watch various art scenes.

One of the most interesting buildings of the 20th century is located in Australia. Built between 1957 and 1973, the Sydney Opera House is surrounded by water and strongly resembles a sailboat. The architect of the legendary structure was Jorn Utson from Denmark.

History of construction

Until the mid-20th century, there was not a single building in Sydney suitable for opera productions. With the arrival of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's new chief conductor, Eugene Goosens, the problem was made public.

But the creation of a new building for opera and orchestral purposes did not become a matter of first importance. At this time, the whole world was in a state of recovery after the war, the Sydney administration was in no hurry to begin work, and the project was frozen.

Funding for the construction of the Sydney Opera House began in 1954. They continued until 1975, and in total about $100 million was collected.

Cape Bennelong was chosen as the site for one of the largest cultural buildings. According to the requirements, the building had to have two halls. In the first of them, intended for opera and ballet productions, as well as symphonic music, was supposed to accommodate approximately three thousand people. In the second, with dramatic performances and chamber music, there are 1,200 people.

Jorn Utson, according to the commission, became the best architect out of 233 who sent their works. He was inspired to create the project by those standing in Sydney Harbor sailing ships. It took the builders 14 years to complete the project.

Construction began in 1959. Immediately problems began to arise. The government demanded that the number of halls be increased from two to four. In addition, the designed wing-sails turned out to be impossible to implement, so it took several more years of experimentation to find the right solution. Due to the outbreak of proceedings in 1966, Utson was replaced by a group of architects from Australia, led by Peter Hull.

On September 28, 1973, the Sydney Opera House opened its gates. The premiere was the production of the opera “War and Peace” by S. Prokofiev. The official opening ceremony was held on October 20 in the presence of Elizabeth II.

Some numbers

The constructed opera immediately immortalized itself in history. It's really huge complex, containing 5 halls and about 1000 rooms for various purposes. The maximum height of the Opera House building is 67 meters. Total weight buildings are estimated to be 161,000 tons.

Opera House halls

1 hall

The largest hall of the Sydney Opera House is the Concert Hall. It accommodates 2679 visitors. The Great Concert Organ is also located here.

Hall 2

The Opera Hall, which seats 1,547 spectators, is used for opera and ballet performances. The hall houses the world's largest theatrical curtain-tapestry, the Curtain of the Sun.

Hall 3

The drama hall seats 544 spectators. Drama and dance performances take place here. There is also another tapestry curtain, also woven in Aubusson. Due to its dark tones, it was called “Curtain of the Moon”.

Hall 4

The Playhouse hall seats 398 spectators. It is intended for theatrical miniatures, lectures, and also for use as a cinema.

Hall 5

Most new hall“Studio” opened in 1999. 364 spectators can see plays in the spirit of avant-garde art here.

Since 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been in use almost 24 hours a day without interruption. In addition to culture and art lovers, the building is loved by thousands of tourists visiting Sydney. The Sydney Opera House has become a real symbol of Australia.

Video about the Sydney Opera House

At the heart of the Opera House project is the desire to bring people from the world of daily routine to the world of fantasy, where musicians and actors live.
Jorn Utzon, July 1964.

Two fragments of a jagged roof on the Olympic emblem - and the whole world knows in which city the Games will be held. The Sydney Opera House is the only building of the 20th century that stands on a par with such great architectural symbols of the 19th century as Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Along with the Hagia Sophia and the Taj Mahal, this building belongs to the highest cultural achievements last millennium. How did it happen that Sydney - even in the opinion of Australians, is by no means the most beautiful and elegant city in the world - got this miracle? And why didn't any other city compete with it? Why is it that most modern cities are a jumble of ugly skyscrapers, while our attempts to mark the end of the outgoing millennium by creating an architectural masterpiece have failed miserably?

Before the Opera House, Sydney boasted its world famous Bridge. Painted a sullen gray, it looms like a Calvinist conscience over a city that was intended to be King George's Gulag and still cannot free itself from the powerful influence of a small island on the other side of the world. One glance at our Bridge is enough to make you not want to look at it a second time. The construction of this substantial structure almost bankrupted the British company Dorman, Long and Co. The Bridge's granite piers, enlarged replicas of Cenotaph 1 on Whitehall, don't actually support anything, but their construction helped Yorkshire's Middlesbrough survive the Depression. But even decorated with the Olympic rings and huge Australian flags, the Sydney Bridge is now nothing more than a proscenium, for the gaze of tourists is irresistibly drawn to the wonderful silhouette of the Opera House, which seems to float above the blue waters of the harbor. This creation of daring architectural fantasy easily dwarfs the largest steel arch in the world.

Like Sydney itself, the Opera House was invented by the British. In 1945, Sir Eugene Goossens, a violinist and composer, arrived in Australia and was invited by the Australian Broadcasting Board (then headed by another refined Briton, Sir Charles Moses) to conduct a recording of a concert series. Goossens discovered an "unusually passionate interest" in the musical arts among local residents, but there was little to satisfy it except Sydney Town Hall, whose architecture resembled a "wedding cake" in the spirit of the Second Empire, with poor acoustics and a hall with only 2,500 seats. Like many other visitors, Goossens was struck by Sydney's indifference to the city's magnificent skyline and its fondness for hackneyed European ideas that arose in a completely different historical and cultural context. This “cultural subservience” was later reflected in the row over the foreign-designed Opera House.

Goossens, that lover of bohemian life and tireless bon vivant, knew what was missing here: a palace for opera, ballet, theater and concerts - “society must be aware of modern musical achievements.” In the company of Kurt Langer, a city planner originally from Vienna, he combed the entire city with true missionary fervor in search of a suitable site. They chose the rocky headland of Bennelong Point near the Circular Quay, a junction where residents transferred from ferries to trains and buses. On this cape, named after an Australian Aborigine, a friend of the first Sydney governor, stood Fort Macquarie - a real monster, a late Victorian counterfeit of antiquity. Behind its powerful walls with loopholes and crenellated turrets hid a modest institution - the central tram depot. A short period of citizens' fascination with Sydney's criminal past was yet to come. “And thank God,” as one visitor remarked, “otherwise they would have written down architectural monuments even a tram depot!” Goossens considered the location “ideal.” He dreamed of a huge hall for 3500-4000 spectators, in which all Sydneysiders who had suffered without music could finally quench their cultural thirst.

The first “convert” was G. Ingham Ashworth, a former British colonel and then professor of architecture at the University of Sydney. If he understood anything, it was more likely in Indian barracks than in opera houses, but, once succumbing to the charm of Goossens’ idea, he became its faithful adept and stubborn defender. Ashworth introduced Goossens to John Joseph Cahill, a descendant of Irish immigrants who was soon to become the Labor premier of New South Wales. An expert in behind-the-scenes politics who dreamed of bringing art to the masses, Cahill secured the support of the Australian public for the aristocrats' plan - many still call the Opera House "Taj Cahill". He brought in another opera lover, Stan Haviland, head of the Sydney Water Authority. The ice has broken.

On 17 May 1955 the State Government gave permission for the construction of an Opera House at Bennelong Point on the condition that public funds won't be needed. An international competition was announced for the building design. IN next year Cahill's office with with great difficulty managed to stay in power for a second three-year term. Time was running out, but sanctimonious, provincial New South Wales was already preparing the first retaliatory blow to the fighters for the culturalization of Sydney. Some unknown person called Moses and warned that the luggage of Goossens, who had gone abroad to study opera houses, would be searched at Sydney Airport - then, in the pre-drug era, this was unheard of unceremoniousness. Moses did not tell his friend about this, and upon his return, Black Mass paraphernalia was found in Goossens' suitcases, including rubber masks shaped like genitals. It turned out that the musician sometimes whiled away boring Sydney evenings in the company of black magic lovers led by a certain Rosalyn (Rowe) Norton, a very famous person in relevant circles. Goossens claimed that the ritual paraphernalia (which would not be even glanced at today at Sydney's annual Gay and Lesbian Ball) was foisted on him by blackmailers. He was fined a hundred pounds and resigned as conductor of the new Sydney symphony orchestra and went back to England, where he died in sadness and obscurity. Thus the Opera House lost its first, most eloquent and influential supporter.

223 works were submitted to the competition - the world was clearly interested in the fresh idea. Before the scandal broke, Goossens managed to select a jury that included four professional architects: his friend Ashworth; Leslie Martin, co-creator of London's Festival Hall; Finnish-American Ero Saarinen, who recently abandoned the boring “linear” design and began to master new technology“concrete shells” with its sculptural possibilities; and Gobden Parkes, chairman of the State Government's Architecture Committee, symbolically representing the Australians. Goossens and Moses formulated the terms of the competition. Although they talked about the Opera House in singular, it was supposed to have two halls: one very large, for concerts and lavish productions like operas by Wagner or Puccini, and another smaller one for chamber operas, dramatic performances and ballets; plus warehouses for storing props and premises for rehearsal rooms and restaurants. Traveling around Europe, Goossens saw the consequences of such numerous demands: the clumsy construction of theaters had to be hidden behind a high façade and a featureless rear. For the Sydney Opera House, which was supposed to be built on a peninsula surrounded by water and an urban area of ​​high-rise buildings, this solution was not suitable.

All but one of the contenders began by trying to solve an obvious problem: how to fit two opera houses on a small piece of land measuring 250 by 350 feet, surrounded on three sides by water? The French writer Françoise Fromoneau, who calls the Opera building one of the “great projects” that were never realized in its intended form, in her book “Jorn Utzon: Sydney Opera” introduces the reader to the winners of the second and third prizes (from their works it is quite possible to judge projects of all other competition participants). The second-place group of American architects arranged the theaters back-to-back, combining their stages in one central tower, and tried to smooth out the unwanted “pair of shoes” effect with the help of a spiral structure on pylons. The British project, which received third place, bears a noticeable resemblance to New York's Lincoln Center - here the theaters stand one after the other on a huge paved area. But, as Robert Frost said, in the very idea of ​​theater there is “something that does not tolerate walls.” No matter where you look, the buildings represented by these projects look like disguised factories for the production of consumer goods or the same meat pies, for an inexplicable reason put on public display - in fact, these are doubles of the tram depot condemned to death.

In only one competition entry, the theaters are placed close to each other, and the problem of walls is eliminated thanks to their absence: a series of fan-shaped white roofs are attached directly to the Cyclopean podium. The author of the project proposed storing the scenery in special recesses made in a massive platform: this was how the problem of the backstage was solved. The pile of rejected projects grew, and the jury members returned to this strikingly original work for the umpteenth time. They say that Saarinen even hired a boat to show his colleagues how the building would look from the water. On January 29, 1957, a beaming Joe Cahill announced the result. The winner was a thirty-eight-year-old Dane who lived with his family in a romantic corner near Hamlet’s Elsinore, in a house built according to his own design (this was one of the architect’s few plans that were realized). The laureate's difficult-to-pronounce name, which meant nothing to most Sydneysiders, was Jorn Utzon.

There was an unusual fate behind the original project. Like all Danes, Utzon grew up by the sea. His father Aage, who designed yachts, taught his sons to sail on the Öresund. Jorn spent his childhood on the water, among unfinished models and unfinished boat hulls in his father's shipyard. Years later, a crane operator working on the construction of the Opera House, seeing it from a bird's eye view, would tell Sydney artist Emerson Curtis: “There’s not one there.” right angle, buddy! A ship, and that’s all!” Young Utzon at first thought to follow his father’s path, but poor academic performance, a consequence of dyslexia, crossed out this intention, instilling in him an unjustified sense of inferiority. Two artists from his grandmother’s circle of friends taught the young man to draw and observe nature, and on the advice of his sculptor uncle, he entered the Royal Danish Academy, which at that time (1937) was in a state of aesthetic ferment: the heavy, ornate forms of Ibsen’s era were giving way to pure , light lines modern Scandinavia. Sydney was lucky that Utzon's talent was formed during the Second World War, when commercial construction almost stopped. As in all modern cities, the center of Sydney became a business district where thousands of people gathered. Thanks to the advent of the elevator, one and the same piece of land could be rented out simultaneously to sixty, or even a hundred, in short, God knows how many tenants, and cities began to grow upward. Sometimes in modern megacities you come across original buildings that can capture the imagination (for example, Beaubourg in Paris), but basically their appearance is determined by the same type of skyscrapers with a steel frame and panel walls from a construction catalogue. For the first time in the history of mankind, the most beautiful cities in the world are becoming like twins.

During the war, Utzon studied in Denmark, then in Sweden, and could not participate in commercial projects to create such featureless structures. Instead, he began sending his works to competitions - after the war, the construction of all kinds of public buildings revived. In 1945, together with a fellow student, he was awarded the Small Gold Medal for his design of a concert hall for Copenhagen. The structure, which remained on paper, was supposed to be erected on a special platform. Utzon borrowed this idea from classical Chinese architecture. Chinese palaces stood on podiums, the height of which corresponded to the greatness of the rulers, and the length of the flights of stairs to the scale of their power. According to Utzon, such platforms had their advantage: they emphasized the detachment of timeless art from the bustle of the city. Utzon and his colleague crowned the concert hall with a copper-clad concrete “shell”, the outer profile of which followed the shape of the sound-reflecting ceiling inside the structure. This student work already foreshadowed the stunning success that befell its author in Sydney eleven years later.

In 1946, Utzon took part in another competition - to erect a building on the site of the Crystal Palace in London, built by Sir Joseph Paxton in 1851 and burned down in 1936. England was lucky that the project that took first place was not implemented and the structure, reminiscent of the famous Baths of Caracalla of another dying empire, Ancient Rome, was never built. Compositional elements of the Sydney Opera were already visible in Utzon's work. “Poetic and inspired,” said the English architect Maxwell Fry about this project, “but more like a dream than a reality.” There is already a hint here that sooner or later Utzon’s originality will come into conflict with the earthiness of less refined natures. Of the remaining projects, only one could be compared in technical audacity with the Crystal Palace: two Britons, Clive Entwistle and Ove Arup, proposed a pyramid of glass and concrete. Far ahead of his time, Entwistle, following the Greek proverb “The gods see on all sides,” proposed turning the roof into a “fifth façade”: “The ambiguity of the pyramid is especially interesting. Such a building is equally facing the sky and the horizon... New architecture not only needs sculpture, it becomes sculpture itself.” The Fifth Façade is the essence of the Sydney Opera House idea. Perhaps due to school failures, Denmark never truly became a home for Utzon. In the late 40s, the Utzons visited Greece and Morocco, drove around the United States in an old car, and visited Frank Lloyd Wright, Saarinen and Mies van der Rohe, who honored the young architect with a “minimalist” interview. Apparently, in communicating with people, he professed the same principles of strict functionality as in architecture: turning away from his guest, Van der Rohe dictated short answers to questions to the secretary, who repeated them loudly. Then the family went to Mexico to look at the Aztec temples in Oaxaca's Monte Alban and Yucatan's Chichen Itza. These stunning ruins sit on massive platforms reached by wide staircases, seeming to float above a sea of ​​jungle that stretches to the horizon. Utzon was looking for architectural masterpieces, equally attractive from the inside and outside and at the same time not being the product of any one culture (he sought to create an architecture that would absorb elements different cultures). It’s hard to imagine a more striking antithesis to the British austerity of the Harbor Bridge than Utzon’s Sydney Opera House, and a better emblem for a growing city that aspires to a new synthesis of cultures could not be found. In any case, none of the other participants in the 1957 competition came close to the laureate.

The entire Sydney elite was fascinated by the winning project, and even more so by its author, who first visited the city in July 1957. (Utzon extracted all the necessary information about the construction site from nautical charts.) “Our Gary Cooper!” - one Sydney lady involuntarily burst out when she saw a tall, blue-eyed blond man and heard his exotic Scandinavian accent, which contrasted favorably with the rough local pronunciation. Although the project presented was actually a sketch, a certain Sydney firm estimated the cost of the work at three and a half million pounds. “It doesn’t get any cheaper!” cackled the Sydney Morning Herald. Utzon volunteered to start collecting funds by selling kisses for a hundred pounds apiece, but this playful offer had to be abandoned, and the money was raised in a more conventional way - through a lottery, thanks to which the building funds increased by a hundred thousand pounds in two weeks. Utzon returned to Denmark, put together a project team there, and things took off. “We were like a jazz orchestra - everyone knew exactly what was required of them,” recalls one of Utzon’s associates, Jon Lundberg, in the wonderful documentary The Edge of Possibility. “We spent seven absolutely happy years together.”

The jury chose Utzon's design, believing that his sketches could be used to “build one of the greatest buildings in the world,” but at the same time, the experts noted that his drawings were “too simple and more like sketches.” Here there is an implicit hint of difficulties that have not been overcome to this day. The two side-by-side buildings are accessed by a huge, dramatic staircase, which together creates an unforgettable overall silhouette. However, there was virtually no room left for traditional side scenes. In addition, for opera productions, a hall with a short reverberation time (about 1.2 seconds) was necessary so that the singers' words did not merge, and for a large orchestra this time should be approximately two seconds, provided that the sound was partially reflected from the side walls. Utzon proposed raising the scenery from the pits behind the stage (this idea could be achieved thanks to the presence of a massive podium), and the shell roofs should be shaped in such a way that all acoustic requirements were satisfied. Love of music, technical ingenuity and vast experience in building opera houses make Germany a world leader in the field of acoustics, and Utzon was very wise to invite Walter Unruh from Berlin as an expert in this field.

The New South Wales government invited Ove Arup's design firm to collaborate with Utzon. The two Danes got along well - perhaps too well, because by the second of March 1959, when Joe Cahill laid the first stone of the new building, the main engineering problems had not yet been solved. Less than a year later, Cahill died. “He adored Utzon for his talent and integrity, and Utzon admired his calculating patron because at heart he was a real dreamer,” writes Fromono. Shortly thereafter, Ove Arup stated that 3,000 hours of work and 1,500 hours of machine time (computers were just beginning to be used in architecture) did not help to find a technical solution to implement Utzon's idea, which proposed building roofs in the form of huge free-form shells. “From a design point of view, its design is simply naive,” said the London designers.

Utzon himself saved future pride Sydney. At first, he intended to “make shells from reinforcing mesh, dust and cover with tiles” - something like the way his sculptor uncle made mannequins, but this technique was completely unsuitable for the huge roof of the theater. Utzon's design team and Arup's designers tried dozens of options for parabolas, ellipsoids and more exotic surfaces, but they all turned out to be unsuitable. One day in 1961, a deeply disappointed Utzon was dismantling yet another unusable model and folding up the “shells” to put them away for storage, when suddenly an original idea struck him (perhaps his dyslexia should be thanked for this). Similar in shape, the shells fit more or less well into one pile. What surface, Utzon asked himself, has constant curvature? Spherical. The sinks can be made from triangular sections of an imaginary concrete ball with a diameter of 492 feet, and these sections in turn can be assembled from smaller curved triangles, industrially manufactured and pre-tiled on site. The result is a multi-layer vault - a structure known for its strength and stability. So, the roof problem was solved.

Subsequently, this decision of Utzon became the reason for his dismissal. But the Dane’s genius cannot be denied. The tiles were laid mechanically, and the roofs turned out to be perfectly level (this would have been impossible to achieve manually). That is why the reflections of the sun reflected from the water play so beautifully on them. Since any cross-section of the vaults is part of a circle, the outlines of the roofs have the same shape, and the building looks very harmonious. If it had been possible to build the fanciful roofs according to Utzon's original sketch, the theater would have seemed like a lightweight toy compared to the mighty bridge nearby. Now the appearance of the building is created by the straight lines of the staircase and podium in combination with the circles of the roofs - a simple and strong design in which the influences of China, Mexico, Greece, Morocco, Denmark and God knows what else have merged, turning this whole vinaigrette from different styles into a single whole . The aesthetic principles used by Utzon offered an answer to the key question facing any modern architect: how to combine functionality and plastic grace and satisfy people's craving for beauty in our industrial age. Fromoneau notes that Utzon moved away from the “organic style” fashionable at the time, which, in the words of its discoverer Frank Lloyd Wright, prescribed “holding onto reality with both hands.” Unlike the American architect, Utzon wanted to understand what new means of expression an artist can find in our time, when machines have everywhere replaced humans.

Meanwhile, the new shape of the roofs created new difficulties. The taller ones no longer satisfied the acoustic requirements; separate sound-reflecting ceilings had to be designed. The holes of the “shells” facing the bay had to be closed with something; From an aesthetic point of view, this was a difficult task (since the walls should not look too bare and give the impression that they were supporting vaults) and, according to Utzon, could only be achieved with the help of plywood. By luck, an ardent supporter of this material, inventor and industrialist Ralph Symonds, was found in Sydney. When he grew tired of making furniture, he bought a disused abattoir on Homebush Bay, near the Olympic Stadium. There he made roofs for Sydney trains from single sheets of plywood measuring 45 by 8 feet, at that time the largest in the world. By coating plywood with a thin layer of bronze, lead and aluminum, Symonds created new materials in any desired shape, size and strength, with any desired weather resistance and acoustic properties. This is exactly what Utzon needed to complete the Opera House.

Constructing sound-reflecting ceilings from pieces of regular geometric shapes turned out to be more difficult than the roof vaults that Utzon liked to demonstrate by cutting orange peels into pieces. He studied for a long time and carefully the treatise “Ying Zao Fa Shi” on prefabricated consoles supporting roofs Chinese temples. However, the principle of repetition that underlies the new architectural style, required the use of industrial technology with which it was possible to produce homogeneous elements. Ultimately, Utzon's design team settled on the following idea: if you rolled an imaginary drum about six hundred feet in diameter down an inclined plane, it would leave a trail of continuous grooves. Such troughs, which were supposed to be made at Symonds's factory from equally curved parts, would simultaneously reflect sound and draw the audience's eyes towards the proscenium arches of the Great and Small Halls. It turned out that the ceilings (as well as the concrete elements of the roofs) could be made in advance, and then transported wherever needed on barges - in much the same way that unfinished ship hulls were delivered to the Utzon Sr. shipyard. The largest trough, corresponding to the lowest notes of the organ, had to be 140 feet long.

Utzon wanted to paint the acoustic ceilings in very impressive colors: Great hall- scarlet and gold, in the Small - blue and silver (a combination borrowed from the coral fish of the Great Barrier Reef). After consulting with Symonds, he decided to close the mouths of the “shells” with giant glass walls with plywood mullions attached to the ribs of the vault and curved to match the shape of the vestibules located below. Light and durable, like the wing of a seabird, the entire structure, thanks to the play of light, was supposed to create a feeling of mystery, the unpredictability of what lies inside. Passionate about invention, Utzon, together with Symonds' engineers, designed toilets, railings, doors - all from a magical new material.

Experience of collaboration between an architect and an industrialist using Hi-tech, was unfamiliar to Australians. Although, in fact, this is just a modernized version of the old European tradition- collaboration between medieval architects and skilled masons. In the era of universal religiosity, serving God required complete dedication from a person. Time and money didn't matter. One modern masterpiece is still being built according to these principles: the Expiatory Church of the Holy Family (Sagrada Familia) by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi was founded in 1882, Gaudi himself died in 1926, and construction is still not completed and is only moving forward. How Barcelona enthusiasts are raising the necessary funds. For some time it seemed that the old days had returned, only now people served not God, but art: ardent admirers of Utzon bought lottery tickets, donating fifty thousand pounds weekly, and thus relieving taxpayers of financial burden. Meanwhile, clouds were gathering over the architect and his creation.

The first estimate of the project's cost of three and a half million pounds was made "by eye" by a reporter who was in a hurry to submit an article for typesetting. It turned out that even the cost of the first contract - for the construction of the foundation and podium - estimated at 2.75 million pounds, is much lower than the real one. Joe Cahill's haste to start the building before all the engineering problems had been solved was politically justifiable - Labor was losing popularity - but it forced the designers to make random decisions about the load that the as yet undesigned vaults would place on the podium. When Utzon decided to make the roofs spherical, he had to blow up the existing foundation and lay a new, more durable one. In January 1963, a contract for the construction of roofs was awarded at a cost of 6.25 million pounds - another example of unjustified optimism. Three months later, when Utzon moved to Sydney, the allowable spending limit was raised to 12.5 million.

Rising costs and the slow pace of construction were not lost on those who met in Sydney's oldest public building, Parliament House, which was called the "drinking shop" because the prisoners and convicts who built it worked only for drinks. Since then, corruption in Welsh political circles has remained the talk of the town. On the very first day when the winner of the competition was announced, and even earlier, a wave of criticism arose. Rural residents, traditionally opposed to Sydneysiders, did not like the fact that most of the money ended up in the capital, even if it was raised through the lottery. Competing contractors were jealous of Symonds and other entrepreneurs whom Utzon favored. It is known that the great Frank Lloyd Wright (he was already approaching ninety) reacted to his project this way: “A whim, and nothing more!”, And the first architect of Australia, Harry Seidler, who failed in the competition, on the contrary, was delighted and sent Utzon a telegram : “Pure poetry. Fabulous!" However, few of the 119 aggrieved Australians whose applications were rejected were as generous as Zeidler.

In 1965, drought struck inland New South Wales. Promising to "get to the bottom of this Opera House imbroglio", the parliamentary opposition said the remainder of the lottery money would be used to build schools, roads and hospitals. In May 1965, after twenty-four years in power, Labor was defeated in the elections. New Prime Minister Robert Askin rejoiced: “The whole pie is now ours, guys!” - bearing in mind that now nothing prevents you from making good money from the income from brothels, casinos and illegal betting, controlled by the Sydney police. Utzon was forced to resign as head of construction and leave Sydney forever. The next seven years and huge sums money was spent to deface his masterpiece.

Recounting further events with bitterness, Philip Drew, the author of a book about Utzon, reports that immediately after the elections, Askin lost all interest in the Opera House and barely mentioned it until his death in 1981 (we note, by the way, that he died multimillionaire). According to Drew, the role of the main villain in this story belongs to the Minister of Public Works, Davis Hughes, the former school teacher from provincial Orange, who, like Utzon, is still alive. Referring to documents, Drew accuses him of plotting to remove Utzon even before the elections. Called to the carpet by Hughes, fully confident that the Minister of Public Works would talk about sewers, dams and bridges, Utzon did not sense any danger. Moreover, he was flattered to see that the new minister's office was hung with sketches and photographs of his creation. "I decided that Hughes doted on my Opera House," he recalled years later. In a sense, this was true. Hughes personally took charge of the investigation into the "Opera scandal" promised during the election campaign, and did not overlook a single detail. Looking for a way to bring down Utzon, he turned to government architect Bill Wood. He advised to suspend monthly cash payments, without which Utzon could not continue working. Hughes then demanded detailed drawings of the building be submitted to him for approval in order to hold an open competition for contractors. This mechanism, invented in the 19th century to prevent bribery of government officials, was suitable for laying sewer pipes and building roads, but was completely inapplicable in this case.

The inevitable conclusion came at the beginning of 1966, when £51,626 had to be paid to the designers of the equipment intended for opera productions in the Great Hall. Hughes once again suspended the release of money. In a state of extreme irritation (exacerbated, according to Drew, by the dire financial situation of Utzon himself, who was forced to pay taxes on his earnings to both the Australian and Danish governments), the architect tried to influence Hughes with a veiled threat. Having refused the salary due to him, on February 28, 1966, Utzon informed the minister: “You forced me to leave my post.” As Bill Wheatland, a member of the then design team, followed the architect out of Hughes's office, he turned and saw "the minister leaning over the table, hiding a satisfied grin." That same evening, Hughes called an emergency meeting and announced that Utzon had “resigned” from his position, but that it would not be difficult to complete the Opera House without him. However, there was one obvious problem: Utzon won the competition and became world famous, at least among architects. Hughes had found a replacement for him in advance and appointed in his place thirty-four-year-old Peter Hall from the Ministry of Public Works, who had built several university buildings with public funds. Hall had a long-standing friendly relationship with Utzon and he hoped to enlist his support, but, to his surprise, he was refused. Sydney architecture students, led by an indignant Harry Seidler, picketed the unfinished building with slogans like “Bring Utzon Back!” Most of Government architects, including Peter Hall, presented Hughes with a petition stating that "both technically and ethically, Utzon is the only person capable of completing the Opera House." Hughes did not flinch, and Hall's appointment went through.

Poorly versed in music and acoustics, Hall and his retinue - now entirely Australian - set off on another tour of opera houses. In New York, expert Ben Schlanger expressed the opinion that Sydney Theater It is generally impossible to stage an opera - except perhaps in an abbreviated form and only in the Small Hall. Drew proves him wrong: there are plenty of dual-purpose venues with good acoustics, including one in Tokyo designed by the brilliant Dane's former assistant, Yuzo Mikami. Stage equipment arriving from Europe to last days Utzon's tenure in office was sold for scrap at fifty pence a pound, and a recording studio was set up in a remote space under the stage. The changes made by Hall and his team cost 4.7 million. The result was an inexpressive, outdated interior - which is what we see now. Hall's innovations did not affect the external appearance of the Opera, on which its world fame, with one (unfortunately too noticeable) exception. He replaced the gull-winged plywood mullions for the glass walls with painted steel windows in the style of the '60s. But he was unable to cope with the geometry: windows disfigured by strange convexities are a harbinger of complete collapse inside the premises. By October 20, 1973, the day grand opening Operated by Queen Elizabeth, construction costs amounted to 102 million Australian dollars (51 million pounds at the then exchange rate). 75 percent of this amount was spent after Utzon left. Architecture professor and Sydney cartoonist George Molnar wrote a scathing caption under one of his drawings: “Mr Hughes is right. We must control costs, no matter the cost." “If Mr. Utzon had stayed, we would have lost nothing,” the Sydney Morning Herald added sadly, seven years too late. Peter Hall was confident that his work on redesigning the Opera House would glorify his name, but he never received another significant order. He died in Sydney in 1989, forgotten by everyone. Sensing that Labor was again gaining strength, Hughes, even before the opening of the Opera, exchanged his post for a sinecure as the representative of New South Wales in London and doomed himself to further obscurity. If he is remembered at all in Sydney, it is only as a vandal who disfigured the pride of the metropolis. Hughes still maintains that without him the Opera House would never have been completed. The bronze plaque, displayed at the entrance since 1973, speaks volumes of his ambition: after the names of the crowned heads, it bears the name of the Minister of Public Works, the Honorable Davis Hughes, followed by the names of Peter Hall and his assistants. Utzon's name is not on this list; he was not even mentioned in Elizabeth's solemn speech - a shameful impoliteness, for in the days of the Dane's glory the monarch received him on board her yacht in Sydney Harbor.

Still hoping for a second invitation to Sydney, Utzon did not stop thinking about his plan in Denmark. He twice made an offer to continue working, but both times received an icy refusal from the minister. On a dark night In 1968, the desperate Utzon arranged for his theater ritual funeral: burned the last models and drawings on the shore of a deserted fiord in Jutland. In Denmark they were well aware of his troubles, so there was no need to expect decent orders from his fellow countrymen. Utzon resorted to a common way among architects to wait out the dark times - he began to build a house for himself in Mallorca. In 1972, on the recommendation of Leslie Martin, one of the Sydney competition judges, Utzon and his son Jan were commissioned to design the National Assembly in Kuwait. This Assembly, built on the shores of the Persian Gulf, is reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House: it also has two halls, located side by side, and in the middle is a canopy-like roof, under which, according to Utzon, Kuwaiti legislators could relax in the coolness of the whispering air conditioners. Although some have accused Utzon of never finishing what he starts, the building was completed in 1982 but was almost entirely destroyed during the 1991 Iraqi invasion. The newly rebuilt Assembly no longer sports Scandinavian crystal candelabra and gilt over Utzon's austere teak interior, and its covered courtyard has been converted into a parking lot. In Denmark, Utzon designed a church, a furniture store, a telephone booth, a garage with a defiant reprise of the glass walls of the Opera - that's probably all. The much-publicized theater project in Zurich never came to fruition, but this is not Utzon's fault. His architecture, using standardized building blocks, which are then laid according to a sculptural principle, did not find many followers: it is good from an aesthetic, not a commercial point of view, and has nothing in common with towers that are primitive in design and camouflaged “as classicism”, such as appeared in abundance in the era of postmodernism.

Of all the attractions in Australia, the Sydney Opera House attracts greatest number tourists. Even before the Olympics, it became one of the most famous buildings in the world. Sydneysiders would be happy to get rid of the pompous tinsel of the 60s and complete the Opera the way Utzon wanted - today money is not a problem for them. But the train left. The Mallorcan recluse is no longer the young dreamer who won the competition. Utzon's reluctance to see his mutilated creation is understandable. True, last year he did agree to sign a vague document on the basis of which it is planned to develop a project for restoring the Opera worth 35 million pounds. According to this document, the main architect of the construction will be Utzon's son, Jan. But great masterpiece you can’t create from someone else’s words, even if these are the words of Utzon himself. His Opera House with a gigantic stage and stunningly beautiful interior forever remained just a wonderful idea that was not destined to come true.

Perhaps this could not have been avoided. Like all great artists, Utzon strives for perfection, believing that this is exactly what both the client and the customer demand from him. own conscience. But architecture rarely becomes art; it is rather akin to a business that strives to satisfy conflicting demands, and even at the lowest cost. And we should be grateful to fate that a rare union of an atheist visionary and a naive provincial town gave us a building whose appearance almost perfect. “You will never tire of it, you will never tire of it,” Utzon predicted in 1965. He was right: it would never really happen.

Notes:
*Cenotaph is an obelisk in London erected in memory of those killed during the First World War. - Approx. translation
*In New York at that time, according to his design, the Trans World Airlines terminal building was being built, a kind of modest Opera House.
*Strait between Denmark and Sweden. - Approx. translation
*Thus, Utzon’s name replenished long list geniuses who suffered from dyslexia, including Albert Einstein. *Invention by Elisha Otis of Yonkers, USA (1853).
*Another name for the Pompidou Center in Paris. - Approx. ed.
*Currently, Utzon still lives outside of the country, in Mallorca, where he leads a secluded and secluded lifestyle.
*Cahill was in a hurry with construction, spurred by deteriorating health and criticism from the parliamentary opposition.

There are quite conflicting opinions about Australia's most famous building, the Sydney Opera House. Some consider it a magnificent monument to a frozen melody. Others are confused by the amazing shape of the roof of this structure: for some it resembles huge shells, for others it resembles the sails of a Galleon blown by the wind, others associate them with the ears of angels listening to the singing, and there is also an opinion that the Sydney theater is very similar to a washed-up white whale.

In short, there are so many people, so many opinions, but no one doubts the fact that the Sydney Opera House is a man-made symbol of Australia.

This amazing building is located in Sydney, the very big city Australia, in the Bennelong Point harbor (on the map it can be found at the following coordinates: 33° 51′ 24.51″ S, 151° 12′ 54.95″ E).

The Sydney Opera House gained worldwide fame primarily due to its roof, made in the shape of sails (shells) located one behind the other. different sizes, which make it unlike any other theater in the whole world. The facade of the opera turned out to be so interesting, unusual, and therefore recognizable that it is considered one of the most outstanding buildings of modern architecture, which has been included in the list for several years now world heritage UNESCO.

The creator of this unique building, Jorn Watson, is the only person in the world whose work was recognized by this organization during his lifetime (he died a year after this event, in 2008).

Description

The Opera House in Australia is primarily unusual in that, unlike other buildings of this type, made in the classical style, it is a striking example of expressionism, demonstrating A New Look on architecture. The Sydney Opera House is surrounded by water on three sides and is built on stilts.

The area of ​​the theater is huge and amounts to 22 thousand m2: its length is 185 m, width is 120 m, and the building itself contains a huge number of rooms, including several theater halls, many small studios and theater platforms, as well as restaurants, bars and shops where anyone can buy a souvenir of visiting the theater.

The main premises are four halls:

• The concert hall is the largest room of the theater, capable of accommodating 2,679 spectators. It is here that the largest organ in the world is installed: it consists of 10 thousand pipes;
• Opera House - this hall seats 1,507 spectators, and on its stage you can see not only opera, but also ballet;
• Drama Theater – designed for 544 people;
• The Small Dramatic Stage seats 398 people and is considered the most comfortable room in the opera.

Sail roof

The most remarkable part of the building, thanks to which the Sydney Opera House has become one of the most interesting theaters in the world, is its roof, made in the form of shells or sails located one behind the other. The roof, whose height is 67 m and diameter is 150 m, consists of more than 2 thousand sections and weighs about 30 tons.

The structure is secured using metal cables, the total length of which is 350 km. The two main sinks are located above the opera's two largest rooms. Other sails are located above the smaller rooms, and below the smallest one is one of the restaurants.

The top of the sinks is mechanically covered with white polished and cream matte tiles, resulting in a completely smooth surface - an effect that would hardly be achieved by laying it by hand. Interesting fact: despite the fact that from a distance it may seem as if the roof is painted White color, depending on the lighting, it constantly changes its shade.

This roof structure looks very beautiful and original, but during construction, due to the uneven height of the roof, problems with acoustics arose inside the building, and in order to solve the problem, a sound-reflecting ceiling had to be made separately. For this purpose, special gutters were made that can perform both practical and aesthetic functions: reflecting sound and drawing attention to the arches located above the front of the stage (the largest gutter is about 42 meters long).

Author of the idea

Interesting fact: building an opera house in Sydney was the idea of ​​the British Sir Eugene Goossens, who arrived in Australia as a conductor to record a concert on the radio. One can only imagine his surprise when he discovered that there was no opera house in Sydney.

The city also lacked structures designed for large audience, where Sydneysiders could come and listen to music.

Therefore, he made the decision to do everything to build a theater in which spectators would have the opportunity to get acquainted with both classical and latest musical works. He immediately began searching for a suitable place for construction - it turned out to be the rocky cape of Bennelong Point, near which there was an embankment, which was a key node, since local residents They transferred from ferries to trains or buses.

Having found a suitable location (there was a tram depot here at that time, which was later demolished), Goossens carried out a corresponding campaign and, infecting many influential people in Sydney with his idea, ensured that the government allowed the construction of the Opera House. The authorities immediately announced an international competition for the best project. And then things stalled: Goossens made enemies. After one of his international trips, customs officers discovered the “Black Mass” items, he was fined, fired from his job - and he was forced to leave Australia, despite all assurances that the things did not belong to him.

Contest

More than two hundred works from all over the world were sent to the competition. Another important point was that Goossens not only managed to select a qualified commission, but also gave a description of the competition project.

The project was to include two halls - one for larger productions, the second for small productions. The building had to have rooms where rehearsals could be held, props could be stored, and there would also be space for restaurants.

The task was complicated by the fact that the area on which it was planned to build the structure had rather limited dimensions, since it was surrounded on three sides by water. Therefore, most of the projects were rejected for one simple reason: they looked too bulky, and the facade of the building was depressing.

And only one work attracted the attention of the jury members, forcing them to return to the project over and over again: in the sketch, the theaters were placed close to each other, the problem of bulkiness was eliminated thanks to the emphasis on the white roof in the form of sails, and the author suggested storing the scenery and theatrical props in special recesses, thus solving the problem of the wings.

The author of the work was the Dane Jorn Watson (similar original projects this architect had a lot, but this one was one of the few that was realized). Despite the fact that the project he presented was a sketch, the cost of the work was estimated at 7 million Australian dollars. Dollars, which was an acceptable price. Money for the start of construction was raised through a lottery.

Construction works

While the project was approved, it was obvious that there was still a lot of work to be done on it (some issues have not been resolved to this day). The main problem was how to make a non-standard shaped roof, especially since there was no such experience in the world at the moment.

Watson solved this problem by giving each sink the shape of a triangle, assembling it from smaller curved triangles, covered with tiles mechanically during manufacture. After this, the sails were installed on concrete ribs (frame ribs), located in a circle - this made it possible for the roof to get a finished and harmonious look.

This form gave rise to problems with the acoustics of the hall, which, although the architect was later able to solve, entailed considerable financial expenses (for example, since the new vault turned out to be much heavier than the previous one, it was necessary to blow up the already made foundation and begin to build a stronger and more durable one).

Instead of the estimated 7 million Australian. dollars construction cost 102 million. Construction was going very well at a slow pace, which could not help but attract the attention of local deputies and opponents of the architect.

And after the Labor party, which supported construction, lost the support of the population and the opposition came to power, the money raised from the lottery was first frozen (fortunately, there was an excuse), and then completely used for the construction of roads and hospitals, forcing Watson in 1966 quit your job and leave Sydney forever.

After this, Hall was appointed chief architect, who, although he managed to complete the construction in 1973, according to many experts, the work he carried out significantly spoiled the appearance of the building, and the interior turned out to be unremarkable (an interesting fact: during the preparation of the Olympics in Australia in 2000, The Australians invited Watson to return and finish work on the opera, agreeing to do whatever he said, but he refused).

This is how it turned out that the Sydney Opera House, which is one of the most magnificent buildings of our time, which is mentioned along with the Taj Mahal and other wonders of the world, although it looks magnificent on the outside, is no different inside. True, this did not prevent the building from taking part in the competition for the title of one of the seven wonders of the world and, although it did not become a winner, it was among the main contenders.

Sydney Opera House - Outstanding architectural structure XX century It was nominated for the title of a new wonder of the world, and was among the finalists. Listed by UNESCO, this building is a popular tourist attraction in Australia.

The Sydney Opera House is located in the local harbor, on Cape Bennelong point. The building was built on 580 concrete piles driven into the bottom. Its length is 183 m, width - 118, and occupied area - more than 21.5 thousand m2. The maximum height of the building is 67 m.

Interesting Facts about the Sydney Opera House relate not only to the history of construction and architectural implementation (we will discuss them below). No other theater has a work about him in its repertoire. The opera “The Eighth Miracle” is the only precedent.

History of the Sydney Opera House

Sydney until the middle of the 20th century. did not have an opera house at all. The guest conductor of the local symphony orchestra, Eugene Goosens, considered this situation unacceptable. The Sydney authorities agreed with him, but did not have the funds for construction. In 1954, they launched a fundraiser that lasted two decades. During this period, approximately AUD 10,000,000 was collected. The initially declared cost of the construction of 7,000,000 AUD ultimately turned out to be 10,200,000 AUD actually spent.

According to the terms of the announced competition, the limited territory of Cape Bennelong was designated as the site for the construction of the theater. The main hall with 3 thousand seats of the designed building was reserved for opera and ballet. A small hall for 1200 spectators was planned for chamber theater and musical productions. Among 233 competitors, the young Danish architect Jorn Utson won. According to his design, the building externally resembled a multi-sail ship on the surface of the water surrounding the cape.

The work, which began in 1959, lasted 14 years instead of the planned four, extending the construction date until 1973. The delay had both objective and subjective reasons. The first includes the authorities' requirement to add two additional halls. And the sail-shaped roof shells originally designed by Jörn Utson had acoustic disadvantages. It took the architect several years to find an alternative technical solution. The new vault turned out to be too heavy for the foundation made, and a new one had to be made.

Additional expenses and delays in construction strained Utson's relations with local authorities, and he left Sydney. In 1966, local architects continued construction. According to many experts, this had a negative impact on the interior of the building. The inside of the theater is significantly inferior to the stunning façade.

The new Sydney building actually opened on 28 September 1973 with Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace. The official ceremony took place on October 20 with the participation of the British monarch Elizabeth II, who is the formal head of Australia.

The architect of the Sydney Opera House was not present at the opening, and was not even mentioned. His name is not on the authors’ bronze plaque at the entrance either. True, in the same year the local Institute of Architects awarded Jorn Utson a gold medal. And in 2003 he received the Pritzker Prize for his project - highest award architects.

In 1999, Jörn Utson nevertheless designed the reconstruction of the Reception Hall, which was later renamed in his honor. The work was led by Jorn's son, architect Jan Utson. And Jorn himself did not return to Sydney after 1966. He died in 2008 without ever seeing his famous creation in person. The floodlights illuminating the Sydney Opera House were turned off for an hour in memory of the great architect.

Sydney Opera House by its architect and architect

Opera houses are usually built in the classical style. In contrast, the Sydney Opera House is a striking example of the Expressionist architectural style. The unique roof is realized in the form of sails of different sizes. Surrounded on three sides by water, the building from a distance looks like a large multi-sail ship moored in Sydney Harbor. This is exactly how the architect saw the future theater. He said that he wanted to take viewers away from their usual routine into a world of fantasy where actors and musicians live.

The area allocated for construction was limited. The projects rejected by the competition jury had a common drawback - cumbersomeness. Jorn Utson solved this problem by shifting attention to the architectural dominant of the building - the roof. Its total diameter is 150 m. The roof frame consists of 2 thousand concrete sections and weighs 30 tons. The two largest sails crown both main halls, originally conceived. Under the smallest sail is the Bennelong restaurant. The entire structure is secured with metal cables with a total length of 350 km.

The uneven roof height initially caused acoustic problems. They were removed using a sound-reflecting ceiling with special gutters. The latter, in addition to their practical function, also served an aesthetic one, emphasizing the arches of the stage.

The top of the roof-sails is covered with white polished and creamy matte azulejo tiles (Portuguese tiles). It was specially made for the theater. Matte tiles predominate along the edges, while shiny ones in the center, which made it possible to create an iridescent effect. Over a million pieces of tile were required to cover a total area of ​​1.62 hectares. The mechanical laying method made it possible to achieve ideal evenness, unattainable with manual cladding.

Although the roof sails appear white from a distance, they change color depending on the lighting. As the architect said, the sun and clouds will make the roof come alive; you will never get tired of looking at it. He turned out to be right.

Sydney Opera House inside

The functional purpose of the main halls has undergone changes. The main hall, initially planned for opera and ballet performances, was decided to be repurposed as a concert hall. The opera hall itself became the second largest hall. Now the complex has 6 main halls.

• Concert Hall (Concert) for 2679 spectators. It houses one of the world's largest organs with 10 thousand pipes. The stage measures 17*11 m and can be expanded to include 85 front seats.
• Opera Theater (Opera) seats 1547 spectators. His tapestry curtain, called “Solar”, is the largest on the planet.
• Drama Theatre, with a capacity of 544 spectators, is used for theater and dance performances. His dark tapestry curtain is called “Moonlight”.
• Chamber events are held in the Playhouse hall with 398 seats. theatrical performances, lectures and film screenings. The hall's stage can be expanded in two stages, sacrificing 46 seats.
• The Studio hall, opened in 1999, can accommodate 364 lovers of avant-garde plays, modern music or corporate events.
• Jorn Utson's small hall is decorated with a wool tapestry in bright colors, woven according to his sketch.

The theater complex includes about a thousand different rooms. In addition to the halls, the building contains rehearsal rooms, theater platforms, a recording studio, shops, cafes, restaurants and numerous other facilities. It is not difficult for a person who does not know the layout of the theater to get lost in it.

There is an anecdotal case with a novice courier who delivered a parcel. He got confused in the premises and ended up on stage during the performance. Fortunately, one of the actors was not taken aback and said: “Finally, the package was delivered!” Viewers considered his remark part of the plot.

Another comical incident occurred during the performance of Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. Her decorations included real chickens. One of them flew from the stage onto the musician’s head. After this, a net was installed over the orchestra pit.

Theater tickets

The Sydney Opera House, Bennelong point, Sydney NSW 2000, hosts about three thousand events annually. cultural events, in which millions of viewers become participants. You can get acquainted with the repertoire and order tickets on the official website.

300 thousand tourists annually visit the theater as part of organized excursions. They take place from 9am to 5pm every day except Christmas Day and Good Friday and last about an hour.

The cost of a regular excursion is 35 AUD. Evening excursions combined with a performance, as well as dinner in a restaurant or cafe, are also practiced. For example, an excursion and Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” will be well complemented by dinner at the Mozart bistro.