The Sydney Opera House

One of the most famous buildings in the world and an icon of the City of Sydney is the Sydney Opera House. Yesterday I had the opportunity to take a tour of this great edifice. The hour tour began in the lobby and proceeded up the grand staircase to the front side of the structure. Actually it is a bit misleading to call it the Sydney Opera House. There are actually 5 venues in the complex. The opera hall and the concert hall are the largest of the structures, but as you can see from the picture, there are many arching roof lines that contain the five theaters or “theatres” as we say down here. We were able to view the largest on these, the concert hall. The one on the right in the picture above. These magnificent buildings were the first in the world to use precast concrete in such a manner. I incorrectly assumed that the super structure of the buildings was steel. It’s all concrete. The external is covered in mother of pearl colored ceramic tiles. The shape of the buildings in unique and is said to represent sails on the harbour, sea shells or mere geometric abstractions. It is an open question. The Danish architect, Jorn Utzon, when asked what it looked like to him is reported to have said: “Like the Sydney Opera House!” No matter. It is a powerful work of art. Inside the concert hall one enters a totally wooden structure – a building within a building. It is acoustically designed to resonate the same way whether filled with people or not. It holds 2000 people and I will be one of them on Saturday evening when I attend the Brahm’s German Requiem. It was an inspiring visit. I may go back for the “behind the scenes tour” later. The only thing about that is that it starts at 7:00am (so as to not interfere with rehearsals).