Sydney Opera House

About

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings, and a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and completed by an Australian architectural team headed by Peter Hall, the building was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973, 16 years after Utzon's 1957 selection as winner of an international design competition. The Government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to begin in 1958 with Utzon directing construction. The government's decision to build Utzon's design is often overshadowed by circumstances that followed, including cost and scheduling overruns as well as the architect's ultimate resignation. The building and its surrounds occupy the whole of Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour, between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove, adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Garden, and near to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The building comprises multiple performance venues, which together host over 1,800...

The facility features a modern expressionist design, with a series of large precast concrete "shells", each composed of sections of a sphere of 75.2 metres (246 ft 8.6 in) radius, forming the roofs of the structure, set on a monumental podium. The building covers 1.8 hectares (4.4 acres) of land and is 183 m (600 ft) long and 120 m (394 ft) wide at its widest point. It is supported on 588 concrete piers sunk as much as 25 m (82 ft) below sea level. The highest roof point is 67 metres above sea-level which is the same height as that of a 22-storey building. The roof is made of 2,194 pre-cast concrete sections, which weigh up to 15 tonnes each.

Although the roof structures are commonly referred to as "shells" (as in this article), they are precast concrete panels supported by precast concrete ribs, not shells in a strictly structural sense. Though the shells appear uniformly white from a distance, they actually feature a subtle chevron pattern composed of 1,056,006 tiles in two colours: glossy white and matte cream. The tiles were manufactured by the Swedish company Höganäs AB which generally produced stoneware tiles for the paper-mill industry.

Apart from the tile of the shells and the glass curtain walls of the foyer spaces, the building's exterior is largely clad with aggregate panels composed of pink granite quarried at Tarana. Significant interior surface treatments also include off-form concrete, Australian white birch plywood supplied from Wauchope in northern New South Wales, and brush box glulam.

The Sydney Opera House includes a number of performance venues:

- Concert Hall : With 2,679 seats, the home of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and used by a large number of other concert presenters. It contains the Sydney Opera House Grand Organ, the largest mechanical tracker action organ in the world, with over 10,000 pipes.

- Joan Sutherland Theatre : A proscenium theatre with 1,507 seats, the Sydney home of Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet. Until 17 October 2012 it was known as the Opera Theatre.

- Drama Theatre : A proscenium theatre with 544 seats, used by the Sydney Theatre Company and other dance and theatrical presenters.

- Studio : A flexible space with 280 permanent seats (some of which can be folded up) and a maximum capacity of 400, depending on configuration.

- Utzon Room : A small multi-purpose venue for parties, corporate functions and small productions (such as chamber music performances).

- Yallamundi Rooms: A function space hosting up to 400 people, often used for weddings or business conferences.

- Outdoor Forecourt : A flexible open-air venue with a wide range of configuration options, including the possibility of utilising the Monumental Steps as audience seating, used for a range of community events and major outdoor performances.

The Sydney Opera House includes a number of performance venues:

- Concert Hall : With 2,679 seats, the home of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and used by a large number of other concert presenters. It contains the Sydney Opera House Grand Organ, the largest mechanical tracker action organ in the world, with over 10,000 pipes.

- Joan Sutherland Theatre : A proscenium theatre with 1,507 seats, the Sydney home of Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet. Until 17 October 2012 it was known as the Opera Theatre.

- Drama Theatre : A proscenium theatre with 544 seats, used by the Sydney Theatre Company and other dance and theatrical presenters.

- Studio : A flexible space with 280 permanent seats (some of which can be folded up) and a maximum capacity of 400, depending on configuration.

- Utzon Room : A small multi-purpose venue for parties, corporate functions and small productions (such as chamber music performances).

- Yallamundi Rooms: A function space hosting up to 400 people, often used for weddings or business conferences.

- Outdoor Forecourt : A flexible open-air venue with a wide range of configuration options, including the possibility of utilising the Monumental Steps as audience seating, used for a range of community events and major outdoor performances.