The Sydney Opera House is stunning – even 50 years after its inauguration, the iconic sail roofs never go out of style. The masterpiece put Australia on the world map in one fell swoop.
The Eiffel Tower and Paris, the sky-high Burj Khalifa and Dubai, the Empire State Building and New York – some cities and their architectural masterpieces are inseparable. It’s the same down under: Sydney’s Opera House is considered a landmark throughout Australia.
Its striking roofs, which are reminiscent of shells or sails billowing in the wind, have been an integral part of the harbor for 50 years. “Until then, Sydney was a colonial outpost, a small town at best, but from that moment on it has developed into an international metropolis,” said the well-known journalist Helen Pitt in the “Sydney Morning Herald” describing the significance of the building, which opened on October 20, 1973 was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth.
The view of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge against the backdrop of the deep blue sea is breathtaking. Depending on whether you come from the water, from Circular Quay or from the Royal Botanical Gardens, the opera on the Bennelong Point promontory always presents itself differently.
“I created a sculpture and you will never be finished with it – when you walk past it or look at it against the sky, something new is constantly happening,” its creator, the Danish architect Jørn Utzon (1918-2008), once said said. In interaction with the sun, the light and the clouds, his masterpiece forms “a living thing”.
A lottery win for Australia
The opera changed everything, “not just the silhouette of the city, but also the way we feel as Australians and how the world sees us,” Pitt summed up in her tribute. It was like winning the lottery for the entire country. The comparison is not flawed, as the immensely increasing construction costs were ultimately compensated for by a state lottery.
When it opened, the opera house was hailed as the eighth wonder of the world. When UNESCO declared it a world heritage site 34 years later, superlatives were still pouring in: “The Sydney Opera House is one of the undeniable masterpieces of human creativity, not just in the 20th century, but in the history of humanity.”
The construction work was anything but a symphony: it ultimately lasted 15 years and was overshadowed by unprecedented wrangling, scandals and the bitter departure of architect Utzon in the middle of the construction phase.
At the limit of what is possible
Sydney had celebrated the Dane as a “creative genius with infinite charm” when his design prevailed against 232 proposals in 1957. Utzon’s vision: a series of billowing and gleaming sails based on the geometry of a sphere, perfectly sized to fit the Harbor Bridge and the city’s glittering skyline.
However, the implementation almost exceeded the technical possibilities at the time. The approximately one million white ceramic tiles for the roofs, which are up to 67 meters high, the curved segments, the panes for the glazing – everything is extremely complicated.
The planned inauguration date of 1963 passed. The budget exploded. In 1966 there was still no end in sight. Politicians ultimately cut off Utzon’s money. He bitterly threw in the towel, left – and never came back. Until his death he never set foot in Sydney again and only knew his work from pictures.
In his place was the young architect Peter Hall, who was supposed to complete the project with the help of two partners and thousands of workers. “I’m completely overwhelmed, but I think I can finish the opera house,” he said with conviction. But now compromises were necessary – savings were made primarily on the interior and the acoustics.
This later became a logistical nightmare for theater directors: the sets and even the singers had to be brought onto the stage using lifting platforms. In the orchestra pit, a wall had to shield the wind instruments from the rest of the orchestra because otherwise it would be too loud for the other musicians. Gigantic sound breakers were installed above the orchestra so that the acoustics worked to some extent. In the end, the costs amounted to an impressive 102 million Australian dollars – instead of the planned 7 million. Nevertheless: the opera became a sensation.
Fascinating light projections
In addition to the opera stage, there is also a concert hall and several drama stages inside. Open-air events regularly take place on the 100-meter-wide staircase and in front of the building. Almost eleven million people marvel at the building every year. The fascinating light projections on the white sail roofs are world famous and are also intended to cause a sensation on birthdays.
The big anniversary has now been celebrated for a year: more than 230 performances with many Australian and international stars from classical to pop and R&B have marked the celebrations over the past twelve months. Numerous performances and world premieres are on the program until the end of October.
Utzon ultimately reconciled with those responsible and provided design sketches in 1999 as a guide for future modification work. In 2003 he received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest award in architecture, for his design. “It gives me great pleasure to know how much the building is loved,” he said before his death.
Helen Pitt put it best: “The opera is such an integral part of our city that it is difficult to remember a time without its huge, white-tiled sails.”