Touring the Sydney Opera House

In my rainy last week in Sydney, I was getting stir crazy and needed to explore, even if it meant getting wet. I bundled up as best I could and went to Circular Quay to explore a building I had seen nearly every day for the past six months: the Sydney Opera House. Having grown up going to plays at the Fox Theatre, taking classes at Theatre in the Square and performing in my high school drama productions, I feel at home in theaters.

The history is fascinating, especially considering it was almost never built. The Cliffs Notes version of the story is that a competition was held to come up with the design and the one that ended up being chosen had originally been thrown out for being too extreme, but one of the judges voted to reconsider it.

It was not inspired by sails, as most people believe, but rather by pieces of an orange, a sphere cut into pieces. The project was originally estimated to take 3 years  and $7 million dollars, but actually took 16 years and  $102 million dollars.

Needless to say, things got a little tense between Danish designer Jorn Utzon and the Australian government. He was eventually fired from the project, not invited to the opening and never returned to Sydney to see the final product. However, his son did come to Sydney and has been collaborating with the Opera House people to return it to his father’s original designs.

The Opera House complex is actually made of separate wings with two major theaters and three smaller ones. Downstairs in the recently renovated area is the drama theater, the studio and The Playhouse, a combination of a black box theater and a recording facility. They house more modern productions like the ones for the Vivid Sydney festival.

The Opera Theater was designed for every seat to be the “best one in the house,” and no microphones are needed because of the perfected acoustics. It is used year-round in a rotating schedule for opera and ballet, with eight performances per week. It became the first theater in the world to have screens displaying subtitles for operas.

I didn’t get to see the Concert Hall next door because they were getting it ready for that night’s GQ Man of the Year awards, but it has played host to comedian Tim Minchin (of Tim Minchin vs. the Sydney Symphony Orchestra) and upcoming acts include comedian Kathy Griffin and the love of my life, musician Ryan Adams.

You can’t take pictures in any of the theaters because each of the sets are copyrighted, but that forces you to pay attention to every detail of the elaborately built Opera House.

*Some of these pictures were obviously taken on different visits, but I needed some nice pictures of the Opera House, not the depressing rainy ones from the day of my visit.*

Planning Your Visit to the Sydney Opera House

• The Essential Tour is $35.00 for adults and $24.50 concession. It is available in German, French, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and of course, English.
• The Backstage Tour is $155.00 and takes you through backstage areas not accessible to the public, including dressing rooms, green rooms and on stage.