The Sydney Opera House is an architectural masterpiece. Sydney Opera House in Australia

Sydney is rightfully considered the most beautiful city in Australia and one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Sydney is located in the hills above a magnificent bay that is filled with boats all year round. The calling card of Sydney is the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge, the grandeur of which has amazed tourists for many decades.








When we say “Australia” or “Sydney”, we immediately imagine the quaint building of the Sydney Opera House. Resembling a swan or a surreal ship trying to unfurl its sails, or gigantic shells, the Opera House is the main symbol of Sydney.


SYDNEY OPERA. 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.
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 of the last millennium.


Almost every person has heard about the Sydney Opera House. However, few of us know that in addition to this wonderful building, the port and the port bridge are also considered the symbol of the Australian city. The ensemble of three buildings in Sydney is the subject of “hunting” by photographers, because the view is simply amazing. It’s no secret that the architect’s idea of ​​creating such a roof for the opera was inspired by the sails in the harbor.


Let's delve a little into the history of the creation of the Sydney Opera House and perhaps we will understand why today this building has surpassed the port in its popularity - the previous unofficial symbol of the city. Back in 1954, a competition was announced, the winner of which could realize his idea. Then 233 highly qualified specialists from 32 countries immediately wanted to participate in the competition. The architect who received the right to realize his idea was the little-known Dane Jorg Utzon. He, like almost all the other contestants, only knew about the place where the opera would be located, but had never been there. The only help for him was photographs of the area. Uzton found inspiration, which has already been mentioned briefly, in the city port (he was very impressed by the luxurious white sails) and, to some extent, in the temple buildings of the ancient Mayan and Aztec peoples, which he visited in Mexico
The idea of ​​Jörg Uzton turned out to be so new, one might even say revolutionary, that the builders took on it, despite its great complexity. However, the complexity was only one of the rough edges on the way to the implementation of the project - it was soon discovered new problem. With a stated cost of $7 million and a implementation period of 10 years, the builders failed to meet either the deadlines or the cost. Over the course of 20 years, the project “ate up” more than $100 million, and more than once the city council had the issue of curtailing the expensive project on its agenda. It is worth recalling that at the beginning of the second half of the last century, money was much more expensive than it is today. But the government men of Sydney, with exceptional ingenuity, solved the problem of lack of funding - the Sydney Opera House was built... at the expense of the lottery.


Clouds constantly gathered around the project, it was showered with a stream of criticism, and in 1966 Uzton could not stand it. Technical, financial and bureaucratic failures forced him to step away from the leadership of the project. The main technical challenge, along with its aesthetic perfection, were the giant concrete sails. The architects called them among themselves “elliptical paraboloids,” and in fact it turned out that it was not possible to construct them in their original form, and accordingly the entire project had to be redone. It took many hours of work and complex technical calculations to rework the project, but in the end the opera was built. The version of the building that we see today was a triumph not only of Utzon’s project, but also the embodiment of the technical thought of the Australian architects who were involved in the implementation of his idea.


The work was completed in 1973, and solemn ceremony The opening of the Sydney Opera House took place on October 20 of the same year. An unusually large number of people attended famous people, but the main guest was Queen Elizabeth II of England. According to numerous reviews, it was the building of the Sydney Opera House that could not be surpassed to this day - it is considered the most beautiful building, built since the end of the Second World War. Photographers and connoisseurs of all things beautiful claim that it is best to admire this miracle of architecture and design from the stern of the ship, then the building turns into a kind of castle in the air or a white-winged swan ready to take off




The Sydney Opera House is a complex of almost 1000 rooms, home to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Opera, Australian Ballet, Sydney Theater Company, Sydney Dance Company,
as well as several other small halls, one of which is located in the open-air courtyard.




Those who are not completely impressed by the external appearance of the Sydney Opera House are completely unsettled by the interior decoration of the opera, the style of which has been called “space age gothic”. The theater curtain, woven in France, is the largest in the world. The area of ​​each half of this miracle curtain is 93 m2. The huge mechanical organ of the concert hall is also a record holder - it has 10,500 pipes. Under the opera vaults there are five halls for various performances, as well as a cinema and two restaurants. The opera hall can accommodate 1,550 spectators at once, and the concert hall - 2,700. The Sydney Opera House has become home to a symphony orchestra, a philharmonic choir and a city theater.






The sail-shaped shells that form the roof make this building unlike any other in the world. Now it is one of the most famous and easily recognizable buildings in the world, a symbol of Sydney and one of the main attractions of Australia. The Sydney Opera House is recognized as one of the outstanding buildings of modern architecture in the world.





The Sydney Opera House finds its absolute charm at night - when it is flooded with lantern lights.




The Sydney Opera House not only brought music to new heights, but also became a symbol of the entire country.


The port bridge and its design have always caused smiles among local residents. Designed by Australian engineer John Job Crewe Bradfield, the bridge was nicknamed the coat hanger. Officially, this functional steel structure bears his name - Bradfield Highway. The gray color of the bridge is explained by the cheapness of the paint, which was used during the crisis years of the bridge's creation - from 1923 to 1932. The total length of the bridge is 1150 meters, and the length of the spans between the arched trusses is 503 meters. Maximum height bridge - 135 meters relative to the water level. Tourists walking across this bridge will be able to enjoy superb views of the bustling port and the whole of Sydney.






It's hard to imagine Sydney without the Opera!

The Sydney Opera House is an outstanding architectural structure of the 20th 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, the highest award for 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 classic style. In contrast, the Sydney Opera House is a shining example architectural style expressionism. 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, originally planned for opera and ballet performances, it was decided to repurpose it as a concert venue. 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”.
• The Playhouse, which seats 398, hosts intimate theater 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 approximately three thousand cultural events, which attract millions of spectators. 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, a tour and Mozart's opera " magical flute", will complement dinner at the Mozart bistro well.

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 of the 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 sullen grey colour, he, like a Calvinist conscience, looms over the city, which was conceived as King George's Gulag and still cannot free itself from the strong 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 found that local residents had an "unusually keen interest" in musical art, but there was practically nowhere to satisfy it except the 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, this 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 no public funds would be required. An international competition was announced for the building design. IN next year With great difficulty, Cahill's cabinet 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, 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 spoke of the Opera House in the 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 ballet; 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? 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 the projects of all other participants of the competition). 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 Danish man of thirty-eight years old, living with his family in a romantic corner near Hamlet's Elsinore, in a house built according to own project(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 say to Sydney artist Emerson Curtis: “There's not a single right angle there, mate! 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 , the light lines of modern Scandinavia. Sydney was lucky that Utzon's talent was shaped during the Second World War, when commercial construction almost came to a halt. As in all modern cities, the center of Sydney turned into a business district where thousands of people gathered. Thanks to the appearance of the elevator, the same piece of land could be leased simultaneously to sixty, or even a hundred, in a word, God knows how many tenants, and cities began to grow upwards. Sometimes in modern megacities one comes across original structures that can amaze the imagination (for example, the Parisian Beaubourg), but basically their appearance is determined by the same type of skyscrapers with a steel frame and panel walls from the building catalog. For the first time in the history of mankind, the most beautiful cities in the world are becoming similar to each other 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. In Utzon's work there were already visible compositional elements Sydney Opera House. “Poetic and inspired,” he said about this project English architect Maxwell Fry - 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 in equally facing the sky and the horizon... The new architecture does not just need sculpture, it becomes sculpture itself.” The Fifth Façade is the essence of the Sydney Opera House idea. Perhaps because of school failures, Denmark never became a truly home for Utzon. In the late 1940s, the Utzons traveled to Greece and Morocco, toured the United States in an old car, visited Frank Lloyd Wright, Saarinen and Mies van der Rohe, who gave the young architect 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 brief answers to questions to the secretary, who repeated them loudly. Then the family went to Mexico - to look at the Aztec temples in Oaxaca Monte Alban and Yucatan Chichen Itza. Set on massive platforms and accessed by sweeping stairs, these stunning ruins seem to float above a sea of ​​jungle stretching to the horizon. Utzon was looking for architectural masterpieces that are equally attractive from the inside and outside and at the same time are not the product of any one culture (he sought to create architecture that would absorb elements of different cultures). A more striking contrast to the British austere Harbor Bridge than Utzon's Sydney Opera House is hard to imagine, and best logo for a growing city aspiring to a new synthesis of cultures, it was impossible to find. In any case, none of the other participants in the 1957 competition even 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!” - involuntarily escaped from one Sydney lady when she saw a tall, blue-eyed blond and heard his exotic Scandinavian accent, which compares favorably with the rough local pronunciation. Although the presented project 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 a fundraiser selling kisses for a hundred pounds apiece, but this playful offer had to be refused, and the money was raised in a more familiar way - through a lottery, thanks to which construction funds rose 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 him,” recalls one of Utzon's associates Jon Lundberg in the wonderful documentary film “The Edge of the Possible”. “We spent seven absolutely happy years together.”

The jury chose Utzon's design, believing that his sketches could "build one of the greatest buildings in the world", but at the same time, 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. A huge spectacular staircase leads to two buildings located side by side, and together they create 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 needed so that the words of the singers did not merge, and for a large orchestra this time should be about two seconds, provided that the sound is partially reflected from the side walls. Utzon proposed to raise the scenery from the pits behind the stage (this idea could be realized thanks to the presence of a massive podium), and the shell roofs should be shaped to satisfy all acoustic requirements. The 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 Unra from Berlin as an expert in this field.

The government of New South Wales has attracted the design firm of Ove Arup to cooperate 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 bowed to his prudent patron because he was a real dreamer in his soul,” 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 the future pride of 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 putting away the “shells” to send them for storage, when suddenly it dawned on him original idea(perhaps he has dyslexia to thank for that). 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 look of the building is created by the straight lines of the stairs and the podium, combined with the circles of the roofs - a simple and strong pattern 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 that confronts any modern architect: how to combine functionality and plastic elegance and satisfy people's desire for beauty in our industrial age. Fromono notes that Utzon moved away from the "organic style" fashionable at that time, which, according to its discoverer Frank Lloyd Wright, prescribed "holding on to 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 replaced humans everywhere.

Meanwhile new form roofs gave rise to 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 weather resistance and any desired 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 the roofs of Chinese temples. However, the principle of repetition underlying 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: scarlet and gold in the Great Hall, blue and silver in the Small Hall (a combination he 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.

The experience of an architect and an industrialist working together using cutting-edge technology 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 sat in the oldest public building Sydney - Parliament House, which was called the “drunken shop” because the prisoners and exiles 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 of money were spent disfiguring 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, a 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 acquired world fame, 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 connection with Utzon friendly relations 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 the government architects, including Peter Hall, submitted a petition to Hughes stating that "from both a technical and an ethical point of view, 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 it is impossible to stage an opera at all in the Sydney Theater - except 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. The stage equipment that arrived from Europe during Utzon's last days 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 of the Opera's grand opening by Queen Elizabeth, construction costs totaled A$102 million (£51 million at the time). 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, a desperate Utzon gave his theater a ritual funeral: he 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 the most tourists. Even before the Olympics, she 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 same young dreamer that 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. As everybody great artists, Utzon strives for perfection, believing that this is exactly what both the customer and his own conscience demand of him. 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 the rare union of an atheist visionary and a naive provincial town gave us a building whose appearance is almost ideal. “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 joined the long list of geniuses who suffered from dyslexia, which included 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.

– Sydney Opera House, and even if you haven’t heard of it, you will certainly easily recognize the photo of this unusual sail-shaped structure.

Our story will introduce you closer to this unique building, you will find out why it has gained such popularity among tourists, and you will be able to decide whether it deserves your attention or not.

The history of the Sydney Opera House

The history of the construction of the world famous landmark began in the distant past. 1954 year when the British conductor Sir J. Goossens Having come to work for work, I discovered that there was not only an opera house, but also any other sufficiently spacious room where people could listen to music.
He got excited about the idea of ​​construction and soon found a suitable place - Bennelong Point, where at that time there was a tram depot.
J. Goossens did a lot of work, and so, on May 17, 1955, the Australian government announced a competition to develop a project for a new opera house. Architects from all over the world sent in their projects, but in the end the Dane won J. Watson.
Large-scale construction began, which dragged on for 14 years and instead of the initially calculated 7 million Australian dollars, it required 102 million.
In 1973, the official opening of the Sydney Opera House took place, soon after which the building became the main architectural symbol not only of Australia, but also of Australia as a whole.

Key attractions – what to see at the Sydney Opera House?

Without a doubt, the Sydney Opera House attracts the most attention from people around the world. he is attracted by the easily recognizable roof, which to some resembles sails, to others shells, and others say that it is a symbol of frozen music.

Did you know? Many people think that the roof has a white surface, but in fact, some of its tiles white, others are cream-colored, due to which, depending on sunlight, it can “change” color.

But besides the roof, there are many other aspects that make the building truly outstanding. It is surrounded by water on three sides and stands on huge concrete stilts. The area of ​​the theater reaches incredible numbers - 22 thousand square meters. m.!

The theater houses 4 large halls:

• Concert hall, which can simultaneously accommodate 2679 visitors;
• Opera theatre, designed for 1507 spectators, they perform not only opera, but also ballet;
• Drama Theater, capable of accommodating 544 people;
• Maly Drama Theater– the most comfortable hall for 398 spectators.

In addition to the main halls, the theater has many other rooms - rehearsal rooms, costume rooms, corridors, bars and restaurants.

Entertainment

Without a doubt, the main attraction of the Sydney Opera House is watching his outstanding plays, performances, operas and ballets. World-famous theater and theater companies come here with their performances. ballet companies, as well as orchestras, singers and other artists.

Did you know? The theater can host 4 different performances at the same time!

You can find a poster of upcoming events at Sydney Opera House official website.
If you are not an ardent art lover or have little time, but want to get acquainted with the world-famous structure, this is easily possible.

By visiting one of them, you can not only learn more interesting facts about the famous building, but also visit “behind the scenes” of theatrical life, meet the actors of the troupes and even try theater food. By the way, about food.
There are several good bars and restaurants in the Sydney Opera House grounds. The most popular of them:

• Opera Bar– a bar and restaurant, which is also one of the “favorites” among Sydney residents;
• Bennelong- one of the best restaurants in Australia, whose chef is P. Gilmore, who cooks original dishes made from Australian ingredients;
• Portside Sydney– the most suitable friendly family restaurant for a light snack, a cup of coffee or dessert.

Also in the theater building you will find many souvenir shops, offering tourists a very wide selection of pleasant and memorable things.

Where is the Sydney Opera House located?

The famous structure is located in the picturesque Sydney Harbor on Bennelong Point.
You can easily get here from anywhere in the Australian capital, since the intersection of sea and land transport routes is nearby.
GPS coordinates: 33.856873° S, 151.21497° E.

Sydney Opera House opening hours

• The theater is open to visitors daily from 9 am (Sunday from 10:00) until late in the evening.

• Prices for visiting the theater depend on the purpose of such a visit - either it will be an excursion, or you want to see this or that performance, or you just want to relax and have a delicious meal in one of the theater restaurants - in each case the price can vary significantly.
• For any questions you may have, you can contact the theater’s “Info Service” from Monday to Friday by phone. +61 2 9250 7111, or write to email. address [email protected].
  The official website of the Sydney Opera House is www.sydneyoperahouse.com.

Sydney Opera House - interesting facts

• Project author Sydney theaterJ. Goossens, despite the amount of work he had done, was “exiled” from Australia, because they allegedly found prohibited “Black Mass” items in his possession.
• The initial A$7 million to build the theater was raised thanks to charity lottery.
• The famous sail-shaped roof significantly worsened the acoustics of the theater premises, and therefore it was necessary to make additional sound reflective ceilings. The roof, by the way, also turned out to be too heavy, and the builders were forced to redo the entire foundation of the theater.
• Due to protracted construction, the architect of the Sydney Opera House, J. Watson, encountered difficulties with the Australian government, and he was forced to leave Australia. The theater was completed by another architect.
• She came to the opening of the Sydney Opera House herself. Queen Elizabeth II of Britain.
• The Sydney Theater has the longest theatrical curtains in the world, and its large concert hall is the largest organ on the planet.
• The Sydney Opera House is the first building in the world to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site during the lifetime of its architect.
• The opera house building is still not completed. To prepare for the 2000 Olympics, the Australian government invited J. Watson to complete the building, but he refused. The famous architect never returned to Australia after the forced cessation of construction.
• J. Watson in 2003 received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for the project of the world famous theater.
• Sydney Opera House was a contender for the title of one of the 7 wonders of the world.
• Never yet no repairs were required to the famous building.

Sydney Opera House - video

In this video you will learn more more information about the Sydney Opera House. Enjoy watching!

The world-famous theater hides these and many other secrets behind its walls - hurry to see it, touch its secrets and touch the great musical and theatrical art that unfolds behind its scenes every day.