Concert Hall // The Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House // from the Sydney Harbor
DID YOU KNOW ... that the architectural design plans of the Sydney Opera House (as we know them today) were originally thrown out!
When the New South Wales Government called an open-ended international design competition in 1956, Jørn Utzon’s winning entry was originally put into the discard pile. [Ha!] His design was seen as being much too progressive for the conservative standards of 1956. Thankfully, his visionary design plans were eventually retrieved and construction of the Sydney Opera House began.
Today, the Sydney Opera House is one of the most photographed buildings in the world. As iconic as the Eiffel Tower, Egyptian Pyramids, and the Taj Mahal …. this masterpiece of inventive artistic design has become synonymous with Australian culture and a source of pride for those who call Australia home.
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CONCERT HALL //
With a maximum capacity of 2,679 … the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House is absolutely breathtaking! Similar to the construction of an acoustic guitar, the room itself is formed entirely of hard and soft wood [brush box and white birch]. ** The principal performing companies in the Concert Hall are Sydney Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Festival and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Complementing the work presented by these companies, a wide variety of concerts including prominent touring contemporary music artists is presented by commercial producers and promoters. [** from the Sydney Opera House website]
[http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/about/house_history/1973_1981.aspx] ”The Grand Organ was designed and built by Sydney-born Ronald Sharpe. [Upper Center of Photo] The organ has five manuals plus pedals and contains over 10,000 pipes, of which 109 are visible from the auditorium. There are 200 ranks of pipes grouped into 127 speaking stops with 28 couplers. The front show pipes are 95% tin, 5% lead and are burnished to a mirror-like finish. The largest front pipe is E in the 32ft octave with a diameter of 430mm and a length of 9.26m. It weighs 340kg. There is a Carillon of 24 small bronze hand bells. The Tympanon operates a soft bass drum roll and there is an imitation cuckoo and nightingale.”
