Day 12
It took me nearly two weeks but I finally got around to touring the famous Sydney Opera House, maybe you've heard of it? As skeptical as I always am, I was surprisingly entertained by our guide who must have been or wanted to be a thespian. He was very energetic, lively and kept everyone on their toes with his wit. I realized during this tour, how little I really knew about the history and architecture of the Opera House and what it took to make the concept come to life. Many do not know, but back in the early 1900s where the Opera House sits, was once the last stop on a train line. In the 1950s the council members for the city of Sydney decided they wanted to build an opera house and opened up a friendly competition with well known architects of the time from around the world. Ideas ranged from typical square buildings, to a outlandish lavish ideas. In the 1950s the board assigned to deciding the design had tossed out all the submissions and decided on a modest design that was not what we know as the opera house today. The design for the opera house was tossed but fortunately, a member of the council who arrived late, dug it out of the archives and declared it, what is now the Sydney Opera House, the winner. Funding it was the next issue and construction wasn't started until 1959 and took 14 years to build (originally thought to take 4, guess every government gets screwed by contracts!). The feat of building the opera house, which is made up entirely of concrete, boggled my mind as I walked through it. Each of the three arches is its own theater and inside each of those are multiple stages situated behind the scenes for rehearsals. The main theater features a massive stage that has trap doors, hydraulic lifts to move flooring up and down, and a orchestra pit that hides beneath the stage and can be moved into view with an entire ensemble playing while being put into place.
If that didn't impress you enough, this might. The entire structure, as I previously stated, is made up entirely of concrete arches. When you are inside, you can see the concrete along the exterior walls as you walk around but once inside the concert hall, there is only wood. The designer ensured that the acoustics of the building were considered and how this was carried out was incredible. Walking into the theater there was wood, everywhere. The floors were made of wood, the walls were wood, the seats were made of wood. But this was no ordinary wood, the design called for two types of wood, brush box and white birch, both of which were harvested in New South Wales. Now, one might think that the wood would simply be hammered to the walls and all would be well. No such luck. Instead, the walls actually hang from the ceiling. Sounds odd and impossible but we were allowed to move along the walls and look up into the gap of about a foot between the concrete walls and the wood. To me that's a crazy move but later, I went to see the Sydney Symphony Orchestra perform and it sounded like I was right there listening to them....hahaha......
After the tour, I headed to the Oz Jetboating pier and took a beating jetting around the harbor. They gave us all rain jackets with the caution that we might get wet. MIGHT? Talk about an understatement. Over the next 30 minutes we were driven around the harbor at neck breaking speeds only to whipped around as the drive performed what car enthusiasts call "whipping shitties". Every time the boat spun around, a tidal wave of ocean water spued over boat and all over everyone. Simply put, we were swimming in the harbor with a boat under us.
The day ended, as I mentioned before, with a visit back to the Opera House to see the Sydney Symphony perform and it was amazing. $30 for seats 3 rows back from the pit! Can't beat that!!
It took me nearly two weeks but I finally got around to touring the famous Sydney Opera House, maybe you've heard of it? As skeptical as I always am, I was surprisingly entertained by our guide who must have been or wanted to be a thespian. He was very energetic, lively and kept everyone on their toes with his wit. I realized during this tour, how little I really knew about the history and architecture of the Opera House and what it took to make the concept come to life. Many do not know, but back in the early 1900s where the Opera House sits, was once the last stop on a train line. In the 1950s the council members for the city of Sydney decided they wanted to build an opera house and opened up a friendly competition with well known architects of the time from around the world. Ideas ranged from typical square buildings, to a outlandish lavish ideas. In the 1950s the board assigned to deciding the design had tossed out all the submissions and decided on a modest design that was not what we know as the opera house today. The design for the opera house was tossed but fortunately, a member of the council who arrived late, dug it out of the archives and declared it, what is now the Sydney Opera House, the winner. Funding it was the next issue and construction wasn't started until 1959 and took 14 years to build (originally thought to take 4, guess every government gets screwed by contracts!). The feat of building the opera house, which is made up entirely of concrete, boggled my mind as I walked through it. Each of the three arches is its own theater and inside each of those are multiple stages situated behind the scenes for rehearsals. The main theater features a massive stage that has trap doors, hydraulic lifts to move flooring up and down, and a orchestra pit that hides beneath the stage and can be moved into view with an entire ensemble playing while being put into place.
If that didn't impress you enough, this might. The entire structure, as I previously stated, is made up entirely of concrete arches. When you are inside, you can see the concrete along the exterior walls as you walk around but once inside the concert hall, there is only wood. The designer ensured that the acoustics of the building were considered and how this was carried out was incredible. Walking into the theater there was wood, everywhere. The floors were made of wood, the walls were wood, the seats were made of wood. But this was no ordinary wood, the design called for two types of wood, brush box and white birch, both of which were harvested in New South Wales. Now, one might think that the wood would simply be hammered to the walls and all would be well. No such luck. Instead, the walls actually hang from the ceiling. Sounds odd and impossible but we were allowed to move along the walls and look up into the gap of about a foot between the concrete walls and the wood. To me that's a crazy move but later, I went to see the Sydney Symphony Orchestra perform and it sounded like I was right there listening to them....hahaha......
After the tour, I headed to the Oz Jetboating pier and took a beating jetting around the harbor. They gave us all rain jackets with the caution that we might get wet. MIGHT? Talk about an understatement. Over the next 30 minutes we were driven around the harbor at neck breaking speeds only to whipped around as the drive performed what car enthusiasts call "whipping shitties". Every time the boat spun around, a tidal wave of ocean water spued over boat and all over everyone. Simply put, we were swimming in the harbor with a boat under us.
The day ended, as I mentioned before, with a visit back to the Opera House to see the Sydney Symphony perform and it was amazing. $30 for seats 3 rows back from the pit! Can't beat that!!
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