Your one-stop shop for the best of Sydney tours, activities and attractions
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House, with its extraordinary, arresting, and conspicuous architectural style, sets a unique stage for performing arts in Sydney, and stands out against the world's most distinctive centres of arts. Shining like a bright jewel with its design and style, in the setting of one of the most beautiful harbours of the world, Sydney Harbour, the beauty of the sculptural tripartite masterpiece is underscored by Sydney Harbour Bridge that overlooks it. The abstract, sculpturesque, imposing architectural style and the artistic beauty of the House certainly makes it the most befitting venue for theatre and other performing, cultural and fine arts of Australia.
This overwhelming style of architecture is referred to as expressionist architecture which was a movement that is believed to have originated in the early 20th century in Northern Europe. Along with this style had developed the expressionist forms of visual and other performing arts. Today, Sydney Opera House is considered undoubtedly a true representative of Australia's arts and culture.
Sydney Opera House is a confluence of large precast concrete shells of different sizes that form the roofs of the Opera House. These shells are different parts of a hemisphere of the same radius. The power for the House is distributed by 645 kilometres of electrical cable. The roofs of the House that appear spectacularly white against the clear blue sky and the crystal blue waters actually comprise of 1.056 million white and matte cream Swedish tiles.
The Concert Hall and the Opera Theatre are enclosed in the two largest groups of shells and the other theatres on the sides of the shell groupings. Sydney Opera House houses five theatres, five rehearsal studios, two main halls, four restaurants, six bars and several souvenir shops. The Concert Hall, with 2,679 seats, has the Sydney Opera House Grand Organ, the world's largest mechanical tracker action organ with over 10,000 pipes. The Opera Theatre, with 1,547 seats, has been the main stage for Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet Company. The other theatres are the Drama Theatre, with 544 seats, the Playhouse, with 398 seats, and the Studio Theatre, with 318 seats. Other than for performing arts, Sydney Opera House has also been a venue for public functions, weddings, parties, and conferences. In September 2007, representatives of the 21-member states of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conferred at Sydney Opera House for APEC Australia 2007.
