The Sydney Opera House at dusk.
The Sydney Opera House is the busiest center for performing-arts in the world, and has been called “The 8th Wonder of the World”.
It has six concert halls and studios, plus a host of other performing areas. The Opera House is one of the world’s leading performing arts centres.
The Sydney Opera House draws 4.5 million visitors each year and presents more than 2000 indoor performances annually, that’s an average of one a day in the major halls.
The genius who designed the building was Danish architect, the late – and great – Mr Joern Utzon.
The actual construction work to build the Sydney Opera House has a chequered history. The state government changed political parties. There were cost and time over-runs, and fights between Mr Utzon and his Australian employers. Payments were withheld and, in 1966, the Danish architect quit in disgust and went home.
The Sydney Opera House was finally finished in October of 1973. It had taken 16 years to build instead of the four years that had bee estimated at the design stage.
Quite recently, in 1998, the Australian government negotiated with Joern Utzon (then aged 83) to come back and help them refurbish parts of the great building.
There are guided tours several times a day between 9am to 5 pm, except on Christmas Day and Good Friday. Backstage tours are also available.
For more information or to book a tour of the Sydney Opera House, phone (+61 2) 9250 7250. Or you can go online to http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com
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