We Tell You Some Curiosities Of The Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is undoubtedly the most representative monument in the city and one of the main tourist attractions in the country, being visited every year by thousands of people. Despite being well known to everyone, there are many curiosities about the Sydney Opera House that almost no one outside of Australia knows. We want to tell you about them.

Sydney Opera House Curiosities: Bennelong Point

The area where the Sydney Opera House is located is known as Bennelong Point. This name was put in honor of a so-called aboriginal, who was the first person to perform a function in that place. It was in March of the year 1791 and the work was directed to the governor of Australia and his companions.

Bennelong became a celebrity in the city. He became the governor’s translator and was a mediator with the indigenous people.

At that point, since then called Bennelong Point, a castle-shaped fort was built in 1821. That fort remained until the beginning of the 20th century, when it was demolished. In its place, a set of warehouses were built to accommodate the tram machinery.

Eugene Gosses and the Opera Designs

Eugene Gossens was, in the 1940s, the conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. From that time he began to press for the construction of a new space that would accommodate opera and music companies in general.

In 1955, the governor of the New South Wales region, where Sydney is located, announced that a new opera house would be built, as demanded by its director. To choose the design of the building, an international competition was called.

As for the conductor of the orchestra, it is especially noteworthy that in 1956 they found material considered pornographic and scandalous in his luggage, after a return trip from Europe. This is a fact that even today has many unknowns around it. Shortly after, Gossens announced his resignation as conductor of the Symphony.

The projects

At the end of that year, the deadline for submitting works to the competition ended. In total, 233 designs were submitted, from more than 30 countries. After 10 days of deliberation by 4 judges, number 218 was chosen, signed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon. They say that design was initially scrapped, but later reconsidered and salvaged.

Utzon earned 5000 pounds of the time. The project was budgeted at AU $7 million and was to be built within 4 years. One of the great curiosities of the Sydney Opera House is that, to pay for the works, the government of the region launched a special lottery.

The construction of the Opera

Construction of the Sydney Opera House began in 1958 by engineer Ove Arup. At that time, the demolition of the tram depot that was there began. A year later, 10,000 workers began construction of the building itself.

One of the main design problems encountered by the engineers was how to build the sails, so characteristic of the Opera. The solution was found by building a sphere on which the shells would “break off”.

In 1966, the new government of the region decided to stop paying the architect, after numerous disagreements about cost overruns, delays and other project problems. For this reason, Utzon decided to leave the construction and Australia. Three Australian architects took over.

The work was completely finished in 1973, ten years later than planned and with a total cost of 102 million dollars, 95 more than initially budgeted. Queen Elizabeth II was commissioned to inaugurate the Sydney Opera House that same year.

Other curiosities of the Sydney Opera House

There are many other little curiosities of the Sydney Opera House. For example, every week 40 acts, events, concerts or performances are held within its walls ; 200,000 people participate each year in guided tours to visit it; or more than one million tiles cover an area of ​​approximately 1.62 hectares.

Cover photo: Theen Moy