Australia Sydney Theatre. The Sydney Opera House in Australia is a ship sailing on the waves of art

The whole world admires the Sydney Opera House. Against the backdrop of skyscrapers and yachts, the theater looks like an elegant stone flower made of petal walls. Sometimes the domes of the building are compared to the doors of huge sea shells or sails inflated by the wind.

The analogies are justified: this unusual structure with a sail-shaped roof is located on a rocky cape cutting into the bay. The Sydney Opera House is famous not only for its original roof structure, but also for its magnificent interiors, designed in a futuristic style called "space age gothic". It is in the Sydney Opera House that the world's largest theater curtain hangs - each of its halves is 93 sq.m. The Sydney Theater also boasts the world's largest organ, consisting of 10,500 pipes. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the House of Muses in the life of Sydney. Under one roof there is a concert hall with 2,679 seats and an opera house with 1,547 seats. For dramatic and musical performances there is a “small stage” - another hall designed for 544 spectators. There is also a cinema hall with 398 seats. The venue has a capacity of 210 people and is used for conferences. The theater complex, which is visited annually by about 2 million people, is complemented by a recording studio, library, mini-art halls, restaurants and cafes.

Sydney Opera House - a masterpiece of a Danish architect

Utzon The creation of the Sydney theater was inspired by the English conductor and composer Eugene Goossens, who was invited to Sydney in 1945 to record a concert cycle. The musician discovered that the inhabitants of the former British colony showed a keen interest in music, but there was no suitable hall for opera and ballet performances on the entire continent.

In those days, concerts took place in the city hall, whose architecture resembled a “wedding cake” in the style of the Second Empire, with poor acoustics and a hall for 2.5 thousand listeners. “The city needs a new theater that all of Australia would be proud of!” - said Sir Eugene Goossens. 880 specialists from 45 countries took part in the competition for the best project, but only 230 of them reached the finals. The winner was 38-year-old Dane Jorn Utzon. It is difficult to say what could have been built on the site of the building topped with “sail-domes” if the chairman of the selection committee had not been the American architect Erro Saarinen, who insisted that such an extraordinary project win the competition. According to Utzon himself, the original idea came to him when he was peeling an orange and assembled a full sphere from hemispherical orange peels. The construction of the Sydney Opera House, which began in 1959, was delayed and instead of 4 planned years it lasted 14.

There was a catastrophic lack of money, and expenses were growing at an accelerated pace. It was necessary to attract investors, which entailed a revision of the original design of the building in favor of commercial space allocated for restaurants and cafes. “A little more, and the building will turn into a swollen square, into a stamped residential box!” - Utzon exclaimed indignantly. The total amount spent on the construction of the Sydney Opera House ($102 million) was 15 times higher than the design amount ($7 million). Cabinet of Ministers,

Accused of “unjustifiably inflated expenses and excessively delayed construction,” he resigned, and the architect himself, in despair, burned the drawings and resolutely left Sydney.

Opening of the Sydney Opera House

Work on the design of the facades and interior decoration was completed 7 years after Utzon’s resignation. In October 1973, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of England, the theater was inaugurated, and the first performance given on the stage of the Sydney House of Muses was Sergei Prokofiev's opera War and Peace. In 2003, Utzon received the prestigious Pritzker Prize for his theater design, and in 2007, the Sydney Opera House was declared a World Heritage Site. But, alas, Utzon’s resentment towards the Australian authorities turned out to be so great that he never returned to Sydney and died in 2008 without seeing the completed opera house in all its glory.

There are quite conflicting opinions about Australia's most famous building, the Sydney Opera House. Some consider it a magnificent monument to a frozen melody. Others are confused by the amazing shape of the roof of this structure: for some it resembles huge shells, for others it resembles the sails of a Galleon blown by the wind, others associate them with the ears of angels listening to the singing, and there is also an opinion that the Sydney theater is very similar to a washed-up white whale.

In short, there are so many people, so many opinions, but no one doubts the fact that the Sydney Opera House is a man-made symbol of Australia.

This amazing building is located in Sydney, the largest city in Australia, in the Bennelong Point harbor (on the map it can be found at the following coordinates: 33° 51′ 24.51″ S, 151° 12′ 54.95″ E).

The Sydney Opera House gained worldwide fame primarily due to its roof, made in the shape of sails (shells) of different sizes located one behind the other, which make it unlike any other theater in the world. The facade of the opera turned out to be so interesting, unusual, and therefore recognizable that it is considered one of the most outstanding buildings of modern architecture, which has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List for several years now.

The creator of this unique building, Jorn Watson, is the only person in the world whose work was recognized by this organization during his lifetime (he died a year after this event, in 2008).

Description

The Opera House in Australia is, first of all, unusual in that, unlike other buildings of this type, made in the classical style, it is a striking example of expressionism, demonstrating a new look at architecture. The Sydney Opera House is surrounded by water on three sides and is built on stilts.

The area of ​​the theater is huge and amounts to 22 thousand m2: its length is 185 m, its width is 120 m, and the building itself contains a huge number of premises, including several theater halls, many small studios and theater platforms, as well as restaurants, bars and shops , where anyone can buy a souvenir of their visit to the theater as a souvenir.

The main premises are four halls:

• The concert hall is the largest room of the theater, capable of accommodating 2,679 spectators. It is here that the largest organ in the world is installed: it consists of 10 thousand pipes;
• Opera House - this hall seats 1,507 spectators, and on its stage you can see not only opera, but also ballet;
• Drama Theater – designed for 544 people;
• The Small Dramatic Stage seats 398 people and is considered the most comfortable room in the opera.

Sail roof

The most remarkable part of the building, thanks to which the Sydney Opera House has become one of the most interesting theaters in the world, is its roof, made in the form of shells or sails located one behind the other. The roof, whose height is 67 m and diameter is 150 m, consists of more than 2 thousand sections and weighs about 30 tons.

The structure is secured using metal cables, the total length of which is 350 km. The two main sinks are located above the opera's two largest rooms. Other sails are located above the smaller rooms, and below the smallest one is one of the restaurants.

The top of the sinks is mechanically covered with white polished and cream matte tiles, resulting in a completely smooth surface - an effect that would hardly be achieved by laying it by hand. Interesting fact: despite the fact that from a distance it may seem as if the roof is painted white, depending on the lighting, it constantly changes its shade.



This roof structure looks very beautiful and original, but during construction, due to the uneven height of the roof, problems with acoustics arose inside the building, and in order to solve the problem, a sound-reflecting ceiling had to be made separately. For this purpose, special gutters were made that can perform both practical and aesthetic functions: reflecting sound and drawing attention to the arches located above the front of the stage (the largest gutter is about 42 meters long).

Author of the idea

Interesting fact: building an opera house in Sydney was the idea of ​​the British Sir Eugene Goossens, who arrived in Australia as a conductor to record a concert on the radio. One can only imagine his surprise when he discovered that there was no opera house in Sydney. The city also lacked large audience facilities where Sydneysiders could come to listen to music.

Therefore, he made the decision to do everything to build a theater in which spectators would have the opportunity to get acquainted with both classical and latest musical works. He immediately began searching for a suitable site for construction - it turned out to be the rocky cape of Bennelong Point, near which there was an embankment, which was a key junction, since local residents transferred from ferries to trains or buses.

Having found a suitable location (there was a tram depot here at that time, which was later demolished), Goossens carried out a corresponding campaign and, infecting many influential people in Sydney with his idea, ensured that the government allowed the construction of the Opera House. The authorities immediately announced an international competition for the best project. And then things stalled: Goossens made enemies. After one of his international trips, customs officers discovered the “Black Mass” items, he was fined, fired from his job - and he was forced to leave Australia, despite all assurances that the things did not belong to him.

Contest

More than two hundred works from all over the world were sent to the competition. Another important point was that Goossens not only managed to select a qualified commission, but also gave a description of the competition project.



The project was to include two halls - one for larger productions, the second for small productions. The building had to have rooms where rehearsals could be held, props could be stored, and there would also be space for restaurants.

The task was complicated by the fact that the area on which it was planned to build the structure had rather limited dimensions, since it was surrounded on three sides by water. Therefore, most of the projects were rejected for one simple reason: they looked too bulky, and the facade of the building was depressing.

And only one work attracted the attention of the jury members, forcing them to return to the project over and over again: in the sketch, the theaters were placed close to each other, the problem of bulkiness was eliminated thanks to the emphasis on the white roof in the form of sails, and the author suggested storing the scenery and theatrical props in special recesses, thus solving the problem of the wings.

The author of the work turned out to be the Dane Jorn Watson (this architect had many similar original projects, but this one was one of the few that was implemented). Despite the fact that the project he presented was a sketch, the cost of the work was estimated at 7 million Australian dollars. Dollars, which was an acceptable price. Money for the start of construction was raised through a lottery.

Construction works

While the project was approved, it was obvious that there was still a lot of work to be done on it (some issues have not been resolved to this day). The main problem was how to make a non-standard shaped roof, especially since there was no such experience in the world at the moment.

Watson solved this problem by giving each sink the shape of a triangle, assembling it from smaller curved triangles, covered with tiles mechanically during manufacture. After this, the sails were installed on concrete ribs (frame ribs), located in a circle - this made it possible for the roof to get a finished and harmonious look.

This form gave rise to problems with the acoustics of the hall, which, although the architect was later able to solve, entailed considerable financial expenses (for example, since the new vault turned out to be much heavier than the previous one, it was necessary to blow up the already made foundation and begin to build a stronger and more durable one).

Instead of the expected 7 million Australian. dollars construction cost 102 million. Construction proceeded at a very slow pace, which could not help but attract the attention of local deputies and opponents of the architect.

And after the Labor party, which supported construction, lost the support of the population and the opposition came to power, the money raised from the lottery was first frozen (fortunately, there was an excuse), and then completely used for the construction of roads and hospitals, forcing Watson in 1966 quit your job and leave Sydney forever.

After this, Hall was appointed chief architect, who, although he managed to complete the construction in 1973, according to many experts, the work he carried out significantly spoiled the appearance of the building, and the interior turned out to be unremarkable (an interesting fact: during the preparation of the Olympics in Australia in 2000, The Australians invited Watson to return and finish work on the opera, agreeing to do whatever he said, but he refused).

This is how it turned out that the Sydney Opera House, which is one of the most magnificent buildings of our time, which is mentioned along with the Taj Mahal and other wonders of the world, although it looks magnificent on the outside, is no different inside. True, this did not prevent the building from taking part in the competition for the title of one of the seven wonders of the world and, although it did not become a winner, it was among the main contenders.