Sydney Opera House, New South Wales 2000

 

Whenever someone is travelling to Sydney for the first time, the Sydney Opera House spontaneously pops into his or her mind; I wondered why this building is the icon of the big city. Like all those other travellers I couldn’t wait to see it. I remembered it was on a Thursday, I did a walking tour organised by Ultimate Oz. That day (9 October ’14) I crossed over the Botanic Garden when suddenly I was that lucky bastard in front of the Sydney Opera House. That architecture is simply amazing! The crazy part of it was that wherever I stood around the opera, I had that feeling to discover another part of the design. Each standing place had another view perspective, like hidden parts that you only saw when you moved around the architecture. Brilliant! No wonder that it became a UNESCO world heritage site.

 

Of course, every building has her history. There was some lobbying in the 1940s about planning a larger venue for theatrical productions. So in 1955, premier of New South Wales, Joseph Cahill launched an international design competition. Two years later Cahill announced that the winner between more than the 200 entries was the Danish architect Jorn Utzon. The funny part was that his design was rejected a lot of times before getting rescued by another important architect. The construction began in March 1959. Everything started pretty well but at a certain point in the building progress some tensions occurred between client and design team. The high costs and a lot of delays was the reason why it became really tense. To get it short, Jorn took his resignation due to Hughes’s (Minister for Public Woks) refusal to pay him and the lack of collaboration. Jorn left the project in 1966. The building was completed with 10 years delay and costed more than fourteen times the predicted budget. On October 1973 Elizabeth II officially opened the Sydney Opera House. Jorn Utzon wasn’t invited nor was his name mentioned.

 

The outside of the opera clearly is gorgeous, no contradiction. But I was intrigued about the inside. When I heard that my mother would come over to Sydney I had that idea to book some tickets for an opera presentation. I let my mother chose the play. She has more knowledge when it comes to theatrical performances. On Tuesday 30 December 2014 we finally saw the Sydney Opera House from the inside where we had a glass of champagne and a snack. At 4.30pm we entered the hall, gained our seats on the second row and enjoyed the great opera hits. Some friends I met in Sydney also had tickets that night but they sat in the back. They found their tickets on Groupon with a nice discount. We went all together for a drink at Jacksons on George near Circular Quay.

 

My mother and I were also at the Sydney Opera House for New Year's Eve. How amazing is that? The streets were so crowded that time. I was really surprised how well organised it was. Policemen and security men did an amazing job to keep everything under control onto the streets. Either before the event as wel as after the event. There were two fireworks: one at 9pm (for the kids they said) and another one at midnight. It was a beautiful firework launched at the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge as well. So we had two spots to look at. On the Harbour Bridge was also a huge light board. There was some music in the background and the boats on the water were illuminated. At the end my mother, Linda and I enjoyed a last drink in Hyde Park before the new year really began.