Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House at a Glance
The Sydney Opera House, located on the banks of Sydney Harbor, is considered as one of the most renowned and unique structures in the world and a 20th century architectural masterpiece.
If further interested, learn more about the Sydney Opera House with my list of 28 fascinating facts.
28 Fascinating Facts about the Sydney Opera House
1. Its construction was estimated to take only 4 years. But it soon grew quite obvious that it would take longer. It actually took 14 years to complete, with the help of more than 10,000 workers.
2. The temperatures inside the building must be kept exactly at 22.5 degrees Celsius to make sure the instruments for the orchestra stay finely in tune.
3. The opera house's design was initially an international competition where 233 designs were submitted. Jorn Utzon from Denmark won the contest and was awarded 5,000 pounds.
4. Utzon became the main architect for the opera house's construction. But, in 1966 he resigned due to the local government ceasing to pay him. He never came back to the project.
5. The present Queen Elizabeth ll of England opened the opera house on October 20, 1973.
6. The project was initially budgeted to cost only $7 million to complete. However, it actually cost $102 million, of which the Australian Lottery mostly paid for.
7. Its roof consists of 2,194 pre-cast roof sections totaling 15 tons each and covered in 1 million tiles created by the Swedish company Hoganas.
8. Its cooling system uses seawater from the nearby harbor. It circulates the cold water taken from the harbor via pipes extending 35 kilometers, behaving as thermal fluid in the warming and cooling of the structure.
9. Each year the opera house hosts around 3,000 events. The building is always in high use.
10. Over 10 million people come through its halls every year.
11. The opera house comprises 7 different venues and the biggest has 2,679 seats.
12. The smallest room, called the Utzon room, has only 210 seats.
13. The tallest roof point on the building is the same or similar height of a 22-story structure.
14. Each year, 15,500 light bulbs are changed in order to keep the whole place lit properly.
15. The opera house is home to 3 restaurants, a cafe, espresso bar, and bars in the opera and theater.
16. The entire building is definitely massive. For example, the site itself could fit seven A380s lying wing to wing, and the structure has 1,000 rooms.
17. The grand organ that sits in the Concert Hall is the world's largest mechanical organ. It consists of 10,154 pipes and took 10 years to build.
18. Arnold Schwarzenegger won his very last Mr. Olympia title for bodybuilding in 1980 in the orchestra's halls.
19. The opera house has more than 6,000 square meters of custom-made glass from France and 650 kilometers of cabling for electronics and electricity throughout.
20. The structure received UNESCO World Heritage status in 2007, being described as a "great urban sculpture set in a remarkable waterscape, at the tip of a peninsula projecting into Sydney Harbour."
21. Paul Robeson was the first person who performed inside the opera house's halls in 1960, before the construction was ever completed. The singer visited the workers during lunch break and sang Ol' Man River to them.
22. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll has graced Sydney Opera House 5 times.
23. A net was installed over the orchestra area in the Opera Theater in the 1980s after Boris Godunov featured live chickens, one of them walked off the stage and landed on top of a cellist.
24. The crime novel, Helga's Web, by author Jon Cleary, was set at Sydney Opera House with a body being found in the structure's basement. The book was turned into a movie called Scobie Malone, starring Jack Thompson.
25. In May 2003, its chief architect Jorn Utzon received the famous Pritzker Prize -- the Nobel Prize of the architectural community.
26. Because of the modifications done to the structure after Utzon abandoned the project in the year 1966, this will be the first ever only 100% genuine Utzon interior.
27. It took over 8 months to make the new Utzon Room tapestry.
28. If unwound, the wool in the Utzon Room tapestry, tribute to CPE Bach, would extend 4,500 kilometers.
