2023-10-23 00:41:45
Although the Sydney Opera House is one of the most visited monuments in the world, few people know the story of its creation. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its inauguration, we shed light on sometimes unusual facts surrounding the work of Danish architect Jorn Utzon.
Lorelei Aubry with AFP • Published on October 23, 2023 at 11:41 a.m., updated on October 23, 2023 at 12:06 p.m.
An impressive laser show that illuminates the silhouette of the Sydney Opera House at nightfall. This is how Australians celebrated this Friday the fiftieth anniversary of this architectural masterpiece, visited each year by some eleven million people, including many New Caledonians. The opportunity to take an interest in some little-known anecdotes regarding this monument, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
In 1956, the Dane Jorn Utzon won a competition once morest 232 other candidates. The following year, he moved to Australia with his family to embark on the project. But in 1966, Jorn Utzon left the building site – whose shells were almost complete – and abandoned Australia following disagreements over the vision, budget and financing of the project. Other architects completed the building, modifying its plans for the interior of the opera house. And Jorn Utzon never returned to Australia. He died in Copenhagen in 2008.
Due to the architect’s withdrawal from the project, construction of the Sydney Opera House took 14 years, ten years longer than planned. And its cost, initially estimated at 7 million Australian dollars, rose to 102 million Australian dollars when completed. It was largely funded by lotteries.
The building’s famous “sails” house two performance halls and a restaurant, which are covered with more than a million Swedish-made tiles. In 2013, part of them, located on the highest part of the roof, was put up for sale virtually in order to raise funds for a renovation project. Among the first buyers was Australian actor Hugh Jackman.
A few days before the celebration of the Opera’s anniversary, two of the architect’s children spoke regarding the impact that the realization of this project had on their lives. Lin and her brother Jan notably confided that a woman had written a letter to their father to tell him that she had given up suicide, seized by the magical vision of the Opera. The author of the letter allegedly took the ferry from Sydney Harbor with the intention of ending her life. But overwhelmed by the vision of the Opera, she finally said to herself that “If anyone might have overcome all these difficulties and built something so magical and exhilarating, who was she to (want to) eliminate herself? And she didn’t”said Lin.
The Opera has also experienced some funny adventures. In the 1980s, a net was installed over the orchestra pit at the Joan Sutherland Theater following a chicken performing in an opera performance left the stage and landed on a cellist.
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