The guided tour was worth both the time and money. Our guide told us, “The opera house has ten ‘sails’ and stands the height of a 22 story building.”
She continued, “In 1959 there was enormous controversy and debate from the inception of the idea for an opera house. An international competition resulted in 233 entries. The dazzling and dramatic design of Danish architect Joern Utzon fired the imagination of the judges. But the technology did not exist in the 50s to build the sails that formed the roof and walls.
“The original cost estimate was seven million dollars with a projected construction time of four years. The actual cost was 102 million and construction took 15 years. However, a special opera lottery paid the additional bills, and the opera house was completely paid for by mid 1975, just two years after its opening!
“The criterion was for a multipurpose hall and minor hall. The first of a three stage construction plan started in 1959. Stage I involved the foundation and base, to the podium level. Stage II was the construction of the roof vaults. One day while peeling an orange Utzon had the inspiration to construct the shells from rib sections of a complete sphere. And so the 2194 concrete ribs, forming the skeleton of the building, were prefabricated and joined together with 217 miles of tension steel. Each section weighs 15 tons. These ribs are clearly visible in the foyers and staircase areas of the concert hall."
The ‘roof’ is covered with 1,056,000 Swedish white tiles which appear as a mosaic. Any one section of the ‘sails’ can be removed without compromising the entire structure. This is also true of the ribs and the tile coverings.
In 1966,shortly before completion of Stage II, Utzon resigned from the project. A team of Australian architects overtook the project and completed this stage in about a year.
The guide continued, “Stage III involved the glass walls, interior rooms, and all the innards, promenades and approaches. Opera House is a bit of a misnomer as it is actually an arts center. Besides the 1547-seat opera theater there is a 2690-seat concert hall, a 544-seat drama theater, and a 398-seat playhouse.
“The building houses a 1000 rooms including a reception hall, five rehearsal studios, four restaurants, six theater bars, extensive foyers and lounge areas, sixty dressing rooms, library, artist lounge, administrative offices, and extensive plant and machinery areas.
“The concert hall roof vault at 221-feet is the highest. The roofs are supported by 32 eight-foot square columns sunk 82 feet below sea level. The acoustics here are nearly perfect. It took Ronald Chap, an Australian, ten years to design and build the organ in this hall. The organ has 10,500 pipes and extends into the back 8 ½ meters.”
The first three rows in the drama theater are actually below sea level. That theater is cooled by salt water passing through aluminum coils on the ceiling.
She concluded, “Brushbox and white birch plywood, both obtained from northern New South Wales, are used extensively throughout. The 67,000 square feet of two layer glass for the windows came from France. One layer of 2000 panes, in 700 sizes, is tinted. The glass wall acts as sound proofing. 400 miles of electrical cable was needed. The power supply, adequate for a city of 25,000, involves 120 distribution boards. Twelve miles of air conditioning duct run from 26 air conditioning rooms/areas.”
I would hate to trouble shoot that electrical system!
This was a most fascinating tour of a fabulous interesting building.
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