Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House: The Building That Changed What Architecture Could Be

The Sydney Opera House was completed in 1973 after 16 years of construction, a political crisis, the resignation of its Danish architect, and a final cost that was 1,457 percent over the original budget. The architect, Jørn Utzon, left the project in 1966 and never returned to see the building. He received the Pritzker Prize in 2003, the award’s citation specifically noting that “there is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece.” He died in 2008 without returning to Australia.

All of this is relevant to understanding the building. It was not built smoothly or correctly according to the original brief. The interiors, completed by others after Utzon’s departure, have been criticised by architects for decades as inadequate for the acoustic demands of the spaces. The Concert Hall was renovated in 2022, finally improving the acoustics after 50 years of compromise. The Opera Theatre renovation was planned to follow.

The Architecture

The shells are not shells in the technical sense. They are sections of spheres, a geometrical solution that Utzon arrived at after years of developing more complex forms that couldn’t be engineered in 1960s concrete. The geometry of the roof forms, all derived from a single sphere radius, made the prefabrication and assembly of the concrete ribs feasible. The tiles covering the shells (1,056,006 of them, in matte and glossy white and cream ceramics) change colour with the angle of light and the weather.

The building sits on Bennelong Point, a promontory in Sydney Harbour that allows it to be seen from multiple angles across the water. The approaches by ferry from Manly or from Circular Quay give you the building at a scale and with the harbour context that standing at its base does not. A ferry ride specifically to see the building from the water is worth 40 minutes.

Visiting

The Opera House is a working arts venue and most of the interior is accessible only during performances or tours. The standard guided tour (around AUD $40, about 60 minutes) covers the foyers, the Concert Hall, the Opera Theatre, and parts of the backstage. The “Backstage Pass” tour starts at 7am and accesses areas including the rehearsal rooms and the loading dock. Both require booking ahead.

Attending a performance is the correct way to experience the building. The Sydney Symphony, Opera Australia, and the Sydney Theatre Company are the resident companies; the programming is international in quality. Booking directly from the Opera House website gives better seat selection than third-party sites. Cheaper tickets are available in the restricted-view sections; the Concert Hall’s acoustic profile means the sound quality varies significantly by position.

The Neighbourhood

Circular Quay, the ferry terminal adjacent to the Opera House, connects to suburbs across Sydney Harbour. The Rocks, the colonial sandstone precinct immediately west, contains the earliest European settlement buildings still standing in Sydney, dating from the 1790s. The Customs House building on Alfred Street has a scale model of Sydney under a glass floor in its ground-floor café and is free to enter.

The walk from the Opera House along the harbourside path east to the Royal Botanic Garden is 20 minutes and passes the Fleet Steps (where the stone staircase descends to the water and the ferry terminal for Shark Island) and the Farm Cove foreshore. The garden itself is free to enter and contains a significant collection of Moreton Bay fig trees, some of the largest urban trees in Australia.

Eating Near the Opera House

The Opera Bar directly beneath the southern forecourt has acceptable food and the most coveted outdoor seating position in Sydney: chairs facing the harbour with the bridge to the left and the Heads to the right. It is predictably expensive and persistently full on weekends. The Bennelong restaurant inside the main shell is the serious dining option, operating in a vaulted space under the main roof structure.

For better value within walking distance: the Quay restaurant at Overseas Passenger Terminal (a 10-minute walk) has held two Chef’s Hat awards for years and the view from the dining room is comparable to anything in Sydney. The food precinct at Barangaroo, 15 minutes west along the Cahill Expressway path, has good-quality Korean, Japanese, and modern Australian options.

The Harbour Context

The Sydney Harbour is the Opera House’s necessary frame. The 2019 Vivid Sydney festival, which projects light installations onto the Opera House’s shells, runs for three weeks in late May and early June; the transformed building is a different experience from the white shells of daytime. The New Year’s Eve fireworks at midnight, launched from barges in the harbour, are visible from the Opera House steps and from the harbour foreshore paths.