Take a seat in its Concert Hall, one of the most coveted event spaces in the world, and admire the complex architectural structure of the ceiling and the grandiose stage. The Opera House hosts performance art shows of all kinds: comedy, opera, dance, musical theater and much more - you are spoiled for choice.
I have already spoken at length about its architectural wonders but, being a venue, quite some space must be dedicated to the performances and events taking place here too.
The Sydney Opera House was built on lands that once belonged to the Gadigal people.
The Badu Gili, which means ‘water light’ in the Gadigal language, is a stunning light show projected in the evening onto the white walls of the iconic building. Climb to the top of the steps for the best view of the stunning light show that tells the stories of the Aboriginal nation.
It is the bold and at the same time harmonious container of 4 theatres, as well as shops and a restaurant. Capable of 5,738 seats, the Concert Hall hosts operas, ballets and symphonic, choral, folk, pop and jazz concerts; its organ, equipped with over 10,000 pipes, is the largest mechanical instrument of its kind in the world and it is even used as a cinema.
There is also a restaurant in the Opera House and it’s hard to say what is best about this place, whether it is the exceptional menu or the breathtaking view. Its cuisine offers typical Australian flavours, including the mud crab and dining overlooking the glittering harbor is the icing on the cake.
Sydney and Australia today celebrate 50 years of the Opera House, the iconic theater of the bay of the first oceanic metropolis and of world architecture which has become one of the symbols of the largest country down under just like the kangaroos and the monolith of Uluru-Ayers Rock.
A laser show will illuminate ‘the sails’ - as we call them - of the building on Sydney Harbour, as and probably more than what happens every New Year's Eve, when the New South Wales city, one of the first to see the arrival of the new year, and its iconic monument become one of the stars of every TV and web news program.
New Year's Eve is the night Sydney gets all dressed up and shows the world how beautiful she is, with a festival of fire exploding in the midnight sky.
During the Opera Gala concert, an iconic and punctual annual appointment for few lucky ones, crowds of locals and visitors alike stare at the fireworks that the whole world watches on television. The intermission of the Gala is timed for the 9pm fireworks and the Sydney Opera House remains open well past the midnight fireworks.
There's nowhere else in the world like Sydney on New Year's Eve and there's nowhere closer to the action than the Sydney Opera House which is of course the best viewing point as the fireworks are shot in the bay.
The building designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon was also celebrated with artificial intelligence. Some architects applied the styles of the most famous architects of the last century and the new millennium to the structure therefore re imagining the symbol of the city's skyline and having it take the most unprecedented shapes.
But we like our ‘sails’ as they are, perfect or imperfect, but so Aussie.
