The tour was for 7 am.
Ouch.
We were on the younger side of our international group, but not by a lot. All twelve arrived by 6:45 am excited (and a little sleepy) to see what happens behind the scenes. One man had a nice camera and also wanted to take pictures. Michael, our guide, clearly told us when we could and could not take pictures. For instance, we were not allowed to take pictures in the green room (even of our beautiful post-tour breakfast) because that is a private space for those participating in shows. Their sanctuary. Other things could not be photographed because of copyrights.
Michael was giving this tour "backwards" due to a rehearsal about to take place in the concert hall. Otherwise, we would have had to skip that portion of the tour. This was the first time he did the tour in this order -- the other 119 have been the same. He did great.
As we listened to Michael, I was reminded of the tour I went on last year. It takes hearing information a couple of times, and in different formats, to truly sink in.
Last year the opera house celebrated its 50th anniversary, meaning it opened in 1973. It's history, though, dates back to 1947 when Eugene Goossens, the conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra started petitioning for a real concert hall so he could stop having to share Town Hall. In 1952 the NSW Premier, Joseph Cahill agreed and an international competition for designs was conducted. The winner was Jorn Utzon, a 38-year old public servant from Denmark who had never designed a building of this magnitude before. Much has been written about this history, including how (due to changes in government and overruns in costs) he was encouraged to quit from the project before it was completed and did not receive the recognition he deserved for many decades. He left Sydney and refused to return to Australia. In 1960, it was to cost 7 million pounds. By the time it was completed in 1973 the form of currency had changed and the price tag skyrocketed to $180million AUD ($3.2 billion AUD in today's dollars).
It was paid for via fundraisers and cost the government nothing. In 1958 there was a box asking for petty donations. Then a lottery for a hundred pound prize with the profits from the lottery tickets funding the opera house. These tickets covered 80% of the costs.
Utzon's original concept was only for the outside. It did not include the inner workings.
Today there is a central passage, one we crisscrossed throughout the tour. It used to be road with trucks bringing in sets.
There are six venues and two main halls. Everyone enters and leaves through the same door we used.
Until the 1990s there were no accidents here. In the early 1990s it was excavated TWELVE stories down. It goes up EIGHT stories. Similar to an iceberg, more of the building is below ground than it is above.
First we went to the Concert Hall. The stagehands were setting up for the Australian Girls Choir that would rehearse soon, and perform that night. We looked at a screen that shows the concert hall above us. We were allowed upstairs, but told we had to stay out of the way. We stayed in the wings.
We were not allowed to take pictures here because the work that was being done was subject to copyright. Fortunately there were a lot of places where we could take pictures.
The 2,700 seat Concert Hall was designed for classical music performances. No microphones are used because it was designed to work with the acoustics. The eucalyptus timbers used are of different densities to absorb and move the sounds using techniques designed by the Ancient Greeks. The sound only moves in one direction -- towards the audience. The white birch cushioned seats absorb the sounds from the audience so that does not bounce back to the stage. The ceiling was made from only one eucalyptus tree with its slabs being only a half a centimeter thick. It is all original timber. It came from a building in 1960 and sent to Tasmania to carve. The opera house is carbon negative, meaning they create more carbon than they use. Nothing is replaced. The seats are all oringal, though they have been reappulstered.
The floor is broken into 48 blocks. Up until 2022 this was done manually. From 2020-22 there was a massive renovation that replaced the stage to make it move mechanically. This was a planned renovation that happened to coincide with the pandemic. All of the seats and stands used on stage are stored inside the stage. Eighteen pink fiberglass petals were added 70 feet above the stage to the ceiling to further control the acoustics. It takes about a third of a second for the sound to bounce from the petal back down to the stage.
At 10,244 pipes, the concert hall boasts the world's largest mechanical pipe organ. It uses technology invented in the 1300s. The gears work like a clockwork -- no delays. The sound is instantaneous and reliable. Only 132 pipes are visible. The temperature in the room changes the sound, therefore the room is always kept at 22 degrees C (72F). It took a decade to cast all of the pipes, two years to install it, and two more years to retune it. The only time it has been tuned since was when it was closed for renovations.
We watched the lights being installed on stage. The rods swing into the ceiling. Michael said every group who uses the opera house has to use their lighting team. Six months ahead of a performance the group sends them what they want to do and their lighting team makes it happen. They have over 540,000 lighting units. The set up is complete before the rehearsal starts. They arrive at 6 am for an 8:30 am rehearsal.
The sound desk is in the middle, at the back of the front section. It folds into a wall when it is not needed.
There is a hoisting elevator to bring up stuff. There are no scenery sets used in this space.
The opera house has 48 pianos: mostly Steinways plus one Yamaha. The Yamaha is cheaper to rent. The 13 foot Steinway is stored inside the stage.
We left the stage to see the star's dressing room. That is the dressing room for the star of the concert hall. As you enter the room, the first thing you notice is the panoramic view of the Sydney Harbor. Then you notice the grand piano, couches, TV screen showing what is happening on stage, and ample seating areas for your staff.
Here we are allowed to take pictures because there is no one using it. The room is more than large enough for us to comfortably sit in while Michael gives us some more history. I suspect we are at the halfway point. Still hanging on his every word.
As we walked to the dressing room we passed the wall people kiss as they are about to go on stage. Yes, sounds a bit gross, but tradition! The wall is UNESCO protected (as are many other parts of the opera house) and cannot be replaced. Lizzo kissed the wall, did Dame Joan Sutherland, and many others. The tradition dates back to the shipping industry when captains kissed the hulls of their ships. Many theater traditions (such as not whistling in a theater) date back to the ship building industry. Many seaman worked in theaters because they were agile climbers. They whistled cues to each other. We don't whistle in theaters because me might accidently give a cue.
There are 48 dressing rooms. It is a maze down there! The arrows help.
We took a shortcut to the other side, over the third largest venue in the opera house. The stage was three stories below us. We had an eye level view of the fly bars carrying a metric ton of material above the stage. This theater is a smaller version of the Joan Sutherland Theater (where we saw Sunset Boulevard two days earlier). They hide the scenery above the stage.
Michael showed us the wind machine that was made for the opera house, and is protected by UNESCO, but has NEVER been used. By the time the opera house opened, the technology was too dated. The rules, though, say anything built for the theater must be preserved. That includes the ropes needed to operate the machine.
We returned to the Central Passage, which meant please turn off our cameras.
Now we are at the start of his normal tour. Michael exhales a slight breath of relief and grins a little larger.
There are six shows a week in the summer with alternating operas. There are 14 set pieces the size of the stage in this space.
Suddenly it doesn't feel so large.
Sunset Boulevard only had one set, so once it was on stage it stayed there.
The sets are built off-site.
We are two stories below the stage. Most of us took the spiral staircase. A few took the elevator. The elevator is a 30 second ride to the top. It replaced the original elevator in 2017, meaning they can have much more elaborate sets.
We then saw where the string basses are stored, and thought of Chris. Michael said every performance is recorded for archive purposes. The symphony is broadcast live on ABC. They can broadcast anywhere. Groups can purchase their recordings. They have an impressively large broadcast team.
The ballet covers the orchestra pit and its 90 musicians to give space to the dancers. The theater has 188 speakers for the instruments. The singers are not amplified.
There are monitors set up to calculate the sounds, and carbon monoxide sensors to keep everyone safe. The piccolos are the worst offenders. In 2017, air conditioning was added to this space.
The operas are the most demanding on their resources. Fifty staff members are needed vs. five for a symphony.
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| View from the pit |
We passed the dressing rooms on the way to the Joan Sutherland Theater. The further away, smaller, and more people in your dressing room, the less important you are. The chorus fits 40 people in each of their dressing rooms.
Because they were between shows, we could peek into the star's dressing room. It did not seem as large as the one in the concert hall.
Entering the stage of the Joan Sutherland Theatre.
We learned more theater language.
"Legs" are the curtains that hide people backstage and mark entrances. The "break a leg" means you go in front of these curtains and are visible to the audience, therefore you are paid. "Chook it is" is the Australian equivalent meaning you can afford to buy chicken ("chook") because you were paid. "Bonne Merde" is the French equivalent relating to the people who came by carriage and left piles of, well, merde outside the entrance.
The stage has permanent trap doors. The elevator for the orchestra pit is up front. There is a passageway behind the orchestra pit to the trap door in the center. There is a story of a Russian performer who got stuck in the elevator. He got flustered and rather than singing in Italian, he came out singing in Russian.
Nowadays 90% of the lights are LEDs. They are more reliable and easier to work with. The only downside is they cannot be faded. The hardest type of performance to light are dancers because you must be able to see their feet clearly.
After we left the theater we headed to the Green Room (which all actors know never seems to be painted green) for a decadent breakfast. I had eggs and avo toast with tea. Yum!
Michael was open for questions. We asked who was the most difficult performer to work with. He told us his answer, but I'll leave it out for his protection.
We asked for his best experience. He said it was when he was called on stage with two days notice to perform. With his stage presence, I'm not surprised he is a professional performer, too.
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Anyone reading this who also went on the tour, please feel free to add comments correcting me, or adding to the post. It was great meeting you.
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