An icon of creativity which stands as the ambassador for Australia is the Sydney Opera House on the Sydney Harbour and next to the central business district of Sydney. Within a close proximity of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House is a venue for a plethora of performing arts and got built in 1973 under the design of Jorn Utzon.
While the location of Bennelong Point already makes the Sydney Opera House a stunner, the other aspects which have always made it worth complementing are its expressionist design and construction which reinstate the modernist believes. The roof, which has a shape similar to that of a shell shaped sail, and the foundation beneath, which is made of red granite, together make the structure grand matching it with the nearby Harbour Bridge. The stunning structure of the Sydney Opera House is a milestone which not only looks splendid from all directions but also from air, from the ferry, and certainly not to forget from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. For all these reasons it has also been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The planning of the Sydney Opera House was done by the NSW Government and it took 16 years to complete the entire structure. During this time it always remained a topic of debate because of its escalating cost, engineering complexities, and also the resignation of the architect. Though it seems to be a single staged location, it actually has a number of stages and performing podiums which host about 1500 performance every single year, thereby making it one of the busiest performing arts centres across the world. There are also some in house productions companies of the Sydney Opera House, namely The Opera Australia, The Australia Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
The performing venues of the Sydney Opera House are named as The Concert House, The Joan Sutherland Theatre, The Drama Theatre, The Playhouse, The Studio, The Utzon Room, and The Forecourt. While the first venue is the largest of all with a seating capacity of 2, 679 seats, the others too are of appreciable sizes. The inside of the all the venues provide a sensory experience with a unique combination of sound and colour. All of them are managed by the Sydney Opera House Trust and usually get a tourist inflow of about 7, 00,000 every year. In addition to the performing venues there are also cafes, studios, restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, and retails joints. It is easy to have a good look of the entire Sydney Opera House with the help of the guided tours which are available at the premises.
The entry to the Sydney Opera House requires a ticket and it is connected with all major forms of transport like buses, trains, and ferries. While it has its own private parking, taxis can also drop you on the vehicle concourse of the Sydney Opera House which is accessible from the Macquarie Street.