THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

I chose to talk about The Sydney Opera House because I think its
one of the worlds greatest buildings and Id like to be able to
visit it one day.
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre
in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built
by Danish architect Jrn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long
gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957.
Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour, in
2003.
The Opera House was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on October 20, 1973. The
opening was televised and included fireworks and a performance of Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9.
The Sydney Opera House has about 1000 rooms, including five theatres, five rehearsal
studios, two main halls, four restaurants, six bars and numerous souvenir shops.
The roofs of the House are constructed of glazed white granite tiles, imported from
Sweden. Despite their self-cleaning nature, they are still subject to periodic
maintenance and replacement. The House interior is composed of pink granite mined
from Tarana, NSW and wood and brush box plywood supplied from northern NSW.
The five constituent theatres of the Sydney Opera House are the Concert Hall, the
Opera Theatre, the Drama Theatre, the Playhouse and the Studio Theatre. The smallest
building is home to the Bennelong Restaurant.
The Concert Hall contains the Sydney Opera House Grand Organ, the largest
mechanical tracker action organ in the world with over 10,000 pipes.
The theatres are housed in a series of large shells, conceived by dissecting a
hemisphere. The Concert Hall and Opera Theatre are contained in the largest shells,
and the other theatres are located on the sides of the shells. Large free public
performances have also often been staged in front of the Monumental Steps that lead
up to the base of the main sets of shells. A much smaller set of shells set to one side
of the Monumental steps houses one of the formal dining restaurants.