Opera House in Australia

A masterpiece of human creativity, the Sydney Opera House welcomes millions of visitors from all over the world every year. Unfortunately, due to current government restrictions the iconic venue has been forced to close its doors. Instead, a new digital program called From our House to Yours has launched to inspire, educate and entertain.

Digital Season

The program will include full-length performances and talks, never-before-seen footage, podcasts, long-form articles and behind-the-scenes content. It’s designed to bring people together, regardless of where they are. Content will be available free on-demand from the Sydney Opera House website.

In addition, exclusive new content will be released nightly at 6pm from Wednesday to Saturday. It will include performances from artists like Missy Higgins and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, talks from The Writers Room and All About Women, and readings from authors such as David Walliams.

Sydney Opera House is set on beautiful Sydney Harbour and features world-class performances of opera, ballet, classical and modern music, contemporary dance, theatre and more.

Things to do

Opened in 1973, the Sydney Opera House hosts more than 1,600 performances a year in its concert halls and theatres, from opera to comedy shows. Even the famous sails become a brilliant canvas for incredible digital lightshows such as Vivid Sydney, the biggest festival of light, music and ideas in the world, held in May and June.

One of the sails is illuminated daily at sunset, 7pm, 8pm and 9pm with the work of Aboriginal artists in the Badu Gili exhibition. You can also walk around the Opera House forecourt, day or night, and marvel at the unique building, which uses seawater from the harbour to power both the cooling and heating.

Enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed building on daily guided tours, available in English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. You’ll peek behind the curtains and uncover the fascinating stories of Australia’s most celebrated performing arts centre.

Interesting facts of opera House in Australia

• ydney Opera House sits on Bennelong Point. Bennelong Point was named after Woollarawarre Bennelong, a senior Eora man at the time of the arrival of British colonisers in Australia in 1788.
• The original cost estimate to build Sydney Opera House was $7 million. The final cost was $102 million and it was largely paid for by a State Lottery.
• 233 designs were submitted for the Opera House international design competition held in 1956. Jørn Utzon from Denmark was announced the winner, receiving ₤5000 for his design.
• Construction was expected to take four years. It took 14 years. Work commenced in 1959 and involved 10,000 construction workers.
• Paul Robeson was the first person to perform at Sydney Opera House. In 1960, he climbed the scaffolding and sang Ol’ Man River to the construction workers as they ate lunch.
• Sydney Opera House was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2007 
• There are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1.62 hectares sitting over the structure. They were made in Sweden.
• Seven A380s could sit wing-to-wing on the site.
• Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20th October, 1973. She has since visited four times, most recently in 2006.
• When the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is on stage in the Concert Hall, the temperature must be 22.5 degrees to ensure the instruments stay in tune. Temperature and humidity are critical to musical instruments.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger (former actor and Governor of California) won his final Mr Olympia body building title in 1980 in the Concert Hall.
• A net was installed above the orchestra pit in the Joan Sutherland Theatre during the 1980s following an incident during the opera Boris Godunov. The opera featured live chickens and one bird walked off the stage and landed on top of a cellist.
• More than 10.9 million people visit the Opera House every year.
• Sydney Opera House is cooled using seawater taken directly from the harbour. The system circulates cold water from the harbour through 35 kilometres of pipes to power both the heating and air conditioning in the building.
• Each year, Lunar New Year is celebrated at the Opera House with sails lit in red, Lunar Lanterns and Mandarin tours. In 2019, some 25,000 people celebrated with us.