Sydney Opera House

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Sydney Opera House (2007). Jorn Utzon'S Sail Roofed Performing Arts Complex On Bennelong Point, Opened In 1973 After Fourteen Years Of Construction, Hosting Opera, Ballet, Theatre And Concerts Across Multiple Halls Under The Most Photographed Roofline In The Southern Hemisphere · Sydney, New South Wales

The Sydney Opera House sits on Bennelong Point at the edge of Circular Quay, its white roof built from more than a million cream and white ceramic tiles across ten sail-shaped shells that catch the light differently through the day. Danish architect Jorn Utzon won an international design competition in 1957, and construction ran fourteen years over budget, finally opening in 1973 after Utzon resigned from the project in 1966 over disputes with the state government. It is not one theatre but several under that single roofline: the Concert Hall, the Joan Sutherland Theatre, a drama theatre, a smaller playhouse, a studio and a recording space, between them staging opera, ballet, symphony concerts, theatre and contemporary music most nights of the year. UNESCO listed the building as a World Heritage Site in 2007, an unusually early listing for so recent a structure. Anyone can walk the free public forecourt and steps without a ticket, and the harbour view toward the Harbour Bridge from there is one of the most photographed in the world.

Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour, at the eastern end of Circular Quay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The building itself keeps no single closing time, since it holds a working theatre complex rather than a single exhibit. Box office and front-of-house areas generally run from mid-morning into the evening. Guided walking tours run at set times through the day and generally stop on public holidays and some bump-in days for a major production. The forecourt and steps stay open and free at all hours with no gate. Individual performances keep their own start times, mostly evenings with some weekend matinees, so there is no single generic timetable to rely on.

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