Sydney Opera House Celebrates Its Half-Century Anniversary

The building is a well-known Australian landmark estimated by Deloitte to have a cultural worth of $11.4 billion.

The prime waterfront location in Sydney is certainly valuable, but the company claims that the true worth lies in the building's status as an international icon of Australia, an iconic structure instantly recognizable from a distance like the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building.

More than a million people visit the Opera House each year since its opening on October 20, 1973, while Queen Elizabeth II was still alive. In 1957, Danish architect Jorn Utzon triumphed over other contenders to create the Opera House. He eventually took home the Pritzker Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in architecture.

The Opera is home to much more than just music, as it hosts both foreign and domestic speakers as part of the Big Talks series. There is also content specifically for kids.

The Opera House received rapturous plaudits once it was added to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2007. According to UNESCO, "the Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture." The report labelled the structure a bold and ambitious endeavour because of its "unparalleled design and construction."

The Opera House also invested a great deal of time and effort over the last several decades broadening its appeal. That includes making its shows available online to a wider audience, having specialized personnel and programs to promote the First Nations community, as well as offering tours of the building in other languages to better reach audiences around the world.

According to McKellar, chief customer officer for the Sydney Opera House, the institution's ultimate mission is to serve as a "people's home" to which all Australians are invited. The Opera House's designers wanted the people of Sydney to feel as if they may visit the building whenever they please, not only the many visitors who come to see performances, eat at the restaurants, and take tours.

McKellar claims that this philosophy is reflective of the UNESCO World Heritage site concept, as people would probably visit the landmark more once they are truly aware of its value.

In 2022, 42% of Opera House ticket buyers were first-time attendees, according to box office records. In addition, 790,000 hours of Opera House videos were seen on YouTube. These statistics prove that the Opera House serves as more than just a stunning architectural structure.

 

source: cnn.com