The first opera performed at the Australian Opera in Sydney was War and Peace

Sydney – A giant sailboat anchored in the harbor, a large exotic bird, loving turtles or clams. All this is reminiscent of the remarkable Opera House with its cascading shell-like structures, which has hosted cultural events in the Australian harbor of Sydney for half a century. Exactly that much time will have passed on Thursday, September 28, since the first opera performance was held in this musical venue. At that time, Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace was performed here.

Prokofiev, a master of musical modernity, whose works are among the peaks of 20th-century music, composed this opera between 1941 and 1943. The adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's famous novel was an expression of the composer's deep patriotism. The orchestra at the first performance at the Sydney Opera was conducted by Edward Downes.

Since then, a number of outstanding artists have performed at the Sydney Opera. Leonard Bernstein conducted a concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra here in 1974, Luciano Pavarotti sang here in 1983 at a benefit gala concert, and the pop king Michael Jackson received an award from Sony Music and a statue weighing one ton that greeted him from a raft on the bay's surface in 1996.

Czech music has also resonated in the opera. Bedřich Smetana's The Bartered Bride was conducted here by František Vajnar in 1981, who also concertedly presented Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka here in 1994. Works by Leoš Janáček such as Jenůfa, Katya Kabanova, The Cunning Little Vixen, and From the House of the Dead have also been performed here. Janáček's Sinfonietta was choreographed here by the world-renowned Jiří Kylián.

Among the famous personalities who honored the opera with their presence were British Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II in 1986, South African President Nelson Mandela four years later, U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1996, and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl the following year.

The Opera House is 183 meters long and 120 meters wide. At its highest point, it rises to a height of 67 meters above sea level. The architect of this work, Danish Jørn Utzon, was reportedly inspired by palm leaves and other motifs from the world of nature and architectural history. He was also influenced by the feelings he garnered from visiting the Mayan plateaus in Mexico. His design was already regarded as genius during the selection competition.

The charm of his visionary work is enhanced by the surrounding environment – the building stands at the very end of the Bennelong Point, next to the botanical garden, which creates a green backdrop for the white shell-like shells, while the harbor bay provides an important blue horizontal and the nearby bridge establishes an impressive compositional relationship.

Utzon spent a total of eight years working on this challenging project and was awarded the Pritzker Prize (often referred to as the Nobel Prize for architecture) in 2003 with the words: "Utzon demonstrated that a wonderful and seemingly impossible goal can be achieved in architecture."

With his revolutionary project of the "surrealist swan," Utzon succeeded among 233 designs in the architectural competition of 1957. By then, he was already among the most famous architects on the planet with a distinct style combining monumentality and harmony. "It will be two buildings visibly suspended on shells like a piece of furniture," he proclaimed about his work in 1962. The most prominent elements of the building became these shells covered with light glazed and matte ceramic tiles.

Construction began in 1959, and 10,000 workers were involved in the project. The actual construction of the shells proved to be the biggest structural problem. Thus, Utzon modified his low shapes and derived them from spherical geometry, allowing the ribs of the shells to be assembled from prefabricated parts. However, the columns supporting the stage could not bear the weight of the newly designed roof structure. Therefore, they had to be demolished and replaced with larger ones. A series of special lotteries, which currently fund operations, helped to finance the steeply rising costs.

The opera was inaugurated by British Queen Elizabeth II on October 20, 1973 (she visited it four more times, last in 2006). However, the beauty of this visionary building consumed an extraordinary amount: the original budget of seven million skyrocketed to 102 million Australian dollars. Due to disputes with the government, Utzon was finally dismissed from the project in 1966, which mainly affected the appearance of the interiors. But in the 1990s, he was invited back to plan adjustments to the building.

Today, the entire complex consists of five separate spaces: the concert hall, the opera itself, a drama theater, a playhouse, and a studio. The studio was opened in 1999 and is mostly focused on experimental work. The largest of these spaces is the concert hall with a total of 2,679 seats. Seawater directly from the harbor, which flows through a 35-kilometer-long piping system, is used to power the air conditioning and heating in the buildings.

Since 2017, the opera has undergone extensive renovations. The goal of the 273 million Australian dollar project was primarily to improve acoustics. The indoor spaces, where many concessions had been made to the original Utzon design for financial reasons, did not meet acoustic requirements, and disappointment over poor acoustics had plagued the opera since its opening.

The Sydney Opera has become a symbol of Australia and was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2007. It is visited by nearly eleven million people each year.