Sydney Opera House is a State, National and World Heritage landmark, listed under UNESCO’s criterion (i): A masterpiece of human creative genius, and widely recognised as one of the greatest buildings of the twentieth century. Its unique profile, including its extraordinary roof structure of 10 white sails, provides a silhouette that is recognised around the world.
Sydney Opera House is an extraordinary building located on Bennelong Point, a 5.8 hectare peninsular at the northern end of the Sydney CBD. Overlooked by the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the west, the skyscrapers of the city to the south and North Sydney to the north, Sydney Opera House in its stunning harbour setting brings instant recognition to Sydney and Australia.
Sydney Opera House contains 7 main performance venues among its 1000 rooms:
▪ Concert Hall
▪ Opera Theatre
▪ Drama Theatre
▪ Playhouse
▪ Studio
▪ Utzon Room
▪ Forecourt
One of the world’s busiest performing arts centres, it operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Each year, around 1700 performances are enjoyed by 1.25 million patrons. The site welcomes about 7.4 million visitors a year and round 320,000 people take a guided tour.
The unique combination of aesthetics, ground breaking engineering and its synthesis with its setting makes it the subject of study and inspiration for architects and engineers around the world. It’s position as a world class performing arts centre inspires the world’s best performing artists.
Since the official opening in October 1973, Sydney Opera House has become a primary venue for community celebration and public festivities. It is fully ingrained in the cultural identity of Sydney.Sydney Opera House is a drawcard for many major special events of national and international significance and has been a centrepiece for events such as New Year’s Eve, Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, APEC World Leader’s Forum 2007, FIFA World Congress, World Youth Day 2008 and Australian Idol Finals.
Sydney Opera House General Site Arrangements