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Articles and stories from the Sydney Opera House
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Pavements tells the truth by telling a bunch of lies
One of the more amusing twists in the career of Pavement, cult icons of the 90s, is the recent attempts to decode a band that have forged their career on being undecodable. Coming to fame amidst the grunge explosion, but drawing more on the art-rock surrealism of bands like The Fall than the metal and punk of their contemporaries, Pavement’s career has seen them reject coherence at every turn.
Art at the House
Restoring the Coburn Tapestries
John Coburn was at the height of his fame when the artist was pitched to architect Peter Hall to design the Sydney Opera House theatre curtains in 1969. Hall had taken over from Danish architect Jørn Utzon and was ushering the building towards completion.
The inside story of Olsen’s celebrated Opera House mural
The story went like this. It was a Saturday night. There was much jollity. They heard there was a party that night in Mosman, so they all went down to the ferry. Joe Lynch, the cartoonist, was with them. It had been a rainy day and Joe had two bottles of beer in each pocket of his overcoat. And so they all got on to the ferry and then, when they were near what is now the Opera House, a big liner passed by, the ferry jostled in the turbulence, and after a while someone said: ‘Where’s Joe?’ Joe had fallen overboard, anchored down by those bottles of beer. A true Australian death.
A Possum Story
Jagamara traveled widely in the Northern Territory and began to paint as a second generation Papunya artist. I had heard a lot about him but first met him at the 1986 Biennale of Sydney: Origins, Originality, and Beyond. He’d already completed his beautifully balanced, layered Five Stories masterpiece painting by then. I remember him as warm, open and friendly and our travelling group bonded with him.
Cinema and Screen
You can now watch Underworld turn the Concert Hall into a rave cave
The electronic dance duo has owned the scene for decades. In the 90’s, they transitioned from synth-pop to techno, releasing influential albums dubnobasswithmyheadman, Second Toughest in the Infants and Beaucoup Fish. Their nostalgic track Born Slippy (Nuxx) featured in Trainspotting became an international smash hit. And in 2012, they even scored the London Olympics.
Ever wanted to watch a film and immediately grill the director?
You’re probably used to watching films without the director in the room. Any praises, thoughts, or questions you have are left shared with whoever you’re with at the time. But imagine if you could question the actual director about their film right after watching it? Well, at Sydney Film Festival this year, you can. We’re screening a wide selection of films as part of the festival, and some come paired with a special director Q&A. Check out the directors you could meet below.
Surfing at the Opera House: An Unexpected History
In between the gowns and Galilean binoculars, another crowd was gathering at the Opera House that evening. Surfers. Hundreds of young people clad in desert boots, sun-bleached hair, and ripped jeans, descend on the Opera House. Skateboards in hand, they head to the Cinema, now known as the Playhouse.
Music
For Arthur Jafa, Black art is the heart of America
Jafa first rose to prominence as the cinematographer on Julie Dash’s groundbreaking Daughters of the Dust (1991). He has since shot films for Spike Lee and Stanley Kubrick and most recently worked as a cinematographer with Solange and Jay-Z. His work has been collected by museums worldwide including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and The Smithsonian.
There’s Something in the Wata
This July, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will combine that millennia of inheritance with a tradition more than 50,000 years in the making. Wata is an ambitious and beautiful new work that brings together three distinct musical forms – orchestral music, improvised music, and the traditional ceremonies of the people of south east Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory – to create something totally unique yet profoundly human.
The French songwriting duo who dared to dream a dream
A moment to remember forever, it remains a highlight of the 40-year-plus collaboration of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the musical theatre masterminds responsible for transforming Giacomo Puccini’s soaring opera Madame Butterfly and Victor Hugo’s literary masterpiece Les Misérables into rock operas for the ages.
First Nations
Tubowgule
Ever since it was a place for ceremony, gathering and celebration in Aboriginal Australia, Tubowgule has always reflected the society tucked in around Sydney Cove.
Deborah Mailman on Rhoda Roberts’ “remarkable” 16 years at the Sydney Opera House
n 1993, Bundjalung woman Rhoda Roberts, then known as the host of SBS’ current affairs show Vox Populi, starred in Louis Nowra’s Radiance at Belvoir St Theatre, an acclaimed play that seemed to open the floodgates for Indigenous theatre in the mid 90s. Roberts played Nona, one of three estranged half-sisters united for their mother’s funeral, a role written specifically for her. Five years later, an unknown young Indigenous actress named Deborah Mailman would play that same role, making her film debut in the big screen adaptation.
Badu Gili’s Frances Belle Parker
Ten thousand pegs washed in plaster form the shape of an island across a gallery floor. On each peg, the words ‘Ulgundahi Island’ are handwritten then hidden. As time goes on, the plaster is designed to flake off and reveal the name of the island the artwork takes its form from.
Kids & Families
What the school holidays look like this summer: golden underpants, colourful sheep and a bike ride through imagination
Summer at the House is all about soaking up the sunshine, having a laugh and gold underpants. Yep. You heard that right. There’s plenty of joyful adventures this season. Bring the family, follow your imagination and let the holidays shine a little brighter by the water.
School kids write migrant family stories into song
Instructions for songwriter Luke Escombe’s first encounter with class 5/6H of Lansvale Public School were loose. “Walk in with your guitar and just start singing,” is the advice he remembers being given. “Within seconds of entering the classroom, I was standing on a chair singing about avocado.” But it was a story shared by two girls that stuck with Luke. Ivy’s father and Zoe’s grandfather both fought in the Vietnam War under the now forbidden flag of South Vietnam. Forty years later in a front yard in Canley Vale, the two men reunited.
My Inspirational Teacher: Pasi Sahlberg
Pasi Sahlberg knows what it means to be a good teacher. A maths and science teacher himself, Professor Sahlberg is now a world-leading advisor on schools and education systems – preaching the importance of the autonomy of the student and the value of play in the classroom. Ahead of his conversation series about the Australian education sector, we asked Pasi about his own childhood teaching inspirations.
