Entertainment
The Sydney Opera House will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Sunday 27 October 2013 with a re-creation of the opening night concert on the Forecourt in front of the iconic venue. An audience of 4,000 music lovers is expected.
Denmark’s Crown Prince Couple, HRH Crown Prince Frederik and HRH Crown Princess Mary, and the family of Opera House architect Jørn Utzon, including his son Jan and daughter Lin, will be in attendance.
The event will be broadcast globally to an expected audience of 65 million people.
“We are proud to help mark this significant anniversary for the Sydney Opera House in the best way possible – through music,” says Rory Jeffes, Managing Director of the Sydney Symphony.
“The SSO has been honoured over the past 40 years to call the Opera House concert hall its home and we look forward to many more years of wonderful music-making under its iconic sails.”
Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron is equally upbeat.
“The Opera House is a masterpiece of creative genius that belongs to all Australians,” Louise says.
“Its heart has always been the art performed on its stages. I am thrilled that the 40th Anniversary Concert will celebrate our resident companies and bring the Opera House’s rich artistic heritage, of which they have been such an important part, to life for the people of Sydney and Australia for one night.”
Prize Winning Design
The Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 2013. Its architect Jørn Utzon was not in attendance. He was awarded the Pritzker Prize for Architecture on the breathtaking structure’s 30th anniversary in 2004. He died at the age of 90 in 2008.
The Sydney Opera House has been widely praised over the last four decades. It has, in fact, become the very symbol of Australia.
“It stands by itself as one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity, not only in the 20th century but in the history of humankind,” says the expert evaluation report to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which was published in 2007.