What is the Sydney Opera House?

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, designed by the Danish architect Jorn Utzon and opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973. It is one of the most recognisable buildings in the world and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007, the youngest building ever to be granted that status.

Utzon won the international design competition in 1957, beating 232 other entries. Construction began in 1959 and was beset by engineering challenges, particularly around how to build the shell roofs that defined the design. Utzon eventually solved the problem by deriving every shell from sections of a single sphere, allowing the segments to be prefabricated. Cost overruns and political pressure led to Utzon's resignation in 1966, and he left Australia having never seen the completed building.

The completed Opera House contains six performance venues, including the Concert Hall (about 2,700 seats), the Joan Sutherland Theatre, the Drama Theatre, the Playhouse, the Studio, and the Utzon Room. It is the home of Opera Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Ballet, and the Sydney Theatre Company. The building's exterior is covered with more than a million ceramic tiles in two shades of white, manufactured in Sweden, that change appearance under different sky and lighting conditions.

The Opera House hosts more than 1,800 performances each year and draws about 8.2 million visitors annually, making it one of the most-visited buildings on the planet. It also serves as the stage for major national events, including the New Year's Eve fireworks show on Sydney Harbour, citizenship ceremonies, Indigenous art projections during Vivid Sydney, and the lighting of the sails in different colours to mark international occasions like the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.