Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House boasted its iconic bridge. Painted a gloomy gray, he seemed to Calvinist conscience, looms over the town, which was conceived as a gulag of King George, and still can not free itself from the strong influence of the small island at the other end of the world. One look at our bridge enough to watch a second time did not want to. The construction of this solid structure was almost ruined the British firm of Dorman, Long. Granite piers, enlarged copy of a Cenotaph in Whitehall, in fact, nothing does not support, but their construction has helped Yorkshire Middlesbrough survive depression. But even decorated with Olympic rings and enormous Australian flag, the Sydney Bridge is now nothing more than a proscenium, as the views of tourists irresistibly attracts a wonderful silhouette of the Opera, which seemed to hover over the blue waters of the harbor. This generation of daring architectural fantasy easily outshines most giant steel arch in the world.

Some believe the Opera House a magnificent specimen of "frozen music," spoken of by Goethe. Others see it thrown out on the land the white whale; galleon, sailing to the magical land of elves and nine ears, listening to the angelic singing and nine nuns playing football ... "Claws, chop off a huge dog-albino" - so once put the Sydney journalist Ron Saw. "Like something crawled out of the bay to the land and died, - taunted a hostile policy and added: - pies in this thing are not going to sell." Like all true masterpieces, the Opera House is unique and is similar only to itself. Of course, I am only talking about his appearance. Interior, which is rarely photographed, born under the influence of diverse ideas 60's and reminds hall to play bingo, even in the same Middlesbrough. In a sense, the Opera House did not justify its name - most of the opera is set not. Small hall, designed for chamber music performances, almost entirely black. Add back a brilliant ball and get the usual suburban disco. Why did it happen? The fact that the building was designed by one man, a Danish architect Jorn Uttson, and its interior - complicated commission, which the Australian critic Philip Drew calls "a bunch of nothingness." It is a sad story but it helps to understand why almost all modern architectural buildings so ugly.

As he Sydney Opera House was coined by the British. In 1945 in Australia, Sir Eugene Goossens arrived, a violinist and composer, who was invited by the Australian Committee for Television and Radio (while it was headed by another Refined Briton, Sir Charles Moses) as a conductor to record the concert series. Goossens discovered by local residents, "an unusually strong interest" to the musical art, but to satisfy it was almost nowhere, except the Sydney Town Hall, on the architecture resembles a "wedding cake" in the spirit of the Second Empire, with bad acoustics and the audience of 2500 people. Like many other visitors, Goossens struck sidneytsev indifference to the magnificent panorama, against which the city spread, and their love for the hackneyed European ideas that have arisen in a very different historical and cultural context. This "cultural cringing" later reflected in the skirmish at the Opera House designed by foreigners.

Goossens, this lover of bohemian life and a tireless bon vivant, know what is missing: the palace to opera, ballet, theater and concerts - "Society must be aware of contemporary musical achievements." In the company of Kurt Langer, a city planner originally from Vienna, he was a true missionary zeal combed the city looking for a suitable location. They opted for a rocky promontory Bennelong Point near circular quay - a nodal point, where citizens transplanted from ferries to trains and buses. On this promontory, named in honor of the Australian aborigines, another first Sydney governor, stood Fort Macquarie - this monster, pozdneviktorianskaya fake antique. For its strong walls with loopholes and battlements turrets hidden modest facility - central tram depot. Short period of fascination with the criminal past of Sydney residents were still ahead. "And thank God - as noted by one visitor - otherwise they would be recorded in the monuments, even tram depot!" Goossens considered findings are "ideal". He dreamed about a huge audience hall at 3500-4000, in which all isstradavshiesya without music sidneytsy could finally quench your cultural thirst.

The first "conversion" began Mr. Ingem Ashuert, a former British colonel at the time professor of architecture at Sydney University. If he knew what a sense, it is likely in the Indian barracks than in opera houses, but once charmed ideas Goossens, became her loyal adept and tenacious defender. Ashuert Goossens introduced to John Joseph Cahill, a descendant of Irish immigrants, who soon was to become the Labour premier of New South Wales. Expert in backroom politics, dreams carry art to the masses, Cahill has provided a plan of aristocrats supported the Australian public - many to this day called the Opera House Taj Cahill. " He was attracted to the cause of yet another lover of the opera - Wall Haviland, head of Sydney Water Management. Things are moving.

May 17, 1955 the State Government gave permission to build the Opera House on Bennelong Point, under the condition that public funds are not needed. On the design of the building was declared an international competition. The following year, Cahill's office with great difficulty, managed to hold on to power for a second three-year term. Time is running out, but the sanctimonious, the provincial New South Wales is already preparing the fighters for the cultivation of Sydney's first retaliatory strike. Some unknown called Moses, and warned that the baggage Goossens, who had gone abroad to study opera houses, will be inspected at Sydney airport - then, in donarkoticheskuyu era, it was unheard of impudence. Moses did not disclose this to his friend, and on his return in suitcases were found Goossens attributes "Black Mass", including rubber masks, shaped genitals. It turned out that the musician sometimes whiled away the boring Sydney evening in the company of lovers of black magic, led by a certain Rosalyn (Rowe) Norton - a very famous person in the relevant circles. Goossens said that the ritual accessories (which today would not have received even a cursory glance at the annual ball of Sydney gay men and lesbians) were imposed on his blackmailers. His was fined one hundred pounds, he left the conductor of the new Sydney Symphony Orchestra and went back to England, where he died in misery and obscurity. So Opera has lost its first, most eloquent and influential advocate.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney central business district (CBD) and the North Shore. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of both Sydney and Australia. The bridge is locally nicknamed "The Coat Hanger" because of its arch-based design.