The
Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia. It is one
of the most distinctive and famous 20th
century buildings, and one of the most
famous performing arts venues in the world.
Situated on Bennelong Point in Sydney
Harbour, with parkland to its south and
close to the enormous Sydney Harbour Bridge,
the building and its surroundings form
an iconic Australian image. To some, the
spherical-sectioned shells are reminiscent
of the flotilla of sailboats commonly
cruising there. Tourists - mostly with
little or no interest in opera - throng
to the building in the thousands every
week purely to see it. As well as many
touring theatre, ballet, and musical productions
the Opera House is the home of Opera Australia,
the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra. It is administered
by the Opera House Trust, under the New
South Wales Ministry of the Arts.
The
Opera House covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres)
of land and offers 4.5 hectares (11 acres)
of usable office space. It is 183 metres
(600 feet) tall and about 120 metres (388
feet) wide at its widest point. It is
supported on 580 concrete piers sunk up
to 25 metres below sea level. Its power
supply is equivalent for a town of 25,000
people. The power is distributed by 645
kilometres of electrical cable. The roofs
of the House are constructed of 1,056,000
glazed white granite tiles, imported from
Sweden. Despite their self-cleaning nature,
they are still subject to periodic maintenance
and replacement. The Sydney Opera House
has about 1000 rooms, including five theatres,
five rehearsal studios, two main halls,
four restaurants, six bars and numerous
souvenir shops. The House interior is
composed of pink granite mined from Tarana,
NSW and wood and brush box plywood supplied
from northern NSW.
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