I Can't Get Enough of this Place

My birthday is coming up on Friday so I bought myself a little present last week.  I went and saw “The King and I” at the Sydney Opera House.  And I had a pretty good seat too – 8^th row, just left of center stage. 

There are several venues at the SOH.  “The King and I” was staged in the Joan Sutherland Theater, named after the famous Australian opera singer and who I later learned I share a birthday with.  The theater is on the small side.  If I’m not mistaken I believe its seating capacity is only 1500.  The interior is very sleek, and contemporary – very understated as opposed to the Fox Theater in Atlanta or the Boston Opera House but breathtaking nonetheless.  

Normally I’m not the type of person to take a tour but I’m so captivated by the SOH and I have no idea if I will get this chance again so I went back on Sunday and took the official tour.  It lasted only one hour and we didn’t get to see anything that I would consider extra special but we were taken into all the performance rooms – the Concert Hall, the Joan Sutherland Theater, the Studio, the Drama Theater, the Playhouse, and the Utzon Room (named for the architect who designed the SOH).  And to make things convenient for everyone the tour ended at the gift shop.    

My favorite room by far was the Concert Hall.  It is absolutely gorgeous!  It looks and feels like a cathedral and has a pipe organ with more than 10,000 pipes.  According to the tour guide the organ is very rarely used.  

I have so many pictures of the SOH!  Every time I passed by I would snap at least 10 or 15 photos.  Click here to view a few of my favorites from the past week.