Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House, located at Bennelong Point in the north of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was built in March 1959 and officially put into use on October 20, 1973. It is an Australian landmark.

The Sydney Opera House covers an area of 1.8 hectares. It is located on a granite base 19 meters from the sea. The highest shell top is 60 meters from the sea. The total building area is 88000 square meters. There is a 2700 seat concert hall, a 1550 seat opera house and a 420 seat small theater. There are 900 rooms, including exhibitions, recording, bars and restaurants. In 2007, the Sydney Opera House was rated as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO.

The plan to build the Sydney Opera House began in the 1940s, when Eugene Goosens, the dean of the Sydney Conservatory of Music, lobbied to build a place where large-scale dramatic works could be performed. At that time, Sydney City Hall, the venue for theatrical performances, was too small for theatrical performances. In 1954, Goosens successfully won the support of New South Wales Prime Minister Joseph Cahill. Joseph Cahill asked to design a theater dedicated to opera and wanted to build it closer to Wenyed Railway Station in the northwest of CBD, but Goosens insisted on building the opera house on Bennelong Point.