Celebrating The Genesis Of Opera House For Sydney

This month, Sydney Opera House celebrates 50 years since Jørn Utzon won the international competition to build an Opera House for Sydney. Early in 1957, Jørn Utzon's vision of shimmering white shells rising from a solid podium was presented as a revolutionary design for an opera house for Sydney. In selecting his design, the judging panel forever changed the way the world saw Sydney and Australia.

Sydney Opera House will commemorate this anniversary with a free exhibition called Utzon's Winning Vision. Located in the Western Foyers, it will be a thought-provoking look at some of the architectural schemes that came so close to being built on Sydney Harbour, set together with classic Dupain images documenting the feat of how Utzon's Opera House came to be built.

Norman Gillespie, Sydney Opera House CEO, commented, "I don't think anyone realised 50 years ago how important the Sydney Opera House would become and what a historic moment this would be for the future of Sydney and Australia."

This exhibition pays tribute to Utzon's vision and showcases alternative commended competition entries, those that might have become our Sydney Opera House.

The exhibit will also present a series of favourite photographic images taken by Max Dupain of Sydney Opera House during construction. These stunning images capture Utzon's creation taking shape and record Utzon, and those who engineered and built the Opera House, turning his winning vision into a reality.

Dr Gillespie said, "The competition entries, Utzon's designs and Dupain's photographs are all part of Sydney Opera House's story. By staging this exhibition as part of our free public programs, we wanted to give visitors and Sydneysiders an insight in to how their Opera House was conceived and how it came to be built."

This half century milestone has also been marked with a new collection of ten engaging essays on Sydney Opera House launched by the Hon. Paul Keating last year. Building a Masterpiece: the Sydney Opera House, published by Powerhouse Museum, reflects on the 50-year history of the Opera House and initiates a fresh investigation and interpretation of the many narratives that have contributed to the uniqueness and drama of the building's story.

Anne Watson, editor of Building a Masterpiece, will host a free talk on the genesis and conclusion of the international competition to design an Opera House for Sydney, and how one of our national icons - indeed what we are today - was born of the interaction of the skills, talents and energy of a dynamic multi-national team. This talk will be held in the Western Foyers exhibition space during February, at a date and time to be confirmed.

Anne said of the competition, "Much has been made of the imaginative and daring choice of the four competition judges in January 1957. However, other entries by architects like Harry Seidler, Peter Kollar, and Robert Geddes, commended by the competition judges, provide fascinating insights into the wide range of modernist design responses to the site and the competition brief."

Utzon's Winning Vision is open through 28 February, 2007 and the book Building a Masterpiece: the Sydney Opera House is available for purchase at the Sydney Opera House Store. -- www.sydneyoperahouse.com