Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House is a modern wonder of the world. One of the most recognisable and admired buildings of the 20th century, it is a symbol of modern Australia; an ambitious and outward-looking nation. But the iconic building came at a tremendous cost. A legendary calamity of bad planning and mismanagement, it was one of the most over-budget and long-delayed projects in history, and was steeped in personal drama and political conflict. Why did architect Jørn Utzon’s design prove so hard to construct? What innovations did engineers require to complete the ambitious structure? And how did the notoriously troubled project become an icon of modern Australia? This is a Short History Of the Sydney Opera House. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Dr Anne Watson, a curator and author of the book Building a Masterpiece, The Sydney Opera House. Written by Jo Furniss | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact Check: Sean Coleman Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 0:51Speaker 02

  It is noon on February 28th, 1966. The end of summer in Sydney, Australia.

• 0:59Speaker 02

  Inside a ministerial office on Bridge Street, a heated meeting is reaching boiling point.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  Deciding he's had enough, Jörn Utzon, a Danish architect, storms out, slamming the door behind him and stomping out to the street.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  Unaccustomed as he is to stifling temperatures and high humidity, Utzon wilts a little as he strides through the busy streets, but the anger remains.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  It had seemed like a dream job, being appointed to design and build an ambitious new landmark in the city. An eye-catching opera house beside the famous humped harbour bridge that dominates the skyline. But things have not been going to plan.

• 1:44Speaker 02

  The streets are busy with traffic as he hastens back to the construction site.

• 1:50Speaker 02

  He reaches Circular Quay. Its water froths as ships and barges navigate the docks.

• 1:58Speaker 02

  This spectacular natural harbour is the heart of Sydney. The very reason a city is here at all. But the sea breeze barely cools Utzon's mood. He is furious with Davis Hughes, the politician who holds the purse strings of the Opera House project. Utzon crosses the building site and enters his office, but can't settle down at his desk. Hauling open a window, he surveys the work in progress.

• 2:27Speaker 02

  In his mind's eye, he sees a vision of the building he designed. The curved, white, shell-like shapes rising up on its roof. A structural reflection of the waves in the bay. But in reality, the view is a mess. Cranes point fingers at the half-completed structure. The sleek roof is lumpy and jagged with scaffolding. On ground level, construction vehicles stand idle. There are even washing lines strung with the clothing of workers who live on-site in caravans.

• 3:00Speaker 02

  People who are opposed to his design mock it with typical Australian directness. The press say his masterpiece looks like a Danish pastry, a dilapidated circus tent, a sea monster, or even a pair of copulating terrapins.

• 3:17Speaker 02

  The noise of construction reaches a crescendo and Utzon slams a window, shutting it out.

• 3:23Speaker 02

  This project has already taken years of his life. But he decides in this moment that he will either get it done right or not do it at all.

• 3:34Speaker 02

  He calls his secretary into the room. She sits at the typewriter while he dictates a letter to Hughes. He says he cannot afford to pay his workers or suppliers anymore. After his funding was cut in a bid to incentivize him, Utzon has been covering salaries and bills from his own pocket. But he now explains, unless payments resume, he has no option but to resign. He doesn't want to leave, but Hughes' heavy-handed tactics are forcing his hand.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  The secretary tears the letter from the typewriter. He signs, and she takes it away to be delivered.

• 4:14Speaker 02

  Utzon settles in his chair beside a scale model of the Opera House, its tiny people frozen in time. He prays his letter will get the project back in motion.

• 4:26Speaker 02

  To his surprise, he does not have long to wait. The secretary returns with a reply from Davis Hughes that same afternoon. Utzon tears open the envelope. The letter is short. "I accept your resignation," it says. "Thank you very much. Goodbye."

• 4:47Speaker 02

  After a decade working on the design and construction of the Sydney Opera House, its celebrated architect is off the job.

• 5:03Speaker 02

  Sydney Opera House is a modern wonder of the world. One of the most recognizable and admired buildings of the 20th century. The overlapping white curves of its roof likened variously to shells or waves or sails heading out from the harbour. It is a symbol of modern Australia, an ambitious and outward-looking nation.

• 5:27Speaker 02

  But the iconic building came at a tremendous cost. A legendary calamity of bad planning and mismanagement. It was one of the most over-budget and long-delayed projects in history and was steeped in personal drama and political conflict.

• 5:45Speaker 02

  So why did Utzon's designs prove so hard to construct? What innovations did engineers require to complete the ambitious structure? And how did the notoriously troubled project become an icon of modern Australia? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is A Short History of the Sydney Opera House.

• 6:17Speaker 02

  On January 26th, 1788, Captain Arthur Philip disembarks his ship to go ashore beside the gentle water of a large inlet on the eastern coast of Australia.

• 6:31Speaker 02

  He names the landing spot Sydney Cove, after Lord Sydney, the Englishman who gave him his job. Beneath Captain Philip's feet is the spot that will centuries later lie right between the city's harbour bridge and its opera house.

• 6:48Speaker 02

  The wider area is already known as Port Jackson, named by Captain James Cook, who arrived here almost 20 years earlier. It's barely more than a tented camp, but when Philip now raises the Union Jack, he marks the formal beginning of the colonisation of Australia by Great Britain.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  A century later, the small settlement has become Australia's largest city. And in 1901, the country takes its first step to independence with its six colonies uniting to form a federation, the Commonwealth of Australia. Sydney is in the state of New South Wales.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  Thanks in part to the port's deep waters, the city is by now a hub for global trade. It continues to grow, and in 1932, Sydney Harbour Bridge opens to connect the two sides of the bay. Its iconic, arched design dominates a skyline characterized by low-rise buildings and housing.

• 7:53Speaker 02

  The gritty, working-class life of the city's residents inspires a wealth of popular culture. Artists document the contrast between those who struggle in slums and their wealthy counterparts who enjoy the modernizing art-deco metropolis. For many, escape from the toil can be found in the vibrant local dance and music scenes or the sun-soaked surfing beaches like Bondi.

• 8:18Speaker 02

  Despite the architectural under-development of relatively new cities in Australia, the freedom offered by a fresh start here is appealing to many people back in the British Isles. It is mostly English-speaking migrants who first make the arduous journey to escape economic hardship. Between these, as well as waves of European workers, the nation's non-indigenous population swells from nearly 4 million at the turn of the century to 7 million in the 1930s. Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution account for another bump in immigration, and a further surge follows World War II, when the Australian government launches a populate or perish policy,

• 9:01Speaker 02

  designed to boost the workforce, grow the economy and defend its borders.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  Although the nation is on the other side of the planet from Europe, life in its cities shares aspects of European culture that make it feel familiar to newcomers. The law, the language, even the most popular sports and leisure activities mirror the origins of its non-indigenous population. By the middle of the 20th century, the blossoming city of Sydney is ready to showcase its diverse cultural lifestyle and take its place on the world stage.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  Dr Anne Watson is a curator and author of the book Building a Masterpiece: The Sydney Opera House.

• 9:45Speaker 03

  Before the war, Sydney and Australia was considered to be something of a colonial outpost. But that really changed after the war. We had a lot of immigration, especially from Europe, the war-torn countries. So they obviously came from countries with strong performing arts cultures. Many architects came to Sydney and Melbourne as well. So there was this kind of groundswell, I guess, of interest in having this kind of major performing arts building.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  Though the nation effectively completes its move to independence from the UK in 1942, it remains part of the Commonwealth, with the British monarch still its head of state. But it is nonetheless geographically isolated from the continent with which much of its culture is linked. Despite post-war immigration, its population remains relatively small, with television not introduced until the mid-50s, around 20 years later than in Britain and the US. Demand for the new service is driven by Australians' wish to enjoy the 1956 Olympic Games, hosted by Melbourne, another major city 500 miles to the southwest.

• 10:58Speaker 02

  There has been animosity between Sydney and Melbourne since both vied to be the national capital, leading to the compromise creation of Canberra.

• 11:07Speaker 03

  The other aspect that's worth considering is the rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney at the time, and still to this day. Melbourne was to host the Olympic Games in 1956. So you have to wonder if the New South Wales government getting behind the idea of this iconic performing arts centre had something to do with deflecting attention away from Melbourne. It's nice to ponder that.

• 11:39Speaker 02

  Into the rivalry now strides a charismatic celebrity to sprinkle stardust onto Sydney's ambition to take the cultural lead with a legacy arts centre.

• 11:51Speaker 02

  English conductor and composer Eugene Goosens is a rock star of the post-war era. Born into a British musical dynasty, he enjoys the credentials and status of old-money privilege. Now, in Sydney, he holds a monopoly on the city's musical institutions as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and director of the New South Wales Conservatoire.

• 12:17Speaker 02

  Before the era of rock and roll, Goosens is a musical heartthrob of the day. He has the looks, the style, the money, even a wife who is a socialite and model. He throws free outdoor concerts that draw crowds, tens of thousands strong, and is routinely mobbed by young women. At work, he has the ruthlessness to fire underperforming musicians, while his unerring eye for talent helps him discover new musical prodigies.

• 12:46Speaker 02

  Goosens uses his superstar status to champion a plan to build a world-class music venue in Sydney. In the early 50s, he enlists the support of New South Wales Premier Joseph Kyle. A location is chosen for the proposed opera house. Close to the Business District of Sydney, in the shadow of its Harbour Bridge, lies a peninsula that juts into the bay.

• 13:11Speaker 02

  Known as Benelong Point, it was named after a man called Walarawari Benelong, an Aboriginal diplomat of the Wangle people.

• 13:20Speaker 02

  Captured by the colonial governor in 1789, he was forced to negotiate between the British and his own community, part of the Iora Nation. But Benelong escaped and set up home on the peninsula, where he later agreed to work with the British. He then sailed to England, becoming one of the first Aboriginal Australians to visit Europe and meet King George III, before returning to live out his life around Sydney. Over 100 years later, the place that bears his name has been reshaped by more modern quarrying, construction, and industry. When it is chosen for the planned opera house, there is already a tram depot on the site. The peninsula offers a spectacular setting, but also a challenging shape:

• 14:03Speaker 02

  long, narrow, and exposed on three sides to the water.

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• 15:11Speaker 02

  In 1955, the New South Wales government announces an international competition, calling for architects to submit their visions for a landmark to be constructed here on Benelong Point. Black and white drawings and schemes are required, but the brief is broad, giving no guidance for the aesthetic qualities of the building. The remit does, however, specify that the interior must accommodate two concert halls, one for large-scale operas and symphonies, and one for more intimate drama and recitals. But there is a stipulation of a maximum cost, a detail that comes back to haunt the organizers.

• 15:51Speaker 02

  Almost 10,000 miles away in Denmark, a local architect called Jörn Utzon sees the competition in a trade publication. Aged in his 30s, he is up and coming but not well-known. The only completed projects under his belt are a couple of homes, including his own, and a sculptural water tower on a Danish island, with a development of houses based on traditional Nordic design still under construction. The scope of the Sydney Opera House is beyond anything he has been commissioned for until now. He has also never been to Australia. Instead, Utzon visits a specialist marine bookshop in Copenhagen to purchase nautical charts of Sydney Harbour.

• 16:34Speaker 02

  With a better understanding of how Benelong Point nestles into the landscape, he dreams up his design.

• 16:41Speaker 03

  It's one of the earliest examples of an expressive, organic architecture that relates very much to context. The sails or shells were a nod to the sailboats, the yachts, on the harbour. It was very different to the internationalist school of architects, who were very sort of rational and concentrated on glass and steel and very sort of geometric, rectilinear-shaped buildings. It's quite subjective. And Utzon came from a boating background in Denmark. His father was a boat builder, and he was a yachtsman himself. You know, the sails, the rounded hulls were all referenced,

• 17:26Speaker 03

  as was a landmark near his office in Helleback in Denmark, Kronberg Castle, was built on a sort of projection into the water. Utzon would have sailed around this place many times. And so he sort of referenced his local scene or was familiar with it, I guess, because of its similarity to Benelong Point.

• 17:54Speaker 02

  Utzon's design promises to be as dramatic as its future location. But as well as being one of many entries to the competition, it is a particularly slim application that he dispatches from Denmark to Sydney. There are just a few preliminary concept sketches and rough drawings, rather than detailed architectural plans, and no technical engineering scheme. As a result, Utzon's vision of white sails soaring over Sydney Harbour is dumped onto the rejection pile.

• 18:24Speaker 02

  Over 230 schemes are submitted, many of them from world-famous designers or firms. The judges in Sydney are given the task of choosing between them. But before the competition closes, the project hits its first major disaster.

• 18:42Speaker 02

  The superstar whose charisma pushed the plan into action, the English conductor Eugene Goosens, is still enjoying his meteoric rise to fame and fortune. In 1955, while the Opera House competition is still open, he is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to Australian music. He travels back to England for the investiture at Buckingham Palace in London. The return journey by aircraft is quite a rarity in the 1950s, when the trip costs the equivalent of £15,000 per passenger. And it still involves four days of travelling, with around seven stops across Europe, then Asia, and down to Australia. Sir Eugene lands back in Sydney, expecting a hero's welcome.

• 19:27Speaker 02

  But what awaits him is something very different.

• 19:32Speaker 03

  Well, you couldn't make this up, really. Goosens went back to England for his investiture. He became Sir Eugene. And coming back by plane to Sydney, he was stopped at customs at the airport and asked if he had anything to declare, and his bags were searched. And we think the police had had a bit of a tip-off. Anyway, they found quite a bit of pornographic material. Goosens was highly regarded in Sydney's cultural circles. It seems that while he was in Sydney, he got involved with a woman who practised witchcraft, black magic, the occult, something called sex magic.

• 20:18Speaker 03

  But for Goosens, eminent as he was, you know, it was considered to be pretty dreadful at the time.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  Goosens is investigated and fined by the vice squad for possession of thousands of items of pornographic material, including books, photographs, and fetish gear. But the association with an infamous local occultist, the so-called Witch of King's Cross, a bohemian district of Sydney, is just as damaging. After being prosecuted and fined, Goosens resigns his posts, flees the country, and never returns.

• 20:57Speaker 02

  Thanks to the ongoing design competition, the Opera House project survives the scandal. By 1957, the judges need to make a decision.

• 21:07Speaker 03

  One of the judges was a Finnish architect working in America, Erasarinen. And the story goes that the Utzon scheme had been more or less rejected, put to one side. Sarinen arrived late to the judging and was leafing through the reject pile and found Utzon's design and held it up and said, "Gentlemen, this is our winner", or something very dramatic like that. But you have to bear in mind that Sarinen, he was a very influential architect at the time, and he was doing some very interesting experimental work with concrete shell architecture.

• 21:50Speaker 03

  And he was the architect who designed the TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport in New York, which of course is renowned for its curving concrete shapes. So it was kind of natural that, you know, he'd see this curving concrete shell design and was captivated by it.

• 22:12Speaker 02

  The story goes that Jörn Utzon is walking in the woods near his home in Denmark when he is called home to take a phone call and informed by an Australian journalist that his design is the winner. As a relative unknown, he sees the decision as a career-making opportunity, but also a leap of faith by the judges. But beneath his humble gratitude lies an unyielding belief in his creative vision and a deep, uncompromising perfectionism.

• 22:42Speaker 02

  He travels to Australia to oversee the construction. Seeing Benelong Point for the first time, Utzon is delighted to discover that the Opera House will have almost 360-degree visibility. It will also be seen from above by anyone crossing Sydney Harbour Bridge.

• 23:02Speaker 02

  With the competition dominating local papers for months, Utzon is greeted by a media frenzy. The Danish architect is tall, blonde, and charming. He wears stylish pale suits and dark sunglasses. His arrival is on the scale of a Hollywood movie star, stepping into the role of public figurehead so ignominiously vacated by the disgraced conductor.

• 23:28Speaker 02

  In August 1957, Utzon attends a massive public meeting at Sydney Town Hall to launch the Opera House appeal to raise money for the construction. But the major, long-term funding comes from a lottery.

• 23:42Speaker 03

  The Opera House project, from beginning to end, was funded by this lottery, which was extremely successful. Everybody bought tickets. The winning amount was a lot. It was £100,000 at the very beginning. So in fact, there was no public money spent on the Opera House. And people who complained about the fact that the money should have gone to building schools and hospitals and whatever are incorrect because, you know, didn't use public funds. And it also had the effect of kind of involving the public.

• 24:17Speaker 02

  Residents of the city, commonly called Sydneysiders, are invested in the Opera House, not just as eyewitnesses to its construction, but as contributors from their own pockets. Eventually, 86 million tickets will be sold in a total of 496 such lotteries. But though the top prizes are life-changing to each recipient, for at least one winning family, the money is accompanied by an unimaginable tragedy.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  In 1960, the Thorne family from Sydney are the holders of the winning ticket in the 10th prize draw. They claim a massive prize of £100,000, worth almost £2.5 million in today's money.

• 25:00Speaker 02

  It is standard practice at the time for the names of jackpot winners and even their addresses to be printed in the newspaper.

• 25:10Speaker 02

  On July 7, the family's eight-year-old son, Graham, is walking to school in the Bondi district when he is approached by a stranger and snatched off the street.

• 25:21Speaker 02

  Shortly afterwards, his kidnapper telephones the Thorne house to demand a ransom of £25,000 of his return. Such is the public interest in the Opera House lottery that a crime connected to one of its winners hits the newspapers and broadcast media at the very same day.

• 25:41Speaker 02

  Although the kidnapper calls the Thorne family that evening to give vague instructions about where to drop the money, they never hear from him again. Police find Graham's school bag discarded in bushland soon afterwards. Nearly six weeks later, they find his body.

• 25:59Speaker 02

  Detectives conclude that the boy had been murdered just hours after the abduction.

• 26:05Speaker 02

  It is believed that the massive media coverage caused the kidnapper to panic and abandon the ransom plan. Instead, deciding to kill the child and escape. The perpetrator manages to flee with his family, but is arrested and extradited when his ship docks in Sri Lanka. After a short trial back in Sydney, he is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, where he dies seven years later, in 1968.

• 26:35Speaker 02

  Though the appalling murder shocks the nation, its connection to the Opera House lottery does not cause any public backlash to the construction project, which continues as planned. But the lottery's organisers do change the rules to grant winners the right to anonymity for the first time.

• 26:54Speaker 02

  The tragedy leaves its mark, but the fundraising drive continues to be successful and enables work to begin at Benelong Point right away. The new South Wales premier, Joseph Kyle, is impatient to deliver the ambitious design as soon as possible. There is no single project manager, but as lead architect, Utzon is directly involved, travelling back and forth from Denmark to Australia. When ground is first broken on the peninsula, however, he has still not devised a way to construct the unique curves of his striking roof design. Under political pressure from Kyle, the builders get started anyway, putting in place the foundations and podium structure. It's another decision that will come back to bite the team.

• 27:43Speaker 02

  Utzon's vision of architectural sails billowing over the harbour might be stunning in theory, but in practice, there are fundamental obstacles, not least of which is gravity itself.

• 27:56Speaker 02

  A British engineer of Danish and Norwegian descent, Ove Arup, takes on the challenge of working out how to keep the complex design standing.

• 28:04Speaker 03

  The first thing they did was do their calculations on the feasibility of Utzon's shells, which were to be concrete shells produced from concrete poured into formwork. And Arup very quickly said, "It can't be done. It will fall down. It's not structurally feasible."

• 28:25Speaker 02

  Arup's team worked for years on mathematical schemes to make Utzon's free-form sketches actually buildable. But within the limitations of the technology available at the time, they cannot devise a mathematical rule that enables them to test the structure for wind forces or the weight of the concrete. There is a concern that the massive irregular shapes are likely to simply collapse.

• 28:52Speaker 02

  Another problem is cost. As things stand, thousands of pieces of wood will be required to construct unique frameworks for each separate curve. The work involved, and the fact that all these components could be used only once before being thrown away, would bankrupt the project. Arup convinces Utzon that the design requires some uniformity.

• 29:17Speaker 03

  Over the next two, three years, Arup's team worked on various configurations for the sails. They wanted to honour Utzon's original design, but they saw that they really had to vary and make it all practical and functional. And that had to be done in a way different to that which Utzon had originally envisaged. So I think they went through about 11 different schemes over three years and finally hit upon what's called the spherical solution.

• 29:57Speaker 02

  Popular folklore says Jörn Utzon is at home in Denmark when he solves the problem by himself in a eureka moment in 1961. The story goes that while peeling an orange in his kitchen, what becomes known as the spherical solution suddenly materializes. In fact, the idea is more of a collaborative effort between architect and engineer, with Utzon later using the orange peel metaphor to explain the ingenious construction.

• 30:26Speaker 02

  Imagine taking a single perfectly round orange and scoring all sorts of triangles onto the skin. If those triangles are all peeled off, you are left with pieces of peel that are different shapes and sizes, but all share the same curvature as the original sphere, the orange. The same will be true for Utzon's roof. It will look like a collection of different shapes, some tall and pointed, others wide and low, but with the same internal curvature. Using this principle, the construction team will not need to build thousands of unique, single-use pieces. Instead, they can create reusable molds, a cookie cutter approach that allows the framework to be mass-produced on-site

• 31:11Speaker 02

  before being lifted into place by crane.

• 31:16Speaker 02

  The solution retains the vision of Utzon's original design while giving the engineers the geometry needed to build it.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  It was a fairly revolutionary form of construction for such a major building and resulted in all sorts of... First, the prefabrication was very important. The use of concrete prestressing. They used epoxy resin to actually glue the rib sections together. And the other thing that's really interesting is the use of computers on the Opera House. So, Arabs were very interested in harnessing the very earliest computers to provide the calculations. There are some very interesting stories about the computers that were used. They were as big as a room.

• 32:06Speaker 03

  They took days and days to process this information. But throughout the project, computers became more sophisticated in the 60s. They played a very important role.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  Once again, however, the project runs into a problem.

• 32:25Speaker 02

  Back at the start of construction, when the authorities rushed to complete stage one of the building, the podium base was strong enough to support a roof that the drawings suggested would be as light as the flying sails it evoked. But after plans are amended to incorporate the spherical solution, the roof is predicted to be significantly heavier than originally planned. Despite years of work and millions of pounds spent, the structure now standing on Benelong Point is completely inadequate.

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• 34:03Speaker 02

  It is autumn, 1963. A journalist hurries along the pedestrian walkway of a Sydney Harbour Bridge. Just as it does every day, traffic hurtles past on the road and ships honk as they plow through the water below. But today, on the stretch that overlooks the construction site of the new Opera House, a crowd has gathered. As the reporter shoulders his way into a gap, a deep boom makes onlookers gasp.

• 34:35Speaker 02

  The writer is just in time to see a solid column on Benelong Point dissolve into dust.

• 34:43Speaker 02

  Some people in the crowd jeer and laugh, shaking their heads. The reporter carefully makes a note in his pad of the public's reactions. Others seem angry. One man shouts that he paid for this white elephant. It's a graveyard for taxpayers' money. People cheer in agreement. The journalist challenges them with the facts, saying that everyone knows the funding came from the lottery, not taxes. But his response is drowned out by the deep percussion of another explosion.

• 35:15Speaker 02

  This time, the mood turns sour. Someone notices the journalist making notes and asks him, "What is happening down there on Benelong Point? What's the inside story on the project?" With people now crowding round, he tells them that all he knows is that the project is over two years behind schedule and £10 million over budget. With the crowd scoffing at the waste, he adds that the boss messed up the first stage of the build, so now they have to knock it down and start again.

• 35:47Speaker 02

  Another demolition on Benelong Peninsula makes the point for him. It is followed by the sound of jackhammers that drown out even the din of the traffic, shipping and angry voices. As the crowd start arguing about who is to blame, the folly of their own government or the fantasy of a foreign architect, the journalist watches rubble spatter the water of Sydney Harbour.

• 36:20Speaker 02

  Despite growing public frustration with delays and costs, the Opera House project grinds on. The foundation and podium are not completely demolished, but need to be strengthened before construction of the roof begins. But by 1965, the debacle is enough of a concern to become a political issue. In the May state election, opposition politicians pledged to get the project finished. The manifesto works. After 24 years in power, the ruling Labor Party is defeated by a conservative coalition between the Liberal Party, led by Robert Askin, who becomes state premier, and the Country Party, led by Davis Hughes, who takes over as Minister for Public Works.

• 37:03Speaker 02

  Hughes inherits the political hot potato of the half-built Opera House. Although frustrated by the delays, he is an advocate for the landmark, saying that it would usher in a new phase in Australian history. But soon, his relationship with its Scandinavian architect, Jörn Utzon, becomes fractious. Hughes decides to withhold funds in an effort to force Utzon into making faster decisions. Rather than fast-tracking progress, however, the drop in funding leads to new problems for the over-budget project. Utzon needs to build models to test his ideas for interiors using long sections of curved wood and wants to trial specialist windows for the glass walls

• 37:48Speaker 02

  required to complete the curved white shells. But now, he cannot afford to do any of that.

• 37:58Speaker 02

  In 1966, over nine years since entering the competition, Utzon offers a letter of resignation that he hopes will force Hughes's hand. Instead, the minister calls his bluff and accepts his departure.

• 38:14Speaker 02

  Utzon leaves Sydney within weeks of the slight. He will never return or see his design completed.

• 38:23Speaker 02

  An Australian architect called Peter Hall steps into the breach.

• 38:28Speaker 03

  And the first thing they did was look at the drawings that had been left by the Utzon team. And they were horrified because there were no final working drawings. They'd been led to believe by the government that it was just a matter of implementing Utzon's schemes for the interiors, but that wasn't the case at all. So, Peter Hall then went on a three-month study tour to quickly learn about theatre design.

• 38:57Speaker 02

  A unique feature of Utzon's design is the placement of two concert halls side by side, so that they both face the harbour, rather than giving one the precedence of being at the front of the building. On the relatively narrow peninsula, almost every other designer had imagined them sitting back to back, using the width of the land for features such as staging areas in the wings.

• 39:21Speaker 02

  Although Utzon's vision is the most aesthetically pleasing and balanced, it does limit the performance space inside. It is also a challenge to design one building that can deliver all the requirements of different art forms.

• 39:36Speaker 03

  Now, opera performances, they require a stage and all the paraphernalia that goes with it and a proscenium, different kinds of seating, very different acoustics to orchestral concerts. So, one of the major hurdles that Peter Hall had to overcome was how to deal with this kind of impasse. So, in the end, he decreed and the government approved the change to the brief, so that the main hall was for concerts only and the other theatre, which was called the minor hall, which was intended for drama, become the opera theatre. That in itself raised all sorts of problems down the track

• 40:20Speaker 03

  that the Opera House is still dealing with. But it seemed the best way to go. And Peter Hall, to his credit, you know, he worked very closely with international experts in their field and eventually got the job done.

• 40:38Speaker 02

  Amid these compromises, the construction is finally complete in 1973. The project is 10 years behind schedule. It cost 15 times its original budget, with all costs met by the Opera House lottery that continues running throughout the project.

• 40:58Speaker 02

  The inaugural show takes place before the official opening.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  Fittingly, after such a protracted drama, this first performance at the Opera House is Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace.

• 41:14Speaker 02

  Once the landmark is fully unveiled, it is dazzling. The shells of the vaulted roof are clad in a million tiny tiles that catch the light. The monumental steps give a sense of theatrical procession, and its curves harmonize with the natural enclosure of Sydney Harbour. It is immediately, undeniably, even to its detractors, an architectural triumph.

• 41:39Speaker 02

  Everyone, from Sydney-siders to the world's press, is smitten. Architectural Review magazine complements the Opera House as a cathedral of culture. The New York Times describes the aesthetic as "a ship under full sail." The Observer newspaper notes how Sydney takes the Opera House to its heart, and "local frustrations are quickly forgiven."

• 42:05Speaker 02

  A month after its first performance, a million people flock to vantage points around the bay for the official opening ceremony.

• 42:16Speaker 00

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• 43:16Speaker 02

  It is early afternoon on Saturday, October 20, 1973. The sun is high in the sky, glinting off the white sail-shaped roof of the Sydney Opera House. Scattered across the wide harbour, hundreds of ships and pleasure boats loaded with onlookers bob on the water, which is a little choppy in the wind. Still, more spectators populate the water's edge and crowds line the harbour bridge. It is a festival atmosphere, the air filled with voices and sounds of drifting music. But whether on land or sea, all those in attendance have the same focus: Benelang Point, where the building, once called "The Harbour Monster," rises like a mirage.

• 44:03Speaker 02

  A long barge approaches a stone jetty known as the Manawar Steps. Cheers go up in circular key, the port area alongside the Opera House. Those lucky enough to get a position this close make out a slight figure in a light blue dress and beret-style hat disembark the royal ship. It is Queen Elizabeth II, arriving to officially open the building.

• 44:30Speaker 02

  As she makes her way along rows of dignitaries, the attention of the crowd is snatched by a formation of F-111 strike aircraft that scream overhead.

• 44:41Speaker 02

  Next, 15 helicopters perform aerial displays. The Queen greets Goth Whitlam, the Prime Minister of Australia, and Sir Robert Askin, the Premier of New South Wales.

• 44:55Speaker 02

  Eagle-eyed members of the crowd make out other VIPs, such as Imelda Marcos, the First Lady of the Philippines. Ben Blakeney, an Aboriginal actor and descendant of Wularawari Benelong, after whom the spot is named, is also here, billed to deliver a ceremonial oration from the highest point of the Opera House in honour of the First Nations-people's connection to this site.

• 45:19Speaker 02

  As the Queen makes her way to the podium, 60,000 balloons are released into the sky.

• 45:26Speaker 02

  But when she takes to the microphone, gripping her notes tightly to stop them being whipped away by the stiff breeze, her speech is short. In her typically understated way, she comments that "the construction has not been totally without problems." She diplomatically avoids mentioning any of the individuals associated with the project that some called a fiasco. She mentions neither its architect, Jörn Utzon, or any of the politicians who struggled to get the scheme over the line. But she sums up the feelings of millions when she says that "the building has captured the imagination of the world" and shown that "the human spirit must sometimes take wings or sails."

• 46:16Speaker 02

  The architect Jörn Utzon, who had met and received a pep talk from the Queen on one of her previous visits to Australia, is not in Sydney to hear her compliments of his human spirit. Initially, Utzon's whereabouts are a mystery, but he later says that he couldn't bring himself to watch on television and spent the day out walking. For years, it was believed that the architect was not invited to attend, but recently unearthed public records disprove the theory, proving the New South Wales government even offered to pay for his flights and accommodation. But conscious of the public interest in his feud with Hughes, the Dane felt his attendance would risk overshadowing the event and stayed away accordingly.

• 47:00Speaker 02

  Despite all the criticism over costs, acoustics, and delays, the finished building is iconic. It is quickly recognised as one of the masterpieces of 20th-century architecture.

• 47:12Speaker 03

  It did become a political football, but it's paid for itself so many times over. You know, and the amount, $102 million, which is what it cost finally when it was opened in 1973, was, you know, a pittance. Compared to what Sydney has gained from its association with the Opera House, what the world has gained, you know, the brand Sydney Opera House has been extremely successful in many, many ways. And of course, for Sydney, it's a focal point. For residents, for tourists, travellers, it's huge.

• 47:52Speaker 02

  The Opera House puts Sydney on the cultural world map. It becomes the permanent home of Opera Australia, which performs in the 1,500-seater Joan Sutherland Hall and also houses the Australian Ballet. The larger concert hall is used for symphonies and major musical performances, an aspirational venue for touring artists in all genres.

• 48:15Speaker 02

  The building also hosts all manner of other events, from the 1980 bodybuilding competition in which Arnold Schwarzenegger wins his final Mr Olympia title, to Nelson Mandela addressing 40,000 well wishes after his release from prison.

• 48:33Speaker 02

  In the 1990s, Jörn Utzon is re-engaged as a design consultant for ongoing development. Based now on the Spanish island of Mallorca, he drafts foundational guidelines that act as a design roadmap for the exterior and interior of the building. In the early 2000s, the redesigned multiple-purpose reception hall is named the Utzon Room in his honour. This smaller performance space is renowned for stellar acoustics, modernist floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and unmatched views of Sydney Cove. Even so, the original concert halls are still not without their problems.

• 49:13Speaker 03

  One of the problems with the opera theatre, because it's narrow, doesn't have a big stage, doesn't have adequate side wings. They can't perform the big operas. So that's one lack, and there has been a push in the past to build a separate opera theatre somewhere else, but nothing has ever come of it. So, you know, there are inadequacies that are being slowly improved. So there are some ideas about expanding the opera theatre, they're fairly radical. The acoustics of the concert hall, which were good for their time when the building opened, but less so as time went on

• 49:57Speaker 03

  and as more expertise was gained about the behaviour of sound and theatre acoustics. There's been quite a lot of money in recent years put into refurbishing the acoustics of the concert hall. So the building is in a constant state of change, but within the parameters of its heritage listing.

• 50:23Speaker 02

  It becomes a cultural symbol for Sydney, Australia, and the world. The uniquely recognisable silhouette of its sails also serve as a backdrop for the historic moments that tell the story of the decades as they pass. In 2000, the word "sorry" is written in smoke above Benelong Point to demand an apology for historic crimes against Indigenous peoples. Later, the same year, the iconic white roof is a focal point of the Sydney Olympic Games. And every January 1, the landmark stands at the centre of a spectacular firework display that signals to the watching world that a new year has arrived.

• 51:03Speaker 02

  2007 sees the Opera House named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The next year, its visionary architect Jörn Utzon dies without ever having seen his completed creation in the flesh.

• 51:20Speaker 02

  The construction of the Sydney Opera House cost millions, but its value to the nation is priceless. An infamous fiasco, it is also an icon of ambition, a monument to creative persistence and visionary ideas that demand human resilience.

• 51:38Speaker 03

  I think the silhouettes of the sails, you know, those three curves which are used by the Opera House as their logo, become a sort of international symbol for the building, and I think that helps a lot. I can't think of any other building that has that incredible sort of simplicity, the silhouette that the Opera House has. There's been a lot of comments, commentary about, you know, the kind of psychological processes at play in people's regard of the building. So it's a language, I guess, that people readily understand. And I think when people also appreciate the difficult path, the gestation, the construction,

• 52:21Speaker 03

  it becomes even more interesting because it was so fraught with problems, the intrinsically human.

• 52:39Speaker 02

  Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of Ada Lovelace.

• 52:46Speaker 07

  For me, the biggest legacy of Ada is this idea that she coined poetical science, that she was like a walking metaphor as the daughter of a brilliant poet and a gifted mathematician. I really like a quote that she said in a letter. She says, "I do not believe that my father was or ever could have been such a poet as I shall be an analyst and metaphysician. For with me, the two go together indissolubly."

• 53:21Speaker 02

  That's next time.

• 53:26Speaker 02

  You can listen to the next two episodes of Short History of right now, without waiting and without adverts, by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to unlock more episodes today.

• 53:42Speaker 00

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