Saturday – March 15, 2025
When all types of performers want to play in your venue, you need to be able to accommodate everything from a symphony orchestra to hard rock and unplugged musicians. Sydney’s Concert Hall was not designed for all the performers who now want to “play” the hall. To solve that problem and improve the acoustics, a $150 million renovation of the Concert Hall was completed in 2022. Here is a link to an article that provides details of the improvements that were made. I wanted you to get a look inside the unique external structure at the 2,700 capacity Concert Hall so that is today’s featured photo.
Sydney is one of the ports at which we receive an excursion at no charge. There were 14 such ports in the entire itinerary. Getting them isn’t really free because they are included in the price of the cruise. But it sounds nice. We didn’t know what the “free” tour would be for Sydney until we reached our bus and the Janine our guide explained what we would be doing. From our pickup under the Sydney Harbor Bridge we would drive to the Sydney Opera House campus and tour both the Concert Hall and the Joan Sutherland Theatre where opera and ballet are performed. Following that tour we would take the bus along the harbor and have points of interest identified and explained. We would travel to the Tasman Sea side of the Sydney area and stop at a beach named Bondi. We would return to the opera house area and be released either to return to the ship or spend time exploring Sydney on our own.
We were dropped off a couple blocks from the opera house and walked to the entrance under the main stairway on the South side of the building. Our guide for the opera house campus is Jules. She led us into the main floor of the Concert Hall’s exterior and began an explanation of the history of the project. You can read more about that history here. She also advised that under no circumstances could we take video in either the Concert Hall or the Joan Sutherland Theatre and if workers or performers were on stage at either site we were not allowed any photos either. So I was prepared for lots of outside shots.
The area under the shell is nicely done in wood. I know Jules told us what type but I didn’t write it down. Makes sense that it might have been Kauri but who knows. We traveled up flights of stairs to reach the foyer for the Concert Hall. It was carpeted in purple and had glass surrounding the area for a 270 degree view of the harbor. The glass was specially made to filter the sun. From the outside it has a brown tint but from the inside no tint is visible. It was cut on site and fitted to the support structures.
We went up a set of stairs and approached the entrance doors for the Concert Hall. Jules checked to determine if photos could be taken. She returned and gave us the OK to enter and take photos if we wish. The stage was prepared for a show being presented by Disney. It involves a large screen on stage so the box seats to the left and right of the screen were covered since you would not be able to view the on-stage screen from those locations. From the ceiling are suspended plastic forms used to direct the sound and curtains to act a baffles. These were a part of the $150 renovation. We didn’t have the opportunity to hear anything projected from the stage but it sure looked impressive! The seats are very comfortable. Only thing missing was a drink holder!
After Jules answered questions we walked down the left side of the hall to a door that took us back outside the Concert Hall and inside its shell. She led us outside to the area between the two buildings and told us about the tiles that cover the exterior. There are approximately 1,000,000 of these tiles. Each was manufactured by a company in Sweden. There are two shades of the tiles used and when applied they form a pattern on the “sails” of the shells. The tiles are applied so there is a channel surrounding each. This allows rain to be diverted in many directions as it flows over the roof so it doesn’t stream down in one or two places but rather comes down evenly around the entire roof. Once water reached the platform on which the opera houses are built, there are pre-cast cement slabs that also have small gaps between so the water can be directed below the slabs to drains that empty into Sydney harbor. This architect thought of everything!
We entered the Joan Sutherland Theatre building and made our way up to the theatre entrance. Jules went inside to see what, if anything, was happening. She returned and reported we would not be able to photograph inside because workmen were changing the sets on stage in preparation for a play that would be performed tomorrow. So we entered, sat in the seats and listened to her talk about the theatre.
The theatre is smaller than the Concert Hall – 1,500 seats vs. 2,700 seats. Jules noted that it was a multi-use area because operas are not presented daily (to give the singers a chance to rest their voices). Opera singers do not use amplification – they project their voices to the entire audience. Doing so puts a strain on the voice. In the “off days” for the opera, plays or ballet are performed on the same stage. The orchestra pit is below the stage and configured so that the sound is funneled to the theatre – much like a megaphone. In some of the theatrical productions live animals are used. In one such production a live chicken wandered off the edge of the stage and landed on the head of a cellist. There is a black net over a portion of the orchestra pit due to that mishap. There is a large video screen (wide but not tall) above the stage (and smaller versions near the back of the seating area) that is used as a chyron to display in English what is being sung when an opera is in a foreign language. Didn’t know that was done. Might give me a reason to see an opera if I knew what was being said.
We left the stage area and made our way to the place where all tours end – the gift shop! From there we returned to the bus a couple blocks away for our drive on the crest of the hills and over to the Tasman Sea to experience some of the Sydney beaches. I’ve included several video clips which contain comments by Janine. An area we drove through has the distinction of having the most “O’s” in its name – Woolloomooloo. Near there is an area that at one time had a bad reputation but has been cleaned up by dedicated work of the local police. That area is Kings Cross.
One of the places we paused was called The Gap. It was a location at the top of a steep cliff where people went to commit suicide. Sydney has modified the area to help reduce those deaths. They installed fencing, video cameras, phones for contact with suicide prevention and have foot patrols of the area. These steps have reduced deaths considerably. Also from this area you can view the Sydney to Hobart race participants as they sail from Sydney harbor to Hobart, Tasmania – a 3 day event.
The first beach we saw – and stopped at – was Bondi Beach. In Australia it is a pretty big deal and has had a couple TV shows based on the beach. To me it was a hot area with little shade. Because of the rip tides in the area the beach rescue personnel mark the safe areas to swim with flags on each end of the safe area. The flags and rescue personnel attire are red and yellow so they can easily be identified. You’ll see the rescue tent in one of the video clips here. The beach is large – though not as large as Copacabana in Rio. We walked into the Bondi Pavilion and found a couple artists displaying their work and a pottery room where people were working with clay. This area seemed like selfie material so we took one.
Back on the bus we drove past a couple more beaches that Janine said the rich and famous like to visit because there are always news photogs there so they can get their pictures in the local rags. Those beaches were Tamarama and Bronte. Janine talks about them in the video clips and I included a photo of each in the media.
We traveled back to the street parking near Sydney Opera House. Along the way we saw the Sydney Tower Eye (which I have been calling the Sydney Sky Tower). Perhaps we will have a chance to go to the top on our visit to Sydney in 2026. We asked Janine for suggestions for a place to eat lunch and shop for tourist stuff. She pointed us in the direction of the wharfs and off we went. We found a restaurant named City Extra and settled in for lunch.
Following our lunch we walked down the line of shops along the East side of Wharf 2. We found a tobacco store that also sold candy and bought some cookies that had been recommended to us by Karen and Jeff (our table mates). The name of the cookies is Arnott’s Tim Tam. They are like Kit-Kat but with a chocolate cookie. We tried them – OK, but nothing special in our opinion. We also found a store that had something Kelsey had wanted – a t-shirt with the Sydney Opera House. Actually, it included the Harbor Bridge as well. We bought matching t-shirts and will take a selfie in the future so you can see how they look.
On the way to the Man of War Steps for tender pickup we stopped to take a couple selfies with the harbor bridge and concert hall in the backgrounds. When looking at the bridge photos we found that there was a group of bridge climbers visible near the top to the left of the flags. The bridge climb is something we know of from friends who made that trek years ago. As hot as it was today I would not have liked to be up on that bridge with all the safety gear required.
Returning to the ship on the tender we saw many boats sailing in the bays of the harbor. There are a couple photos of those boats. Captured images of Jan and Kelsey disembarking the tender (gracefully I might add) and went to our cabin. There was a loud noise coming from a party boat near our ship. I caught a little of it on video and included it in today’s media.
There are a couple items from dinner in the media. The meatloaf with blue cheese was tasty.
We were supposed to leave Sydney at 8:00 pm but were delayed until after 1:00 am because we did not have a Sydney pilot on board to guide us out of the harbor. We found out later that during the day the police found a large quantity of cocaine ($3,000,000 Australian) in the ceiling of a cabin on a cruise ship that arrived the day we were to leave. It was a dog that actually found the stash. They bring narcotics dogs on board the cruise ships and walk up and down the decks to determine if any drugs are on board. The Australian police are serious about keeping drugs out! So perhaps our pilot was detained as a result of the drug bust – we may never know. Because we were delayed we were able to watch a fireworks show from our balcony. We also had a chance to set up a time lapse that both captures the boat traffic in the harbor and our departure shortly after 1:00 am on Sunday morning.
One response to “Adaptable!”
Grand. Wow