Opera House opens house

The line for the Opera House open day on Sunday reached as far as the ferry wharf.

Event organisers had been concerned that the rain might affect attendance—but spirits were still high, even as people huddled beneath umbrellas.

It was a day to open the doors of the Opera House to people who might not ordinarily be able to attend, organisers said, and to provide a glimpse of the belly of the Opera House, the back-stage workings.

Attendance was in the tens of thousands, with an average waiting time of 20 minutes, but people waited as long as an hour late in the morning, when attendance peaked.

A performance by the interactive drumming group Rhythm Safari with 600 drums that had been planned for the forecourt was moved inside due to rain, but otherwise the rain caused little disturbance.

Women in elaborate 18th-century dress ushered visitors inside. Outside the opera theatre, a collection of costumes worn in performances by the late Dame Joan Sutherland were on display, and inside visitors were given a brief performance—an operatic singer accompanied by piano.

Visitors were then led onto the stage of the concert hall, while high above an organist played, then down stairs at the side of the stage, through the concert hall assembly room, the opulent green room, the labyrinthine hallways of the opera theatre dressing rooms, past wardrobe, and into the main rehearsal room, where visitors watched a rehearsal by young ballet dancers of the Mosman Dance Academy.

by Alex Giblin