Cultural policy in NSW, or $1 billion to renovate the Sydney Opera House
March 22nd, 2009 by Ben Eltham | Published in Art, Culture, Music, Policy | 68 Comments
Both Marcus Westbury and Nick Pickard lead their blogs with strongly critical posts about recent reports that the NSW government is about to commit to spending $1 billion to renovate Joern Utzon’s iconic Sydney Opera House.
As Westbury writes, “this decision is one that is so staggeringly out of touch with the realities of cultural policy at the moment that it is scary.”
As usual, I find myself in agreement with much of what Marcus writes (more of that below). However, I think there is every reason to be far more optimistic about this decision than the initial outrage from the various unfunded parts of the arts community suggests. It may be that this decision will actually materially advance the cultural policy debate in Australia, by motivating the various forgotten voices in the arts community to finally coalesce into a coherent movement for change.
Westbury writes:
The billion dollars offered up for the opera house renovations is stark reminder of how the norms of one world clash with the realities of the other. For that much larger community of artists outside government run arts centres and organisations this represents more than will be invested in them for decades or perhaps hundreds of years.
He’s right. The annual ongoing funding budget for the NSW cultural grants program is $22 million – which means this infrastructure commitment would fund around 45 years of NSW’s current arts grants programs. Of course, this is not an apples and oranges comparison, given that one is capex and the other is recurrent. And the NSW government spends $222 million a year on cultural institutions like the Art Gallery of NSW, the State Library, Australian Museum, Historic Houses Trust of NSW, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, NSW Film and Television Office, and the Sydney Opera House Trust itself. (Figures from the NSW Department of the Arts, Sports and Recreation Annual Report). So this decision needs to be placed in that broader context.
But will this renovation even happen?
To begin with, let’s exert a little political analysis to the debate. The NSW government is not exactly flush with cash. Like all the states, it faces a worsening recession and deteriorating fiscal position. Many of its already-announced infrastructure priorities are dependent on the successful privatisation of NSW’s electricity generation assets, not to mention wads of cash from the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth money is in itself no certainty, given that the Building Australia Fund is dependent on future budget surpluses that have now evaporated. Further, state-based bond issues are being squeezed by the expanding need for the feds to issue bonds to cover the suddenly large and looming Commonwealth deficits – as Western Australia has recently discovered. In short, the global financial crisis has set tight new limits on the scope of state governments to build expensive new infrastructure projects - a major topic of the recent Queensland election.
Secondly, there is every reason to believe this decision might actually cause a large groundswell of opposition from within the arts community itself. Part of this is the eye-popping figure of $1 billion – or around 6 times the annual budget of the entire Australia Council. But another part of this is the likelihood that any spat about the project may uncover the weakness of the far-from-unified lobbying effort in favour of this decision. Rather than a monolithic lobbying force, the forces of conservatism and vested interest in the Australian arts that drive the current policy paradigm (described by prominent academic Jennifer Craik as “elite nurturing“) are actually quite thin – although generally well represented in parts of the mainstream media.
Cultural policy-making as actually practised in Australian arts ministries is generally far from rigorous, and can often be swayed quite quickly by the whims of the relevant Minister in charge (witness, for instance, the $15 million Victoria Rocks program promised by then-Premier Steve Bracks after a well-timed serve from Claire Bowditch at the ARIA’s.)
It is the relative thinness of the cultural policy debate as currently undertaken in Australia that suggests a decision like this could lead to real opportunities to advance a more progressive vision in the contemporary cultural policy debate.
Cross-posted at my blog.
There’s a lot to say about arts policy, but an Opera House reno isn’t about the arts – it’s a building industry subsidy.
Or perhaps even a tourism industry subsidy, Kate ;)
Mind you, the Opera House, great piece of architectural sculpture that it is, is a bloody terrible place to actually watch opera from.
Whether this is worth spending a billion bucks to fix is another question, though the tourist value of the bloody thing can’t be ignored.
The Opera House has become a symbol of Australia and is an internationally-recognised architectural achievement. Its renovation should be a national project, neither subject to the whims or bankruptcy of the NSW Govt, nor cutting into on-going support of arts enterprises and creative endeavour in NSW.
It shouldn’t be “either/or”.
Yes the renovation has many facets: building activity, engineering calculations, tourism, opera, performance, history, Sorry-Day-for-the-Utzon-Family, harbour views, opera, theatre, etc etc. Let high art spread its many benefits beneficially with gracious beneficence.
UPDATE: Kevin Rudd is not too excited by the idea.
Is Rudd too excited about anything?
I like Marcus’ analysis of ‘two art worlds’ though. A lot of cultural projects and creative micro-businesses don’t even need substantial grant money, they need more targeted and/or flexible policies around tax, seed funding, licensing & copyright. These are hard to get, though, precisely because of the lack of meaningful arts and cultural policy development from both state and federal govts.
And isn’t the Sydney Opera House more or less the high-art equivalent of the Big Banana? :)
OK, which big business contractors thought this one up and had their government mates push it out there?
Is there any real detail available as to why this project should cost a billion bucks, and, according to the link,take seven years to complete? I’d rather spend ten or twenty million on an inquiry into large-project costs in this country….
I am SO annoyed at these Govts claiming $1bn. It goes up every year!! I have worked at the Opera House & while it was a thrill to go there every day & night to work, it was an aweful to place to work!! The problem is the expensive renovation of the Opera Theatre.. IT DOESN’T NEED TO BE CHANGED ALL THAT MUCH!!! It is OK for smaller works, really it is. It needs new air-con etc, but the CHEAPEST way to fix the problem which NOONE has brought-up oddly enough, is to put an Opera Theatre back into the space where the Concert Hall is, as per the ORIGINAL PLANS from Utzon.. ALL the infrastructure is still there from the original plans & design (until they decided it could be done bett-WORSE), -the staging capabilities, the lift shaft at the rear of the stage, the wing space, the Orchestra-pit and the seating arrangement & capacity! It would be at least a third of the cost of dropping the floor of the current Opera Theatre and would take 1-2 years, NOT 5-7!!!! Why has this not ever come up? the Concert Hall is also in great need of renovation itself & has been plagued by bad accoustics all its life and frankly, it is too big for a Concert hall while the Opera Theatre is WAY too small for Opera… I mean what will we be kicking while it is being done, the odd Sydney Symphony concert (with respect) Australian Idol…
One billion dollars to fix the Opera House!!!???!????
How?
Refurbish the public spaces? You could do that for $2 to 4 miillon easy.
Rejig the fucked-up acoustics, extend the crappy wings and crummy backstage and expand the fly space…why you’d hafta lift the whole roof off and dig below the waterline of Bennelong Point. Shit, that could cost hundreds of millions if not…a billion.
Yes, retaining that bunch of oyster shells in a typewriter while putting a modern multi-venue setup underneath would hit at least nine figures. And I reckon it would probly be worth doing sooner or later.
But not publicly sold now in this current climate for a media-salivating guesstimating figure like a billion. Can anyone point to an intelligent and savvy NSW state pollie since nifty Nev?
Nick @ 9,
It’s the bloody Opera House, mate!
And yes. they should finish it, but perhaps not until the GFC is over.
For the moment, they should spend the $ 1 million on struggling artists/sculptors, starving writers, cash-strapped theatre and dance companies, broke musicians and impoverished poets. Now that would be a real economic stimulus package.
And as I intimated in my previous comment, you can’t build anything in the Opera House without a major budget blow-out, mainly caused by mindless government interference. Jeez, it wouldn’t be the SAydney Opera House otherwise. :)
Thanks james, your practical and knowledgeable suggestions are good.
Quite right Kate Eltham: let’s be more imaginative with ascertaining the special needs of creative micro-businesses. Just dolloping out “grants” may not be the most efficient or (dare one say) creative way to help.
That old tax break for Aussie fillums was broad brush and expensive, but by golly it put some life into that industry for quite a few years. And much of the actual funding came from private investors.
Ambi, the new tax offset is trying to do the same thing. The trouble is that now with the GFC, there’s no money around.
Does this 1 billion come from the same money bag as arts funding, or is a one-off from elsewhere? NSW has a particularly bad reputation for arts funding. One thing state governments can do is look for ways of providing cheap space for artists to work in. Empty buildings, underutilised buildings -they’re out there. My old high school in South Melbourne has just been turned into low cost artists’ spaces. I believe the idea is to eventually redevelop it into public housing and some sort of community centre, so there’s an opportunity to have at least artists’ spaces in the long there.
Fine, I imagine the money would be a special line created in the capex budget of the NSW Department of Arts, Sport and Recreation. So in that sense it’s not the same money bag as the recurrent grant funding. But, on the other hand, the disparity between the levels of recurrent and capital funding are so great that its natural artists in NSW are aggrieved at this announcement. Not that it will happen, as I explained.
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Part of the problem is that NSW’s arts funding is so comprehensively skewed towards its major cultural institutions. Just to take one example, Queensland, a much smaller state in overall budget terms, actually spends more on artists grants and small-to-medium cultural organisations than NSW.
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Of course, as I explored elsewhere, its not just about funding. General attitudes to arts also count, and NSW seems to be entering a new era under Nathan Rees in this respect after the “I like footy not opera” regime of Morris Iemma. I wonder how long it will last.
There is something about Circular Quay that makes it a culture-wars honey-trap.
During the ’90s Paul Keating looked across from Kirribilli House at the Cahill Expressway, and lo he saw that it was bad. He rang the then-Premier of NSW, John Fahey, and offered him $1b to put the road and rail line underground. Fahey knew he could never sell it to his Coalition colleagues, and he also knew that Opposition Leader Bob Carr would stoop to populism in bagging the very idea.
Before that, you had the Bicentennary and the idea that the first settlement of non-Aboriginal Australia should be commemorated with some sort of monument – but what exactly, and what should it commemorate, and oh-my-goodness-what-about-the-property-prices, this is Sydney we’re talking about here.
Now there’s this proposal – I always understood that the whole idea of the shells was to act as acoustic funnels, so that the stage was down the small end and the audience would sit up the big end of the sound-funnels, with their (our?) backs to the harbour (and to Kirribilli House), and the backstage activities would be in the centre of the building. Reorienting the Opera House would be a $1b project easily.
As for JAMES, the suggestions you made wouldn’t really fix ANYTHING, because apparently when you return to UTZON’S ORIGINAL DESIGN there isn’t much there to work with. The whole reason he was sacked was because he was too grand to attend to details like toilets, lifts etc. (see, I told you it was a culture-war battleground). Many of the ARCHITECTURAL TRAVESTIES were whacked in there by ENGINEERS who had to solve PRACTICAL PROBLEMS AND OMISSIONS long after he had gone. One aspect of the design that couldn’t have been thought of in the 1950s and ’60s is the need for data cables. I refuse to believe that high-end acoustics people can be had for a song too. $5-7m my arse! NSW has heard all that before.
For a start, the timber panelling in the Opera House came from the Yarras mill in northern NSW, west of Wauchope. That mill closed in 1980.
Besides, when you have a GRAND DESIGN like that, especially when it hosts BIG PRODUCTIONS that deal with BIG ISSUES like LOVE and SEX and JEALOUSY and DEATH and ELITISM IN FIELDS OTHER THAN SPORT and ART, TIMELESS ART, doesn’t it make you want to think BIG and dream the BIG DREAMS and operate on the kind of scale that SMALL COMMUNITY ARTS PROJECTS and SMALL-MINDED PAROCHIAL POLITICIANS could never dream of!?!?!?!? Stick that in your cultural policy.
So many caps, Andrew E. But yes, I agree, lowering the floor of the opera theatre by 18 metres will not come cheap.
“Besides, when you have a GRAND DESIGN like that, especially when it hosts BIG PRODUCTIONS that deal with BIG ISSUES like LOVE and SEX and JEALOUSY and DEATH and ELITISM IN FIELDS OTHER THAN SPORT and ART, TIMELESS ART, doesn’t it make you want to think BIG and dream the BIG DREAMS and operate on the kind of scale that SMALL COMMUNITY ARTS PROJECTS and SMALL-MINDED PAROCHIAL POLITICIANS could never dream of!?!?!?!? Stick that in your cultural policy.”
My, doesn’t cronyism look lovely all dressed up nice like that?
Yeah, we’re all philistines now that we largely exist in a virtual world. Who needs friggin’ buildings, even when they are one of the greatest examples of modern architecture in the world?
I can’t stand opera, but the sort of thinking exhibited on this thread leads to a cultural dead-end.
Andrew, I’ll go into bat for the Cahill Expressway. For my money, it’s one of the best pieces of Sydney architecture between Milson’s Point and Central Station. I like it better than the Opera House, myself.
Don’t buy the hype about “dividing the city from the waterfront”: without the Expressway, the average citizen’s view of Circular Quay starts and finishes with whatever they can see between the ferries, ticket windows, and clipboard-carrying backpacking shills in Greenpeace shirts. With the Cahill Expressway, a train ticket around the City Circle line buys you the best view in the city—and a bit of a walk up the stairs gets you the same view for free. It’s democratic, it’s an effective transport distributor, and it’s only ugly in the eyes of the insurance and hedge fund donkeys in the AMP building who have their views blocked bodily by citizens.
Let’s hear it for the McKell dynasty of planning Governments!
“Andrew, I’ll go into bat for the Cahill Expressway”
Me too. If I’m in a cab or in a car coming from North Sydney the great, liberating swoop down on to the Cahill off the southern Bridge approach never fails to exhilirate and the Cahill walkway offers one of the world’s great urban harbour vistas from three floors up, totally free. Replacing it with some peep between the buildings, toytown Circular Quay tat would be a major crime.
The soaring drive up onto the Bridge from the Western distributor at dawn is another great Sydney experience.
My own personal view is the renovations should be done. The Sydney Opera House is a world renowned landmark and now on the world heritage list. New designs by Utzon are complete solving engineering problems that were not earlier thought solvable (removal of cables between the main sails under the orchestra pit as one example). Spending this amount of money will never be popular, but consider that the proposed workforce of 3,000 required for the job over a period up to 7 years (I doubt a workforce that size would be required for the proposed new Metro link to Rozelle), the opera theatre is home to our NATIONAL opera company, the worsening industrial deafness of some of the members of the pit orchestra and finally the contribution of $300,000,000 annaully into the NSW economy by the Sydney Opera House.
I think most would have to agree that there are quite a few positive contibutions that the Opera House makes finacially to all our adviantage and the renovations would provided work for a LARGE body of people for 7 years (surely a good job creation schame given the imminent recession), would finally solve the major problems of this theatre once and for all for large scale opera and enhance a World Heritage listed building with designs provided by it’s world reknowned original architect.
Yes it is a hard call, but certaily there are arguments in favour of doing it,and doing it now. it should not be dismissed by considering a major capital expense for job creation is somehow more worthy because it is for a railroad, expressway, salination plant etc rather than a lyric theatre for our National opera and ballet companies.
Ian, I agree. As a piece of infrastructure investment, the Opera House is possibly the single best thing the NSW government ever built.
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On the other hand, if jobs is your metric then I think there are better ways to spend the dosh. I think this is the nub of what Marcus and Nick Pickard are arguing, and I’m with them. There is no doubt in my mind you could stimulate more economic activity in the cultural sector spending $1 billion on small arts organisations, creative start-ups, urban renewal projects and independent artists. Think about the number of outstanding international talents you could give a Keating-style fellowship to for $1 billion. As Paul Burns remarks, that would be a real economic stimulus to the sector.
Ben, if ALLCAPS are good enough for JAMES they’re good enough for ME. Besides, it’s in keeping with the whole theme of OPERA, where getting all SHOUTY is the very thing. While an appeal to philistinism could be very powerful, who would dare stand against the ultimate renno, Bennelong Point Blitz? Think of John Olsen’s Five Bells as a feature wall.
FDB, any movement of $1b or so in one go is going to involve cronyism of one sort or another. I’m not convinced that giving $1m to 1m community arts groups would be better spent, m’self.
I wish I knew Sydney better. Is there another good venue for opera and concerts? Has anyone ever tried to get one built? Or does the very existence of the Opera House as the prestige venue par excellence mean that another venue (like say the new Melbourne Recital Centre) can never be built to compete with it?
As an icon I think the existing opera house is not in need of radical renovation. In terms of providing a performance space surely a billion is more than needs to be spent. If the billion (which does sound like a magical figure) is coming substantially from federal money, as a non Sydney resident I would far rather they spent some on making it possible for AusOpera to get around to other capitals a bit less tokenistically.
The billion dollars is probably an underestimate, given the scale of the engineering challenges.
It’s a lot of money, but this is a one in 50 years refurb for Australia’s most iconic building. We’re planning to spend 6 times that on a bunch of fighter jets that will be obsolete before we even get them.
This building was designed when Menzies was PM and completed 36 years ago. Bringing it up to scratch once every two generations is not an outrageous ask.
I disagree, Sam. Sure it’s a tourist icon, but at the end of the day it’s just the Hordern Pavilion if it mated with a yacht. The Glebe Island Bridge, aka the ANZAC Bridge, on the other hand, is a beautiful work of egalitarian art. After the Harbour Bridge itself it’s my second favourite human-constructed piece of Sydney.
The way to enter central Sydney, Laura, is on the back of a motorcycle, coming east from Parramatta Road down the City West Link, coming out of the tunnel under the White Bay interchange, then opening up to wide open throttle up the incline of the ANZAC Bridge. If you continue on to the approach to the Bridge as Geoff mentioned, then life’s just gravy.
I don’t know much about concert halls, but I know the engine note I like.
Hey people,
I don’t know what planet you are on but human beings in run down public hospitals in rural NSW have run out of bandages and the hospital staff are using their own money to buy it from local vets. There is no soap or toilet paper that lasts the billing cycle. Necessary life saving equipment breaks down and there is no money in the budget to repair it or replace it. Cockroaches fall from ceilings on to patients as well as into their wounds. Roofs leak. While this debate is fascinating in its narcissistic Sydney CBD arts focus, it is so out of touch as to be risible. The political and financial realities are that no one would be game to allocate this massive funding to such a project in the current economic climate and state of public hospitals and infrastructure.
“Cockroaches fall from ceilings on to patients as well as into their wounds. Roofs leak. While this debate is fascinating in its narcissistic Sydney CBD arts focus, it is so out of touch as to be risible.”
That’s all very well Christabelle, but last time went on a personal goided tour of the OH, the roof was leaking cockroaches into my gaping mouth as I stood aghast at the 160Hz standing wave in the opera theatre.
Although when I realised a listener’s reverb time varied by as much as 30% depending on where they sat in the room and how many other people were seated, and in what areas of the auditorium they were seated, I was glad for something to bite down on.
There will never be public support for this kind of spend. This is why the Opera House was funded from lottery proceeds in the first place.
No one approves of gambling-financed public works anymore, so the
money will have to come from corporate sponsorship, just like sports stadiums.
The KFC Sydney Opera House has a nice ring to it.
That’s a fairly horrid story FDB and not just because of the cockroaches – but I’d have thought you could do something about poor acoustics for a bit less than a billion.
Sam, unless they are actually dangerous it is probably a better bet not to update or otherwise do over iconic buildings. That is how their iconicity gets diluted.
There is a mania in Australia for doing up public buildings that are perfectly good, and a belief that every two-bit municipal office needs to be ‘state of the art’. From a purely aesthetic point of view this means you end up with everything reflecting the OK blandness of recent taste (eg, Docklands in Melbourne.) Real cities refrain from ripping everything down and starting again every five years.
What a truly excellent idea. They might get to Adelaide occasionally. Or even *gasp* Perth.
The Sydney Opera house – international icon. National Arts icon.
Does it actually function? NO.
I have seen Utzon’s gold book designs for the interior of the Opera Theatre and they are STUNNING. Both acoustically and aesthetically it is amazing.
Should it cost 1 billion? no – I agree with the government intervention etc, and from a few stories of the original construction, there were major ripping off incidences with delivery trucks, materials going ‘missing’ etc etc….
I personally feel that It is an international embarrassment that the government won’t fix the 1 building that sells the city. 10 bucks it was all over Rudds election campaign images…
I still think that putting Opera back into the Concert Hall is the go.. The Orchestra pit (in the concert hall) is now under the first row of seats and maintains its original shape and how is a dressing room for the Sydney Philharmonic Choirs and also a meeting place for the Orchestra members before they go onstage. The lift would be very easily re-installed.. Lets remember that the lift was there functioning and the pit was open when they decided to change the design.. With regards to seating, stage space, wing space, pit dimensions and multi-purpos-ness of the space, it was designed perfectly by Utzon in the first place, the designs are still available in State Library and are far better than the possibilities that a redeveloped Opera Theatre could ever offer.. Not to mention a third the cost too!! I have been paying alot of attention to this project over the past years and the last figure I heard was $600m and NOT $1bn!!! I dont know where they get the bn figure from especially considering hat going by this price Rudd/Rees has mentioned, it has nearly doubled in price in the past 12months…. Also was meant to be a 3-4yr project and NOT 7yrs.. Where are these people getting these figures from?? Lets do it the cheap way and put Opera BACK into the Opera House properly, as it was meant to be along utzons visopn!! As it is not, it shouldn’t be called the sydney Opera House, it is effectively a Performing Arts Center!! We have now 3 full-time Concert Hall type venuse in Sydney and only ONE Opera Venue… Besides the fact that it brings over $300m into the national economy every year, that means that it will pay for itself in 3yrs going by the latest figures.. Something to keep in mind methinks…
@ 28 The Glebe Island Bridge, aka the ANZAC Bridge, . . .
which from Mt Hay many miles away on a clear day, looks like two sky scrapers with an interesting lean on them. Took me a while to work out wTF was going on down there.
Operahouse-schmoperahouse. Rees is way out of line with this one. Why the hullabaloo big announcement? It should have been obvious that the accoustics needed fixing from the outset when it would have been cheaper to do, it should never have been allowed to opened as a ‘world class’ music hall, till this glaringly obvious problem was fixed. Has it still got the big perspex hoops hanging from the ceiling? They didn’t really do very much as far as I could tell. It would have been far more politic to go about refurbishing it quietly, consistently and properly, than to make grande billion dollar announcements only to have any plan to correct its problems shelled indefinitely.
“only to have any plan to correct its problems shelled indefinitely.”
Pun intended? ;)
Ha ha, those perspex hoops were hilarious. Hours of fun for the performers, too. Will they fall? Won’t they fall? They’re falling! Quick, get out of the way!
A good post by Marcus, but I’m suspicious of the way in which he habitually frames this sort of debate – big artistic projects versus small artistic projects, with the small being morally superior. I’m not sure why I should accept this division in the first place, and if I do, why big artistic projects should be considered less worthy of funding.
Good point…what are Lottery Tickets funding nowadays?
Laura, tucked in behind Martin Place is the City Recital Hall spec. designed for recitals – Musica Viva, SSO and Aust. Chamber Orchestra gig there.
For FDB…”specifically designed for solo recitals, chamber music and the spoken word. The auditorium’s 1.8 second reverberation time is attuned for chamber music.”
No other venue for Opera in Sydney I don’t think…anyone?
On the Opera House – couldn’t they fix up the main bits that really need fixing and continue to use it for the things that work there good – and just build another Opera House on another pointy bit of the Harbour – Barangafookingroo for instance.
Another globally iconic building?? – now that would really fcuk up their heads in Melbourne :)
This cost about $700m
http://www.norway.org.vn/culture/architecture/contemporary/operahuset_begeistrer.htm
And some shipping magnate donated one, recently completed to Copenhagen for $400m.
So maybe a small dedicated Opera House – totally iconic modern building on the harbour for like $300-400? Chuck $100-200m at the current one, and still have tons of change from a billion.
The western on-ramp of the Anzac Bridge….you total dag Liam.
“For FDB…”specifically designed for solo recitals, chamber music and the spoken word. The auditorium’s 1.8 second reverberation time is attuned for chamber music.””
1.8 has always been my favourite. Seriously. Walk in to mix in a standard soft-furnished pub-type room, and one of the first things I do is dial up a 1.8 second hall reverb on the FX unit, for vocals, acoustic guitar, snare and toms. Pretty sure nobody ever told me it was some kind of benchmark though – I think there must be something psychoacoustic going on where it feels like a nice sized intimate room (rather than anything to do with intelligibility and clarity, which you would be more worried about with an orchestra, but they seem to go for a longer reverb without suffering).
Ah, psychoacoustics. Riddles wrapped in enigmas and basic physics.
Jo, I like your points. As an architect friend of mine pointed out, the current layout swapped the orientation of original plan, so that, as James points out, the opera would have been wher the concert hall is now.
“…dial up a 1.8 second hall reverb on the FX unit.”
In Sontius FX and Waves, I’ve labeled that setting “The Continental”.
And if they are going to seriously overhaul the Sydney Opera House, why not lop the top off the sails so while out on the harbor you get a better view of The Toaster?
The argument over swapping the halls back to their original position is now a moot one for 2 reasons -
1: the argument was never originally solved satisfactorily
2: Utzon has fixed all the problems with the current setup in his renovation designs.
The original stage machinery designed by him for the now symphony hall (a world first in engineering) was cleverly thrown to the bottom of the harbour by our pollies at the time. The mind boggles….
The main prob with the acoustics in the opera theatre is the ceiling design, and the pit. The current black concrete bunker roof is appalling! The musicians in the pit are all wearing ear plugs as they have to overplay to compensate for the lack of sound coming into the hall – the stage lip effectively boxes them in. And yet if you sit more than about 20 rows back you can’t hear much in the hall.
The renovation includes a new roof design and an uncovered pit – no need to swap halls.
one other thing in reply to a few people’s points -
Jo – why would we have build another opera house elsewhere when our current one is visually perfect and fixable? would you have it run endless Idol finals and pop gigs with an orchestra? That is plain embarrassing on an international level.
The City Recital Hall has wonderful acoustics, but it is just that – a recital hall. Repertoire planning would stop early 1800’s, and that leaves out an awful lot of music.
Christabelle – if the government just spent money endlessly on public infrastructure then their would be no Opera house in the first place, no art gallery, no museum, no fountain in Hyde Park, no Zoo, no State Theatre etc etc. What a great picture that paints. Come Saturday night we could all hang out, um where? Oh yes, at the train station ticketing booth… such ambience…
It’s not about this dollar or that dollar – it’s about deepening Sydney’s cultural life – culture is one thing that separates us from automatons. The Opera House caters for just about every art form, not just Opera. And it is a wonder of the world – but IT DOESN”T WORK PROPERLY! so fix it Liza. PLEASE.
Rachel
thank you. I believe it is one of the (built) wonders of the world. I won’t list the others for fear of thread diversion, but they include the Taj Mahal. Yes, I believe it’s that good.
Sorry Rachael,
Yes need to swap halls. The fact of the matter is that you can only fit so much into that small space under the smaller set of shells.. No matter how far you dig, its not the height factor, the current design shows us that, but more importantly, its the width factor. I have worked there and the stage width is horrible. In some productions, I could stand with my right arm stretched out touching the side was and if I stretch my left one out to the side, my left hand would bee seen onstage.. The problem with the pit is that they can’t take away any more of the stage to uncover it as the stage area is already inadequate and they can’t take out the first & second rows of seats because a) the steel cabling that holds the shells together runs directly under them and b) the seating capacity is already poor enough they can’t afford to loose any seats which actually have a good view of the stage.. The narrowness of the shells means that what ever the depth, the stage can only ever be ‘so’ wide if there is to be access to the rear of the theatre by the audience. They literally have to walk around the walls of the stage. This is the reason that the seats are in such a tightly semi circular arrangement, as to get as many seats in as close.. Look in the Concert Hall, the seating arrangements are somewhat similar to what Utzon wanted (the front stalls) and they are virtually flat facing the front. (a very slight curve) Now, if you look at the size of the stage in the concert hall, which is alittle less wide than the one Utzon wanted, you will see that there is all that room where the audience sits on both sides which would be roughly the amount of wing space.. About 2/3 of the current stage width as wing space!! Not as much as Melb’Adelaide, but with the lifts back-stage, this is more than enough.. Consider the width of the soncert hall stage and imagine the the orchestra-pit in the front of it, all you have to do is dig alittle through the front of the stage area and you will find yourself in an area which still has the retaining wall running around, almost inline with its stage above and this area is what should have been the pit. It now houses alot of lockers for various choirs that come to perform there. It was/is capable of holding 110 orchestra members comfortably and also uncovered!! Unlike the current 70 capacity inwhich 70-80 percent is completely covered and a very nasty squash! The Concert Hall is by far the cheapest, easiest and most effective way of making the Opera House into an ACTUAL Opera House and not what it currently is and should be named accordingly, Sydney Performing Arts Centre! This is only mentioning the problems ans solutions for the Opera Theatre, not to mention the problems & short-comings of a Concert Hall which is too big a space to be an effective Concert Hall with accoustics to match. Lets not forget, it was NEVER meant to be a Concert Hall, it was meant to be a multi-purpose Hall, primarily for Opera but with an ajustible accoustic (and removable seating around the back of the stage area like it is now, so that Symphonic works could be held there. Those plans WERE complete and AVAILABLE (still are) and were proven to be excellent accoustically. The smaller Hall (Opera Theatre now) was meant for drama productions and chamber (smaller scale) Opera… ie; Handel, Mozart, G&S etc.. Any thoughts…?
Is it just me or is anyone else reading this thinking, gee maybe the orchestral musicians and performing artists are complaining just a bit too much?
James and Rachel, no doubt the staging facilities at the Opera House fall short of the best venues in the world, and may even be sub-standard. And I’m not trying to belittle your contribution, which is valuable because of the inside knowledge you have included.
But you’re playing at the Opera House! Most musicians in the country would cut off their right arm and solo with their left just for that opportunity. When I think of the state of the some of the regional performing arts venues in this country, or the kinds of venues and conditions in which most contemporary musicians work night after night, let alone the kind of facilities available to indigenous artists in remote Australia, the comparison with those who get to play at the Opera House is instructive.
Sure, our elite performers deserve safe and professional working conditions, and our audiences deserve adequate accoustics. But the original point made by Nick Pickard and Marcus Westbury in this debate was that $1 billion is an absurd amount of capital expenditure to spend when compared with the kind of investment that goes to other parts of the Australian cultural sector. The major performing arts sector is already by far the best funded part of the arts in Australia. It’s time that sector collectively learned to make do with the already considerable resources available to it.
James – all your points about the Opera Theatre are valid – Utzon also knew all of this, and addressed it in his ‘design principles’ (see opera house web site).
He did not see the need to swap halls in the year 2000 – as the building had evolved from its 1960′s design brief.
The stage will be lowered – producing wings and a larger uncovered pit.
the hall will have every seat with 100% view, and vastly improved acoustics.
Utzon has thought of it all.
To be honest – the Opera going audience in this country simply won’t fill a bigger hall anyway. SO depressing to see half empty shows for the things like Lady Macbeth and Wether…..
Ben – yes – we are bloody lucky to perform in the opera house. BUT – the pit is not only too small, it is unsafe. It doesn’t pass any fire safety legislation, half the orchestra wears ear plugs EVERY night and are hemmed in by noise screens, the singers can not hear themselves on stage so have a short stage life from over singing, the ballet dancers have to catch each other in the wings, about 20% of the audience cannot see the whole stage or surtitles, the percussion section uses monitors as they can’t see the conductor in their cave….. is that classified as complaining or can you see the point that the theatre just plain doesn’t work.
Half an hour into a Tchaikovsky ballet – I’d bet most performers would have had their fill from the noise and cramping conditions…. That isn’t complaining, it is unfortunately the reality at 90 plus decibels. It is also not satisfying for most wind and brass players to play half a show 3 nights a week for the big repertoire as it is legally unsafe to do otherwise – so for a national icon, it fails the test as a theatre.
As far as ‘making do’ goes Ben – the employees of the Opera and Ballet have done so for 30 odd years – and have had enough. We and the audience deserve an artistically satisfying and safe place to work.
Here here Rachel! You’ve said it all!
Rachel, I doubt it would take $1 billion to address the fire safety issues of the orchestra pit. As for noise, wearing ear plugs does not seem like a high price to pay for being a professional musician at the Opera House. My understanding of earplug technology is that they limit sound above a dangerous limit (65 dB or what have you), and they do so in an essentially transparent way across the Eq spectrum. So while wearing earplugs is uncomfortable, it is not unsafe. Indeed it is more safe than ordinary everyday noise exposure in an urban setting. Certainly excessive noise is an occupational hazard for orchestral musicians, but it is scarcely a new problem or one that is unique to the Sydney Opera House. It occurs in all sorts of musical settings.
I’m sorry to write this, but compared to the resources, facilities and pay available to the majority of Australian artists, you are more than “making do.” You are enjoying an elite and very special working environment, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
My broader point here is that the employees of the Opera and Ballet already enjoy a privilege shared by only a very few other artists in the country: a full-time job as a professional artist, paid for by the state, with superannuation and other benefits, to do the job you love. If you deserve artistic satisfaction, shouldn’t we also say this of the hundreds of thousands of other artists across Australia? But in a resource-constrained world, this is impossible. So the issue becomes one of economic justice for artists. By spending a billion dollars on the Opera House, we ignore the pressing needs of many in favour of the preferences of a privileged few.
When you use phrases like “we deserve”, “we have had enough” “it doesn’t work properly so please fix it”, you only strengthen the contention of many in the less privileged parts of the Australian arts that the major performing arts sector in Australia suffers from “a culture of entitlement.” I don’t necessarily believe that, but I also don’t believe the renovation of the Sydney Opera House is the best use of $1 billion of taxpayers’ money.
I am sorry Ben but you don’t have a clue what you are on about… For starters, go and work at the SOH, go and have a look at the pit when it is full, go and see the singers/dancers and the hazards they face trying to make a quick exit off stage, especoally choruses.. Go and buy a cheaper seat and tell me if you can see the stage at all, let alone just alittle… You seem alittle jealous that there are artists that are able to hold down a full-time job in this field compared to other artistic fields.. I agree it is sad to see so many artists struggling to make it and if I could do something about it, I would, but you make it seem that the full-time artists that work there don’t deserve their position.. What utter RUBBISH!!! I can vouch for a fact that people at OA & AB and the Orchestra work bloody hard for their money and they damn well deserve to be full-time! I find your comments regards this as offensive and very ill-informed!! Go and have a look at the working conditions of the place before you start telling us about what & who you think should ‘make-do’.. The Opera Theatre has been a joke for the past 30yrs and it has been long enough.. Consider the poor musician playing in the pit who has permanent hearing damage from playing in that pit (and there are many people that are and have been in this boat) and their careers and livelyhoods are ruined because of this… Next time you are in your car, urn the radio up full blast for three hours and dont get out… Assuming that yu have a loud radio in your car or even loungeroom etc… Try putting up with it and then tell me if your ears are ringing by the end of it… Do that 5-6 nights a week and a few days when there are dress rehearsals and matinees, then try continueing that for weeks, then months, then years…. LEARN ALITTLE BEN!!! As for the cost, 6months ago, it was $600m, but now somehow it is $1bn… Alot of money, but considering that the SOH brings in over $300m every year to the national treasury through tourism etc, it is not that much to fix it when you look at a THREE YEAR PAYBACK period…!!!! How long does it take to recover the costs of a footy stadium…. I very much doubt that it is anywhere near 3yrs, maybe even 10yrs… Think about it..
James, it often happens in debates like this that those who disagree with the proposition that the performing arts are disproportionately funded in the current system sometimes accuse critics of that system (in this case, myself) of being ignorant, philistines, attacking the value of art, etc.
I think you’ve missed my point. I’m arguing that $600 million to $1 billion is too much to spend on renovating the Opera House in the context of the rest of Australian cultural funding (not to mention hospitals, disabilities and many other things governments do). I’m not saying that professional musicians playing in orchestras don’t deserve their positions.And I’m certainly not jealous of them – I myself work full-time as a writer, researcher and indeed occasionally as a musician, so I very much admire their talent, commitment and craft.
But my point is: surely the health and safety issues at the Opera House can be addressed for very much less than these massive figures. In the case of noise, for instance, most professional musicians need to use earplugs, so I just can’t see how the Opera House pit is any different.
I also stand by my point that musicians who are lucky enough to work full-time in companies that play at the Opera House enjoy privileges which most other artists don’t. Those who mount thhe argument that the Opera House renovation is necessary for the welfare and artistic fulfilment of the cultural workers employed in it need to be able to justify why already well-resourced companies deserve this investment before other, needier parts of the cultural sector. To put it in perspective, the entire budget of the Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board is less than the funding given to Opera Australia.
Who is more deserving? Aren’t the needs of indigenous artists, or indeed disability workers or other state employees, also worth thinking about? Money spent on the Opera House cannot be spent on these priorities.
sorry about length -oops
James, I think you are confusing opera with the Opera House. It is the building and location which attract tourists irrespective entirely of what productions are taking place inside. Tourists don’t fill opera seats, they buy meals and hotel rooms and go on tours of the building, this is where the $300m is generated. 99.9% of locals, intra and interstate and international tourists don’t go the opera, they go to the Opera House, Botanical Gardens, Circular Quay, Harbour Bridge. Opera is a on-going cost to the public purse, not the other way around….
Sorry Rachel, must have missed your comment during the week.
I’m sure you know I’m def. not the first person suggesting building another Opera House, here is a link to a piece in the SMH with some expanded rationale (and he uses the Oslo example as well!…) and someone even bothered to design some fugly building which he suggested be placed next to the Opera House encroaching on the Botanical Gardens…wot a bad possie.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/lets-rethink-this-renovation-and-build-a-new-opera-house/2008/02/06/1202233942886.html
And as for staging Idol and many other pleb. events at the Opera House, (which both you and James seem to have some real issues with) for more of the time – I think it’s wonderful. Considering it was plebs who paid it in the first place with half a billion lottery tickets – it’s a big win for the general public. And I don’t know why there would be or is, international embarrassment – I would have thought the Opera House in its present form was some sort of international embarrassment for opera purists.
And oh,….the City Recital Hall, something about the name gives it away…hhm….
Anwyays, firstly I’m with Christabelle on fixing up our hospitals before anything else – no-one is dying for real on stage in the Opera Theatre tonight, unlike our public hospital operating theatres ..if there is international embarrassment, it’s the state of NSW’s Area Health Services’ budget that would have eyes rolling.
And secondly, no-one has said anything about not fixing the Opera House’s most urgent & pressing issues but as Ben has re-stated – it’s about spending a huge sum of money to completely re-build the interiors and asking the public to fund this again – when the same amount of money could fix up the current Opera House’s worst problems and /or even possibly building a new Opera House with all bells and whistles that the current won’t have even after renovation , and/or spending money for lots and lots of other arts programs across the whole state.
Now, I’m not wedded to any ideas and these are all just big sums and ideas being tossed around and I’m no expert obviously – but there are people within the opera community who have alternative ideas to both of yours, and to my mind there is something a wee bit fanatical about the ‘must fix Opera House to Utzon’s designs bugger the cost’ brigade.
Because are we fixing this gigantic historical architectural blunder just to satisfy a very, very small group of opera patrons and opera workers?
Yes, it shoulda never happened, yadda, yadda, but it did. So there has to be some bloody good reasons to spend this sum if there are less expensive ways of solving the same issues, and if these are being resisted for instance because some people can’t get their heads around not watching opera in Sydney other than on Bennelong Point, then that seems pretty silly. They don’t hold the Easter show at the Showgrounds anymore either…There are many great buildings around the world whose purpose has or was changed from the original …it wouldn’t be the first time.
And then there is the argument that throwing money either at the ‘big renovation’ or another building is stretching the friendship when the activity itself, already requires huge on-going public subsidies, has relatively few patrons and all in the name of culture with a capital K?
I absolutely hear the pro-Opera arguments esp. about the terrible conditions for the orchestra etc, but at some point they become self-serving & whiny if there are solutions to these issues, but which don’t include entirely re-building the interiors and or swapping w/the concert hall or not…esp. as Rachel has mentioned, you ain’t filling the seats even now.
Like Ben has pointed out all along, there are so many artists and arts groups of all kinds across the entire state, so many dilapidated venues and failing organisations, all who would kill just to have a sniff of the crumbs off Opera’s currently set table….. let alone a look at the billion dollar case.
The situation re the orchestra is bad and it’s been reported widely, but I think you guys are wilfully missing Ben’s point – ie. terrible working conditions vs no working conditions. This is where you guys aren’t listening – no working conditions..zero, zip, zilch. Closed down, packed up, gorne home.
Last year, a female musician friend was spitting her coffee over some Goodweekend article about the costumes for some particular opera production and how many jewels were sewn into just one of the gowns which were each worth the price of a medium sized car. She was angry. I was defending the design skills, the craft, the beauty of these pieces, they might get used again!…but there is something amiss with the Opera community when many seemingly cannot understand even why these sorts of ostentatious displays of public arts subsidies (which are enjoyed solely by um…themselves) rankle with so many outside of the community. It’s verging on -’let them eat cake’ stuff esp. at this time in the economic cycle.
Exactly how much is it estimated to fix the problems just with orchestra pit for instance?
As I said, maybe fixing the Opera House is worth it at some stage, but you would do yourselves a huge favour if you didn’t sound like the kids at the Kings School lecturing public school kids about how their indoor heated Olympic sized swimming pool and rifle range need to be refurbished.
Ben, Thankyou for clearing your point, I don’t think that you can put disability funding in the same boat as arts funding.. I know that the current health budgets are shocking, having a relative working in the sector, I know full-well the ‘patheticness’ of the funds. I also know the wonderful (mainly) people that work under these conditions… Jo, regards the Opera House being a name, to put you straight on this, it IS and always called the Sydney Opera House. The original name was thought of as the NAtional Opera House. What happens at an Opera House, what do you see?? Opera maybe….??? It should be called the Sydney Performing Arts Centre as that is what it functions as primarily. First a Concert/Symphonic Hall for these types of concerts. This was meant to be a multi-purpose hall mainly for opera fyi. The Opera Theatre has been in a bad state for a decade and has always been stretched to its limits and beyond for the since its opening in ’73. I agree with your thoughts about fixing hospitals etc, as I mentioned above, they are in a bad state. The Opera House has been waiting for 30yrs for a re-fit to make it into an opera house. The question is NOT should we fund hospitals, buyt the question is how much longer are people going to have to wait, both workers & the punters, to finally get a world class performance/viewing space as the exterior indicates SHOULD be within.. We have been waiting for 30yrs for this, but do a little research and find out how many years the football clubs both local and larger, have to wait to have a football stadium build or enlarged??? Not long I bet!!! -Just a thought.. As for being a minority attendting the Opera, try just under 10% of the population visit the opera house to see a performance.. Ill bet thats not as smaller figure as you expected.. YES Opera has a larger following and regards not filling the seats, I think that you will find that the place is more often than not 3/4 to full during performances but regards the performances themselves, there is also another factor to take into account. There is alot of repertoir that OA would love to perform but can’t because the theatre just can’t do it. All the Big Verdi, some Puccini, and Wagner Operas which book out years in advance in Adelaide when they do their Ring Cycle. People come from ALL OVER THE WORLD to see it!! That is great for Adelaids, but for Sydney, having the worlds most recognisible building, and I know that because I travel alot, and it IS the Best looking Opera House in the WORLD, but the inside is among the poorest regards its functionality, efficiency & audience perspective. I think that you miss the point that people DO need Opera, alot more than you think, just like they need football, museums, Zoos, Libraries. I think that you might do well to notice that when they decided to build it, they deliberately started early because they knew it was going to be expensive and if they didn’t start, it would never have happened at all.. Aren’t you (&certainly am I) that they went ahead..?? It paid for itself rather quickly I might add in terms of tourism and local business etc.. Whats the problem??
With regards to fixing it the cheapest possible way, Learn something Jo, they already have tried and tried.. They have extended the pit so much that if they moved it out another foot, you would actually be sitting on the steel cables which hold the shells together.. They can’t extend it backwards because the pit is already 4/5s under the stage. Imagine a full size Orchestra playing in a large loungeroom, barely big enough to fit them in in a mega squashed organisation, then take a couple of feet off either side to make it less wide. Now give them a roof that you can reach-up and touch with your ELBOW, let alone your stretched out hand, and now tell them to play for three-five hours at full volume.. How much could you stand?? I think that if you experienced that, you might understand and agree that after 30yrs, they have been putting up with that for long enough and deserve a change.. Look at it this way, Now is the perfect time to do it, from the point of view that it will provide over 3,000 jobs immediately with more to come on the fringe, and it will be a bit CAPITAL WORKS Stimulus, which is exactly what the country needs at this stage, ASWELL AS other works like highways, hospitals, maybe a new trainline… It is undeniable that the place needs a reno and a big one, but if they couldn’t do it a few years ago when we weren’t in the Credit Crunch, and we have people like you saying that we can’t do it now, tell me…. WHEN CAN IT BE DONE???
Regards to other arts funding or lack thereof, that is for them to talk about, and if they have a big enough voice of a big enough following, they will be heard. Sadly this isn’t always the case as the Opera only knows too well from the past decades.. Cheers!
There’s a lot to say about arts policy, but an Opera House reno isn’t about the arts – it’s a building industry subsidy… Or perhaps even a tourism industry subsidy
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Actually it’s all three at the same time innit?
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Which is probably why the suits dig the idea. No doubt given the famous proclivities of the building industry/ALP NSW Right’s tendency for making offers one would like to refuse if one could only track down the right forms I do suppose this could be undertaken for some 25% of the price than it’s gonna. I imagine there were a lot of MAAAATTEs ’round cookin’ this one up.
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At the same time however the inside of one of the world’s greatest buildings has looked far too much like a 1970s suburban twin cinema for too long.
Ben – To put it in perspective, the entire budget of the Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board is less than the funding given to Opera Australia.
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Why the comparison? Opera is expensive. Is the ATSI board as expensive – necessarily? Are you pulling racial heart strings? A lot of ATSI artists do very well in the private sector so is there the same need. Opera cannot be sustained in the private sector.
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Why compare ‘em?
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Who is more deserving? Aren’t the needs of indigenous artists, or indeed disability workers or other state employees, also worth thinking about
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Well true. But we could use that argument to nix public patronage altogether can’t we? After all why should the Perverted Performance Artists of Fitzroy get a cent when there are people sleeping on the street? Or even could be used to supply the Art Rooms of dilapidated regional NT high schools.
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‘Member when they bought Blue Poles? There was a pink fit! And they screamed blue murder :) . I don’t like Pollock’s work much (Kandinsky’s how it’s done) but it was the smart play. Why? Two reasons. First it’s a still-controversial work of 20th century art so it took Oz out of the Backward Yokels box. Second, because it’s a classic it will probably eventually fetch more than it cost.
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It’s much better if the world thinks of us a significant cultural producer. They may pay attention and spend bucks on our significant cultural products then. Much better than the tedium of applying for funding with all the attendant (it’s about challenging questions of identity) bollocks.
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I don’t know if the sum’s justified. Probably not, it’s Sydney after all. But the Opera House is the one icon of Kulcha in Oz and it should shine inside as well as out. At least I know where the money’s gone. Unlike when I hear about the latest subsidized novel from someone doing a degree in creative writing that reaches such high levels of quality that not even their own Uni’s library care to stock it.
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Remember Kafka had a day job and he did alright. :)
Yes I guess in the long run, it’s probably worth spending a few hundred million to rejuvenate one of Australia’s leading brand images. Plus JOBS!
“Remember Kafka had a day job and he did alright.”
But on the other hand, look what happened when Jimi Hendrix took his work home with him.
Adrien, actually I compared Opera Australia to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board because indigenous visual art is the best known Australian art movement internationally. Indigenous culture, in fact, is arguably better known around the world than the Sydney Opera House.
James, I think we can and must compare the relative merits of government expenditure, both within and across portfolios. Choosing to spend money on Joint Strike Fighters means we can’t spend that money on special forces troops – OR hospitals. The same is true for the Opera House renovation. Opportunity cost is the very basis of the decisions that democracies make.
In terms of your point about other “other arts funding or lack thereof, that is for them to talk about”, you are indeed correct. But if we follow your argument that “if they have a big enough voice of a big enough following, they will be heard”, opera will be in a lot of trouble. According to the ABS, it ranks way down the list of the most popular cultural pursuits in Australia, below cinema, parks and botanic gardens, popular music concerts, art galleries and libraries (but above theatre, classical music and dance). These preferences are not reflected in current funding priorities.
Ben, the ABS figures group musicals and operas together – when separated opera falls way below…..hhm, I have this post already prepared:
James,
James, the figure you are quoting without links btw – refers to performances at the Opera House, I presume? And to view the very productions and performances you and Rachel were poo-poohing earlier like Idol, School concerts, rock/pop concerts? It actually surprises me how low that figure is.
Clumsy fudging of facts really does not help Opera’s case. Seriously.
Here is a link to the ABS where the 2001 figure for Opera Australia attendances was 268,012: Source: Opera Australia
http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/ABS@.nsf/Previousproducts/102883C2D4A8648CCA256CAE00108521?opendocument
The national figures for opera attendances range up to 450 thousand nation wide – from around 16 companies in one set of statistics, also note that opera figures are mostly grouped with musicals so you have to look for the separated figures – 2005/06 est: opera attendees by self-report 405,000 being roughly 2% of the population.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4114.0
Also I have no idea what you are referring to in respect of the building’s name. None.
This is the sort of comment that just alienates the approx >90-95% of the population who live their entire lives without ever having been to the opera. It’s really very offensive to suggest that people need opera or indeed any particular leisure or cultural or sporting pursuit. Whether as a society we decide collectively through our elected representatives decision’s in respect of arts funding that opera should be supported for a wide range of reasons, then that is another matter.
You have also chosen to just go over the case for the extensive renovation again (in which you preferred the concert hall/opera theatre? swap unlike Rachel..) without however referring to the alternative views put by other opera commentators, that I linked to in respect of building another opera venue. And if I could be bothered going through your points more carefully, which I can’t be – I suspect I would find like your use of statistics above – that you are possibly obstuficating and confusing issues.
If the Opera Australia’s PR Dept were reading this thread, they would probably get you in for a chat to um, ‘learn’ something as you have said to men, including reading closely what people are reporting and what they are stating etc.
Damn, I didn’t close the bold after need …Ben?
“said to me”
fcuk, I’m too tired for this.
Good to see a healthy debate happening here! It helps crystalise ones own thoughts and arguments…
Ben – you are right – it wouldn’t take $1b to address the noise issues in the pit, but the price tag (seems exorbitant to me too) is for the whole building – not just the opera theatre.
Ear plugs are a factor in most musicians lives – my husband is a gigging guitarist so I am well aware of the noise in many other less iconic music venues. Ear plug technology has indeed come a long way, but for an form that is unamplified coupled with new acoustic technology (ARUP, genius company) there is now no longer a need for them in a well designed environment. Musicians in the Opera house and elsewhere should be able to perform at their best, which means hearing every sound you make. This is especially true in the age of the CD – audiences demand the same quality of performance they hear at home from their favourite recordings (the average symphony has around 2000 edits). You are expected to play to perfection every night, and with 2 ear plugs in it is nigh impossible no matter what instrument you play.
“When you use phrases like “we deserve”, “we have had enough” “it doesn’t work properly so please fix it”, you only strengthen the contention of many in the less privileged parts of the Australian arts that the major performing arts sector in Australia suffers from “a culture of entitlement.”
I guess I should hang my head low and apologise for my language, but I won’t. I am proud of my orchestra, and passionate about the building in which I work. Not only the employees, but everybody in the country does deserve a world class national performance space. We are a very bloody talented country! The SOH caters for all of us – I see it on the monitors every night in the green room – Idol, Metropolitan high schools performance nights, Taikoz, the Bjelke Petersen School of Physical Culture awards, HSC composition show cases, the Australian Ballet, Singing and conducting comps, Foo Fighters, Roberta Flack, the Choir of Hard Knocks, Bangarra Dance Co, Suzuki graduation.. then you have the other events like APEC, World Youth Day etc etc. This money benefits so many people, not just an elite few.
THe argument over health funding is really valid and the hospital system undeniably is disastrous. But the health system and the arts are such polar opposite topics that the argument could go around in circles endlessly. With ever changing technologies and a growing population the burden on health funding is never ending, wheras most art forms that have been in existence for centuries are a known quantity – you can set the budget. However every now and then the actual work space needs upgrading, to set things up for the next few decades or so. The Opera House was never finished properly in the first place, and has reached the point where the facilities are just plain disfunctional. Yes it’s a lot of money but it is a national treasure, and the benefits of a little tlc will pay off. Don’t forget the health benefits of a smile – going to that one amazing concert can be something you never forget.
Jo – i take a little exception to
“you would do yourselves a huge favour if you didn’t sound like the kids at the Kings School lecturing public school kids about how their indoor heated Olympic sized swimming pool and rifle range need to be refurbished.”
I am really passionate about my work, I care for the health and safety of my colleagues, and I also love what I do. I wouldn’t change it for anything. I really stick up for what I believe in too, but pride myself on being open minded and non judgemental/ elitist. I have worked all over the place before I was lucky enough to pass my audition, and have performed in school halls, tiny pubs, basketball buildings, ovals, floating pontoons etc etc . Musos make do with what they have – we all love the gig so always make sure the show goes on. Just because I work in the opera house doesn’t mean I am some sort of privileged whiner. Surely there is nothing wrong with wanting to improving your workplace, whatever it may be???
As for “And as for staging Idol and many other pleb. events at the Opera House, (which both you and James seem to have some real issues with) for more of the time – I think it’s wonderful… And I don’t know why there would be or is, international embarrassment – I would have thought the Opera House in its present form was some sort of international embarrassment for opera purists.”
When did I say they were ‘pleb’ events – I said that if that was ALL that happened in an opera house it would be embarrassing.
Your friends story about the jewels is fantastic – in the old sense – as if the OA board would agree to that! Have fun too finding some ‘opera purists’ – have yet to run into any in the last 10 years at the opera. The audiences are from all backgrounds, all ages, and usually enjoy many different musical experiences. Actually – the audience members I love the most are the ‘opera virgins’ – nothing better than seeing a smile on someone’s face at the end of the day.
Like it or not, the renovation is going to cost a lot of money. The building is firmly entrenched in the fabric of this city so the benefits I believe outweigh these costs in the long term. Life in Sydney without the Opera House seems unimaginable after all this time – that sounds rather la-di-da, but things are going to grind to a halt in there without some intervention. Not only the ‘high art’ will cease, but all the varied and wonderful music making that goes on under those shells.
Rachel,
Stats however would suggest it is a narrow range of people in specific demographics who attend the opera.
I feel like I’m arguing against something, which in other circumstances I may not.
Part of the problem is that possibly both you and James view Opera Australia/my employer/my job and the Opera House as one intrinsically linked entity, whereas as I and maybe others see them as two separate things whose needs may be entirely divergent.
I didn’t get the feeling from this statement that you particularly liked popular musical events and community ones being staged at the SOH or rather that opera/ballet/classic music concerts are the ‘legitimate performances’ and others are just rent payers. I’m happy to hear that you don’t feel this way..
I should have written ‘gems or fancy beading’ whatever Rachel, you wouldn’t get too many real jewels for the price of medium sized car, which is around the cost quoted in the article. The Good Weekend isn’t online@%#$, but anyway you are cherry picking like James – my point was that many people outside of the opera community do not share your passion for opera (understatement) and they also (as per James) resent being told what’s good for them… and more, I defended the cost anyways!!
Just as I’ve posted that fixing the building is also necessary & desirable.
Why is the place going to grind to a halt? Why would we have to imagine Sydey without it? Half of what you post makes a ton of sense and the other half, is just a wee bit over the top.
Rees either has rocks in his head or a developer at his neck. He seems determined, as though his life depended on it, to blow billions on construction.
The argument against this expenditure seems to boil down to two assertions:
1. The Opera House is just a building, and houses an elite form of the arts, so why spend so much money on a building.
The Opera House is a work of art in itself and is so much more than just a building. We might as well say that Ankor Wat is just a temple and what a waste of money it is restoring it. Apart from anything else we owe it to future generations to preserve the building as a functioning artistic centre, which it barely is at the moment.
I think that some people commenting here would like to see the whole thing closed down and just have the shells preserved as some sort of symbol of the society that we used to be. You know, one that values artistic excellence, and which is willing to fund it adequately.
2. There are so much more worthy things to spend the money on, such as hospitals, schools, or small scale community arts projects.
This of course is a particularly insiduous argument because once you start arguing this way, it can become an excuse for funding nothing. Why waste money on community arts projects when the money could be better spent on hospitals? Why spend money on our hospitals when people overseas lack even basis health care facilities?
Hi Jo, I’ve fixed up that bold text for you ;)
You’re right of course about the aggregated figures for “opera and musicals.”
I think this has been a really positive thread, by the way, at least in terms of people thinking through the principles and consequences of arts funding.
I’d make one further point here too, which is that public arts funding is actually already heavily biased towards infrastructure and capital investment, and not to ongoing creative activity to support artists (things like project grants, fellowships and so on.)
Adrien – I totally agree with your point 2. This is the whole issue at stake – how should we distribute scarce public resources? But the status quo is a choice in itself, remember.
Indigenous culture, in fact, is arguably better known around the world than the Sydney Opera House.
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Yeah and the art is one of the most profitable. Compare the costs of opera with the costs of painting. Just sayin’.
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Adrian – :The Opera House is just a building, and houses an elite form of the arts, so why spend so much money on a building.
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Well characterized. If someone thinks the Opera House is ‘just a building’ it’s really not worth going any further is it?
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Even the popular arts are ‘elite’. Or is Martin Scorsese on par with the people who made Dumb and Dumber?
As one of the people who sparked all this off, I am not sure whether i should wade into this one or not. I find the debate here and the comments that people have left at my own blog informative but i feel a strong need to reassert the reality of what we are NOT funding and explain the reality of the environment that those of us outside the cultural institutions work in.
I no longer live in NSW. I moved to Victoria several years ago but I am originally from Newcastle and i have worked on several major cultural projects there down the years. Newcastle is the second largest city in NSW and is a large enough place that it would be the largest city in 3 states or territories.
I’ve been involved in two major and several minor cultural projects there. I founded the This Is Not Art festival — which last i heard was still the largest annual tourism event in the city and one of the largest media arts festivals in the world — and ran it for five years. http://www.thisisnotart.org for more info.
Currently, i am working on a project called Renew Newcastle which has already had great success in converting some of the 150 empty buildings in the main streets of Newcastle into spaces for cultural projects and arts intiatives. To date we’ve put 14 projects into 8 buildings and i expect that number will double in the next few months.
I have NEVER been paid for any of this.
I hope that puts my comments about Opera Houses and orchestras into context. I’m not a whinger. I’ve not spent the last 10 years complaining i’ve spent it doing it and simply dealing with the reality that there is not and never has been enough money going around to do this stuff properly and pay me. I have spent many tens of thousands of dollars of my own money. I have worked multiple day jobs to cross subsidise it all. I’ve spent the last year funding the rejuvenation of Newcastle on my credit card. In my experience that is pretty much normal and unremarkable. It is the boat that almost all the people who are participating in the projects that i have created and am creating are in also.
However, there are times — such as when the highest funded cultural organisations in the country ask for another billion dollars — that i am remind there is something deeply and fundamentally unjust about all of this and i feel a little compelled to ask for a reality check.