IT'S BEEN closed for renovations for months. But behind the scenes, workers have been busy revamping the Sydney Opera House's Joan Sutherland Theatre ready for its special New Year's Eve grand re-opening.
The Sydney Opera House has provided a sneak glimpse of the changes audience will see when the world famous theatre reopens with Opera Australia's The Merry Widow on December 31 after its $71 million makeover.
The revamp included a $45 million upgrade of theatre machinery plus $26 million on improvements to the venue.
Key upgrades include a new theatre flying system, improved grid deck and partial replacement of the auditorium lighting as well as an upgraded orchestra pit and the installation of a state-of-the-art acoustic enhancement system to improve playing conditions for musicians and better distribute orchestral sound around the theatre.
At front of house, six additional female toilets have been built and work is also planned for accessibility upgrades expected to be finished by the middle of the year.
The Joan Sutherland Theatre upgrade is the first part of a larger program of $273 renewal works at the Opera House which includes $202 million in upgrades to the Concert Hall, entry foyers and arrival area, function centre and a new creative learning centre.
Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron AM said: "After seven months of intensive construction work, crew members, performers, musicians and staff are back. They are thrilled with the upgrades and enjoying intense training and testing from all angles, all of which are critical to a successful reopening on New Year's Eve."
In preparation for the reopening, Opera Australia's production team and members of the orchestra having been testing the new acoustics.
Opera Australia chief executive Rory Jeffes said: "When audience members take their seats in the JST they may not notice huge changes in the auditorium, but behind-the-scenes it will be a different story. The backstage machinery upgrades, orchestra pit works and acoustic enhancements will transform the experience for artists and audience members alike, allowing us to push creative artistic boundaries in entirely new ways."
The Joan Sutherland Theatre is one of the Opera House's busiest venues with around 330 performances per year.
Housed under the second largest sail of the Opera House, the theatre is named after the great Australian soprano Joan Sutherland and is the Opera House's second largest venue with seats for more than 1500 guests.
Home to year-round performances from our resident companies Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet, the theatre also stages musicals, talks, comedy and contemporary music.
Unusually, the theatre has notably shallow 'wing' space (the space out of view on the sides of the stage, where scenery and performers gather prior to moving onto the stage). Rather than the scenery moving in from the sides, it is elevated up onto stage level by to two large lifts in the floor.
A net that covered the orchestra pit was installed in 1980s, after a live chicken walked off the stage during a performance and landed on a cellist.
Fun facts about the upgrades
- The new state-of-the-art theatre machinery has been built by Waagner-Biro - the same company who built the original machinery when the venue opened in 1973.
- The new bridging mechanism that closes the gap between the stage edge and orchestra pit takes 46.
- seconds to complete. Previously, it would have taken eight crew members two hours to manually do this.
- The two new rear stage lifts can each carry up to ten tonnes of stage sets. People can also safely use the stage lift, unlike its predecessor.
- A specially-made conveyor belt was designed to remove/put back all the distinct red auditorium seats.
- individually. It took close to a week to put all 1500 seats back into the venue.
- Over 400 tonnes of material and steel from the original theatre machinery was removed from the theatre during the works.
- During the upgrade, there were some unique discoveries including graffiti on the walls and a newspaper from 1973, which were carefully documented for heritage significance.
