Why Sydney Opera House’s Danish architect was not present at 1973 opening
The iconic Sydney Opera House celebrates its 50th birthday on Friday but its Danish architect, Jørn Utzon,was not at the grand opening half a century ago after a dispute with the New South Wales government.
Sydney Opera House celebrates its 50th birthday on Friday with the building’s iconic sails lit up by a laser show which will continue throughout this weekend.
While the instantly-recognisable building’s official birthday is on Friday, events to mark its half-century gracing the Sydney shoreline have been ongoing for months.
These have included concerts and talks as well as a visit by the children of Jørn Utzon, the late Danish architect who was the mastermind behind the building’s remarkable sailing ship-style design.
A visit from Utzon’s family sounds like a natural way to mark the occasion, but this might not always have been the case.
Construction of the Opera House began under Utzon’s direction as far back as the late 1950s, but the project exceeded its budget repeatedly and was not completed until 1973. Its original budget of 7 million Australian dollars ballooned to 102 million dollars.
As Queen Elizabeth II attended an opening ceremony with fireworks and a symphony orchestra playing Beethoven, Utzon was at home in the town of Hellebæk north of Copenhagen, and wasn’t even watching on television. He had not worked on the building for the last seven years.
Archives show that Utzon felt great sorrow at the situation in his later years. But irreconcilable differences with the New South Wales state government had resulted in Utzon and his family leaving Australia in 1966.
“The tragic thing is that he didn’t actually build that much after he left the project [in Sydney]. When he came home to Denmark, he was told by Danish authorities he’d never be allowed to work on public projects. And he never did. But he fortunately did have other projects which were fantastic, but the Opera House is extraordinary,” Line Nørskov Davenport, exhibition director at the Utzon Centre in Aalborg, told broadcaster DR.
Construction of the Opera House was at a standstill for some time after Utzon left the project and some of his original plans were scrapped by the time it reached completion in 1973.
“It was as the sadness and trauma he must have felt to leave his life's work was gradually replaced by a greater peace by Utzon, perhaps because of the fact that people absolutely loved this building from day one,” Nørskov Davenport said.
Relations between the Opera House and Utzon were resumed in the late 1990s, but the architect never went back to Sydney to see the completed Opera House.
He did, however, live to see the Opera House added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007, before his death the following year.
Utzon’s daughter, Lin Utzon, told Danish news wire Ritzau on Friday that even at the time, the architect was resigned to leaving the project in 1966.
“He could see nothing could be done. He could have stayed and fought, but he’d have lost his health and everything else,” she said.
“But there was nothing that could be done,” she added.
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Sydney Opera House celebrates its 50th birthday on Friday with the building’s iconic sails lit up by a laser show which will continue throughout this weekend.
While the instantly-recognisable building’s official birthday is on Friday, events to mark its half-century gracing the Sydney shoreline have been ongoing for months.
These have included concerts and talks as well as a visit by the children of Jørn Utzon, the late Danish architect who was the mastermind behind the building’s remarkable sailing ship-style design.
A visit from Utzon’s family sounds like a natural way to mark the occasion, but this might not always have been the case.
Construction of the Opera House began under Utzon’s direction as far back as the late 1950s, but the project exceeded its budget repeatedly and was not completed until 1973. Its original budget of 7 million Australian dollars ballooned to 102 million dollars.
As Queen Elizabeth II attended an opening ceremony with fireworks and a symphony orchestra playing Beethoven, Utzon was at home in the town of Hellebæk north of Copenhagen, and wasn’t even watching on television. He had not worked on the building for the last seven years.
Archives show that Utzon felt great sorrow at the situation in his later years. But irreconcilable differences with the New South Wales state government had resulted in Utzon and his family leaving Australia in 1966.
“The tragic thing is that he didn’t actually build that much after he left the project [in Sydney]. When he came home to Denmark, he was told by Danish authorities he’d never be allowed to work on public projects. And he never did. But he fortunately did have other projects which were fantastic, but the Opera House is extraordinary,” Line Nørskov Davenport, exhibition director at the Utzon Centre in Aalborg, told broadcaster DR.
Construction of the Opera House was at a standstill for some time after Utzon left the project and some of his original plans were scrapped by the time it reached completion in 1973.
“It was as the sadness and trauma he must have felt to leave his life's work was gradually replaced by a greater peace by Utzon, perhaps because of the fact that people absolutely loved this building from day one,” Nørskov Davenport said.
Relations between the Opera House and Utzon were resumed in the late 1990s, but the architect never went back to Sydney to see the completed Opera House.
He did, however, live to see the Opera House added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007, before his death the following year.
Utzon’s daughter, Lin Utzon, told Danish news wire Ritzau on Friday that even at the time, the architect was resigned to leaving the project in 1966.
“He could see nothing could be done. He could have stayed and fought, but he’d have lost his health and everything else,” she said.
“But there was nothing that could be done,” she added.
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