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1970
|
The
Australia Council releases a report, Music in Australia: Needs and
Prospects, by Roger Covell and others. The report recommends that a
performing arts collection, similar to the library and museum at Lincoln
Centre, be established at the Sydney Opera House and other performing
arts centres being built in Australia. “Such
a library keeps the centre active in its task of making these arts
accessible to a wide public, even during those daylight hours when
performances may be taking place in the centre’s halls. If the Sydney
Opera House Trust can find space and the opportunity to take up [the
suggestion] it will earn the gratitude of all generations of users of
this centre”.
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1972
|
Test concert given in the Music Room on 31 October. Presented by Musica Viva Australia, the performers
include the Fidelio String Quartet, Lauris Elms and Donald Westlake. The
first test concert in the Concert Hall takes place on 17 December with
the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Bernard Heinze.
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|
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Test concert given in the Concert Hall
on the afternoon of 17 December 1972 by the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra under the baton of Sir Bernard Heinze. |
|
1973
|
|
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Jan
|
First test concert
given in the Opera
Theatre on 21 January features Donald Smith, Elizabeth Fretwell and
members of the ABC National Training Orchestra, conducted by Robert
Miller. This followed a second test earlier in the day in the
Concert Hall featuring the same artists.
|
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Mar
|
Frank Barnes appointed General Manager, after
serving as Deputy
General Manager and General Manager-Designate since April 1972, to
succeed Stuart Bacon, who died In July 1973.
|
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Apr
|
First recital in the complex given by
Romola Costantino in the Concert Hall to an invited audience on 10 April.
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May
|
Dennis Wolanski Library of the Performing Arts
officially launched May 1973 in an office next to the Board
Room, following a gift by Mr Dennis Wolanski. The
Minister for Cultural Activities, Mr G. Freudenstein, speaking at a
reception to acknowledge the gift, said: “It
is hoped that the library will include not only reference books on the
performing arts but also archives of Australia’s musical and
theatrical history. From attics and storerooms and possibly some old
wooden crates – anything which anyone has in this field would be
welcome”. The Trust
Chairman, Sir Phillip Baxter, added “[We
want] letters, documents, photographs, relating to the theatre in
Sydney from the time that The
Recruiting Officer was
first performed in Sydney in June 1789”.
|
|
Jul 18 |
Sydney Symphony Orchestra performs in the
Concert Hall as part of the
61st Annual Session
of the Federation Dentaire Internationale and XXth Australian Dental
Congress 15-20th July 1973. Under Willem Van Otterloo, the
orchestra performs Robert Hughes' Sea Spell, commissioned for the
occasion, Wagner's Prelude to Act 1 of Die Meistersinger and Brahms'
Symphony No 4. A limited edition commemorative recording, the first
commercial recording made at the Opera House, was later released at a
price of $100, bearing the signatures of Willem Van Otterloo and the
General Manager of the Opera House, Frank Barnes. A brief report of
the concert appeared in Australian Dental Journal volume 13
number 4, August 1973. Mr Robert Ferguson, who attended the concert,
has provided the Wolanski Foundation with personal reminiscences of
the event.
|
|
Jul
19 |
World premier of the film Don Quixote,
featuring Rudolf Nureyev, Lucette Aldous Sir Robert Helpmann and the
Australian Ballet, presented in the Concert Hall on 19 July. In
the same month, between 25 and 28 July, the operas The Fall of the
House of Usher by Larry Sitsky and Dalgerie by James
Penberthy were presented by the NSW State Conservatorium in the Opera
Theatre. On 31 July, the operas Edward John Eyre by Barry
Conyngham and Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell were presented by
the University of New South Wales Opera in the Concert Hall.
|
|
Jul 27 |
Sydney
Opera House trustee Hedley Yelland states in his Report on the
Objectives of the Educational Programme Committee: “As Australia’s
most ambitious arts complex, the Opera House would appear to have a
mandate to establish itself as a major centre for the study of the arts
and the stimulation of experiment. In this connection it is essential that the Trust’s library be
developed as soon as possible”.
|
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Aug
|
First test performance in the Drama Theatre
on 28 August with a program of Australian poems presented by the Old
Tote Theatre Company.
|
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Sep
|
First event in the Exhibition Hall with
the opening of All the World’s A Stage, mounted by the British
Council and the Sydney Opera House Trust. Production: Robert Colligan.
Research: Margaret Williams. Design: Yoshi Tosa. September 25.
|
|
|
First public performance in the Opera Theatre
with the Australian Opera’s production of War and Peace,
September 28.
|
|
|
First public performance in the Concert Hall
given by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with soloist Birgit Nilsson and
conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, September 29.
|
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Oct
|
|
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Oct 1
|
First public performance in the Drama Theatre
with the Old Tote Theatre Company’s production of Richard 11,
directed by Robin Lovejoy, designed by Anne Fraser, and featuring John
Gaden, Ron Haddrick, George Whaley, Drew Forsyth, Shane Porteous, Pamela
Stephenson, Dinah Shearing and Ruth Cracknell
|
|
Oct 2
|
First public performance in the Music Room
presented by Musica Viva Australia with the Carl Pini Quartet, Romola
Costantino and Walter Sutcliffe
.
|
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Oct 5
|
First public performance presented in the Recording
Hall by the International Society for Contemporary Music, featuring
trombonist Stuart Dempster and produced
by James Murdoch.
|
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Oct 20
|
Official opening of the Opera House by
Queen Elizabeth 11 in the afternoon. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
later attend the Royal Opening Concert performed by the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra, conducted by Willem van Otterloo and featuring John
Antill’s Jubugalee and Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 in D
Minor.
|
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Oct 21
|
Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh are
conducted on a tour of the building.
|
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Oct 22
|
Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh attend
the Australian Opera’s production of The Magic Flute in the
Opera Theatre.
|
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Oct 28
|
First major public attraction in the Reception
Hall with an exhibition of paintings by Robert Emerson Curtis.
|
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1975
|
Stan Buckley succeeds Sir
Philip Baxter as Chairman of the Trust
|
|
|
Dennis Wolanski Library & Archives of the
Performing Arts moves to newly allocated space in the Exhibition
Hall, December 1975.
|
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1977
|
Sir Robert Norman succeeds
Stan Buckley as Chairman of the Trust.
|
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1978
|
Jørn
Utzon, in interview with SOH Press Officer Ava Hubble, urges the establishment of a small museum in Sydney to house the
plans for the building. “I would like people to be able to see my
plans”.
|
|
1979
|
Lloyd Martin appointed General Manager on
1 March to succeed Frank Barnes, who had suffered a serious illness in
July 1978 and asked to be transferred to lighter duties at the NSW
Public Service Board. Martin had served as Deputy General Manager from June 1973. |
|
|
Music Room becomes the Cinema
to acknowledge its use primarily for film screenings, although it
continues to operate as a theatre. |
