The Sydney Opera House Opens
This morning, while listening to the ABC, I heard that it was 45 years since the opening of the Sydney Opera House. We were living in Sydney at the time. There were, of course, great festivities for the opening, and Queen Elizabeth II performed the official opening.
On the night of October 20th, 1973, there was a huge fireworks display, and our family were on a hill on the north side of Sydney with amazing views. Hundreds of people were also there, and though it was some distance away, we saw the skies light up!
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| Sydney Opera House - photo by Johnny Bhalla |
Shaoxing Opera
When I was in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, I learned that there was an opera house there, which was supposedly a copy of the Sydney one.
In the first semester I was in China I ventured alone to find out about it, and even went into the ticket sales area, but no one spoke English, and there was no English information either. I did ask some students to take me but didn't find anyone enthusiastic to do so.
I think it was the second or third semester that I was in Shaoxing, that I found out that there was to be a performance there, and I arranged for a group of English teachers to go.
About 10 of us sat through an interesting performance - but of course, we could not comprehend the whole story. We could tell who the lovers were, and the good characters and the bad ones. I recall at the interval, we went into the foyer and groups of locals stood staring at us in awe.
At the end of the show, some came and spoke to us, wondering if we understood it. We had a few laughs as we explained our understanding of the story.
Shaoxing opera is quite famous in China.
Shaoxing Opera House
The Shaoxing Opera House is "modelled" on the one in Sydney, so I was told. It has three 'sails', but doesn't look much like the one in Sydney. I took this photo. You can see the 'sails', but that is about the only similarity. There is no harbour around it - in fact, it is somewhat "hidden" in the central park.
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