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94
TEXT 4
Read the text and answer the questions
It is almost impossible to write of the Arts in Australia without mentioning the
building that first put the country firmly on the world cultural map - the Sydney
Opera House. Completed in 1973 after 14 years of much heated discussion and at a
cost of almost £60 million, it is not only the most well-known Australian building in
the world but perhaps the most famous design of any modern building anywhere.
Its distinctive and highly original shape has been likened to everything from the sails
of a sailing ship to broken eggshells, but few would argue with the claim that the
Opera House is a major contribution to world architecture. Set amidst the graceful
splendour of Sydney Harbour, presiding like a queen over the bustle and brashness of
a modern city striving to forge a financial reputation in a tough commercial world, it
is a reminder to all Australians of their deep and abiding love of all things cultural.
The Opera House was designed not by an Australian but by a celebrated Danish
architect, Jorn Utzon, whose design won an international competition in the late
1950s. However, it was not, in fact, completed to his original specifications. Plans for
much of the intended interior design of the building have only recently been
discovered. Sadly, the State Government of the day interfered with Utzon's plans
because of concerns about the escalating cost, though this was hardly surprising - the
building was originally expected to cost only £5.5 million. Utzon left the country
before completing the project and in a fit of anger vowed never to return. The project
was eventually paid for by a State-run lottery.
The size of the interior of the building was scaled down appreciably by a team of
architects whose job it was to finish construction within a restricted budget. Rehearsal
rooms and other facilities for the various theatres within the complex were either
made considerably smaller or cut out altogether, and some artists have complained
bitterly about them ever since. But despite the controversy that surrounded its birth,
the Opera House has risen above the petty squabbling and is now rightfully hailed as
a modern architectural masterpiece. The Queen officially opened the building in 1975
and since then, within its curved and twisted walls, audiences of all nationalities have
