Classical music: The iconic Sydney Opera House turns 40 this week. A concert will celebrate the event.

By Jacob Stockinger

The upright, stacked and leaning white partial shells, located on a jetty and surrounded by water, have become iconic around the world.

The opera house is to Sydney, Australia, what the Empire State Building is to New York, the Eiffel Tower to Paris, the Coliseum to Rome.

The building is now synonymous with the place it was built.

True, right now the news focus Down Under Is on the devastating wildfires in New South Wales that surround Sydney and have left the city with colorful huge ash clouds (below in a photo from The  Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom).

But is good to take time out to remember the anniversary of the Sydney Opera House.

But here are some links to help you explore the opera house and its history.

Here and at the bottom in a YouTube video are background stories about the architect, the design and the construction of the place where, I believe, the famous YouTube Symphony, recruited via the internet from around the world, meets and performs.

http://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/news/sydney-opera-house-turns-40

And here is a link to the concert that will take place this Sunday, Oct. 27. Can you guess what the main work on the program is?

http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/40th_anniversary_concert.aspx

Here is a link so you can see the variety of programming and performers that use the famous venue:

http://40.sydneyoperahouse.com

And here is a comprehensive story about the past, present and future:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/performance-anxiety-as-the-sydney-opera-house-turns-40/story-fn9n8gph-1226735636045

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Australia, Daily Telegraph, Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Jacob Stockinger, New South Wales, Opera house, Paris, Rome, Sydney, Sydney Opera House, YouTube