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From: Charles
Remote Name: 63.60.243.31
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Date: 26 Jul 2001
Time: 08:38 -0500
Tonight we toured the Sydney Opera House, followed by Dinner and a performance by the King College Choir from Cambridge, England presenting their Annual Christmas program.
The Opera House is a central element in Sydney. Once the design was selected, it ended up taking 14 years to construct. When construction started, the budget was $10 million dollars. By the time construciton was completed, the initial architect had resigned in disgust and returned to Denmark vowing never to return (he hasn't), the party in power had been turned out of office because of public unrest over cost overruns and political infighting related to the facility, and the final cost had risen to $110 million (no, that extra 1 is NOT a typo). The cost was high that the state instituted a lottery to pay for construction (the lottery was so successful that the $110 million needed had been raised within 2 years after construction was completed).
The Opera House has 2 main halls: the Concert Hall, home to the Sydney Symphony, seats 2,600; the Opera Hall seats 1,600. There are also 3 smaller venues for theatre. All told, with all facilities in use the building entertains 5,000 people at once. The acoustics are fantastic. Most acitivities are done without microphone our amplification of any sort.
As to the Christmas program...remember it is Winter now down here. So I guess it only seems fitting to spend an evening when it's cold and rainy singing Christmas carols. The group had 16 kids ranging in age from 8 - 13 and another 14 college age students. The music was well done if occasionally unusual. They performed the American traditional "I Wonder as I Wander" in a somewhat jazzy setting reminiscent of "Minnie the Mooch". They closed out the night with a shooby-doo-wop rendition of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" and then pandered to the crowd with a similar version of what else..."Waltzing Matilda".
From: Canada
Remote Name: 88-109-136-168.dynamic.dsl.as9105.com
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Date: 22 Jun 2007
Time: 09:13 -0500
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