The letter from Australia is a weekly newsletter from our Australian office. This week’s issue is written by Damien Cave, Australia bureau chief.
Earlier this week, while queuing at the Sydney Opera House for a concert hall event with Amy Poehler linked to the new film “Inside Out 2,” I looked at the large crowd around me.
There were young and old, men and women of various races and fashion styles. The venue was packed and large animated works of art danced across the famous candles, courtesy of the Vivid Sydney festival.
I thought about all the events I had attended in what is affectionately known as “the house.” On its few stages I have seen Shakespeare, a drama about the Oxford English Dictionary, and a big-budget musical that later landed on Broadway. In their main performance room, I heard classical and soul music and a reimagining of Bob Dylan.
Outside, just last year, I drank beers on the stairs listening to “The War on Drugs” on a stage facing the harbor, and also to The Pixies. Inside, on the main stage, I once interviewed Harvard historian Jill Lepore about American politics for a festival of ideas.
In a hallway, I ran into Tim Minchin, the creator of “Matilda.” One night I said hello to Lianne Moriarty, the author of “Big Little Lies.” After Amy Poehler finished, I walked past Emma Watkins of the children’s pop group The Wiggles. And over the years, at the bar or on the way to the toilet, I’ve seen some of Australia’s most powerful politicians along with some of my neighbors and quite a few strangers striking up interesting conversations.
I tell all this only because, at least for me, it is extraordinary. Never in my life have I had such a deep and varied connection with a cultural institution, I have never seen so much in one place, and I have never felt so at home and so connected to a creative community in an arts venue, regardless of whether it was wearing jeans, shorts or the most stylish thing I own.
The only other cultural institution that comes close, for me, is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I came to love its paintings and narrow hallways connecting huge grand exhibition halls in my 20s after my aunt, a former dancer, told me I didn’t need to pay the suggested entrance fee if she didn’t have the money. She didn’t have it when she was young; Me neither.
So I went to the Met many winter weekends to wander and find warmth, peace and inspiration in the late ’90s. It was the first place where I learned that art needs no wealth or snobbery, that creativity feeds all souls. , not just those with their names on the wall.
It is a conviction that I have carried with me through many countries and experiences that challenged that idea of democratic art. Attending events at private museums in Mexico City and Miami for reporting, I often felt put off by the crowds and status-hungry curators.
But the Sydney Opera House has always seemed different to me and, honestly, I’m still trying to figure out why.
Perhaps it is, at least in part, the architecture, imposing on the outside and remarkably mundane and undecorated on the inside. The grey-beige walls leading to the main hall would not look out of place in a 1950s German factory.
But I think, above all, it’s the programming and the clear commitment to making the house as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. High art and mass market art are welcome in the house. Sometimes the work requires years of study to fully understand; Sometimes no preparation is needed. Fun often seems to be an explicit goal.
At a time when trust in governments has been declining around the world, it is also worth noting that this has less to do with wealthy donors than with democratic tradition and oversight. Unlike Lincoln Center, which was built largely with the help of the Rockefeller family, the Sydney Opera House was funded by the state lottery and the Australian government.
There was great debate and discord in the early years, when the budget far exceeded estimates, but the Australians never gave up: the Sydney Opera House Trust, created in 1961, has 10 members appointed by the governor of New South Wales.
The people in charge right now include a former real estate executive who chairs the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council; the artistic director of a poetry festival in western Sydney; and an audit and risk expert who is a member of the Sydney Philharmonic Choirs. His talents run the gamut, beyond mere fundraising.
And the result is a welcoming and unpretentious icon. The Sydney Opera House is the country’s number one tourist destination and its busiest performing arts centre. It hosts more than 1,800 performances attended by more than 1.4 million people each year.
On Monday night I was among them and very happy to be there once again. I will be back to see “King Lear” next month.
Now here are our stories of the week.
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