Latest news with #SydneyOperaHouse
The Age
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
As Parramatta's Powerhouse Museum reaches full height, secret lifted on target opening date
Parramatta's $915 million Powerhouse Museum is being targeted to open in September next year after four years of construction on the largest new cultural institution in the state since the Sydney Opera House. The intended opening date puts it close to two years behind its promised opening date, which has been pushed back due to unseasonal rains and a complex building process. The new target opening date was inadvertently revealed by Premier Chris Minns at a press conference at the site on Friday morning, during which he announced a $5 million donation from the philanthropic Neilson Foundation for a range of exhibitions at the site. 'It's not far away, probably September of next year it'll open its doors, and it'll be an exciting day for our beautiful city,' he said. When a reporter clarified the target opening date, Minns responded: 'Well, it may well be that I wasn't supposed to say that, but that's what we're aiming for, and so it's not too far away. We really want to open as soon as possible. 'If it's held back, it will only be because it'll be a bigger, better exhibition.' The museum has now reached its full 75-metre height, and its exoskeleton – the 'milk crate'-like external steel pillars that leave the internal floor space free of columns – is also complete. The Neilson Foundation's donation will go towards new exhibitions at the venue, including The Dark, a children's exhibition focusing on 'the new frontiers of discovery', said billionaire founder Kerr Neilson. While Powerhouse Parramatta is expected to open next year, its Ultimo site (which will still house exhibitions) is also undergoing a major renovation. The museum's move to Parramatta has been controversial, with cost blowouts and changes made over concerns the area, next to the river, could flood.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
As Parramatta's Powerhouse Museum reaches full height, secret lifted on target opening date
Parramatta's $915 million Powerhouse Museum is being targeted to open in September next year after four years of construction on the largest new cultural institution in the state since the Sydney Opera House. The intended opening date puts it close to two years behind its promised opening date, which has been pushed back due to unseasonal rains and a complex building process. The new target opening date was inadvertently revealed by Premier Chris Minns at a press conference at the site on Friday morning, during which he announced a $5 million donation from the philanthropic Neilson Foundation for a range of exhibitions at the site. 'It's not far away, probably September of next year it'll open its doors, and it'll be an exciting day for our beautiful city,' he said. When a reporter clarified the target opening date, Minns responded: 'Well, it may well be that I wasn't supposed to say that, but that's what we're aiming for, and so it's not too far away. We really want to open as soon as possible. 'If it's held back, it will only be because it'll be a bigger, better exhibition.' The museum has now reached its full 75-metre height, and its exoskeleton – the 'milk crate'-like external steel pillars that leave the internal floor space free of columns – is also complete. The Neilson Foundation's donation will go towards new exhibitions at the venue, including The Dark, a children's exhibition focusing on 'the new frontiers of discovery', said billionaire founder Kerr Neilson. While Powerhouse Parramatta is expected to open next year, its Ultimo site (which will still house exhibitions) is also undergoing a major renovation. The museum's move to Parramatta has been controversial, with cost blowouts and changes made over concerns the area, next to the river, could flood.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Get 50% off tickets to Sydney Film Festival*
As a Herald subscriber, you can get 50% off tickets* to Sydney Film Festival. Sydney Film Festival is your destination for big premieres, big screen experiences, and big nights out. With over 200 new films, from over 70 countries, across 13 venues, over 12 days, Sydney Film Festival is a celebration of stories too big for a small screen. Don't miss premieres of some of the biggest films of the year including Ari Aster's Eddington starring Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix, Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind and new Aussie hit horror Together. See the bigger picture, June 4-15. Herald subscribers can access a strictly limited offer of half price tickets by entering the promo code SMH25 on the booking page when selecting tickets. The number of redemptions is strictly limited to 100, and not available for event screenings, including screenings at the Sydney Opera House. Explore the program and book here. *This offer is available to Herald digital subscribers and print subscribers with 2+ days of home delivery. This offer applies to selected screenings at Sydney Film Festival 2025 and ends on June 15, 2025 or when the total allocation of 100 redemptions is exhausted. Offer is not available for event screenings, including screenings at the Sydney Opera House. To redeem this offer, navigate to selected sessions via the link provided on this page and enter the promo code 'SMH25'. This offer can only be redeemed 4 times per customer. The offer must be redeemed online and cannot be redeemed for cash.
Sydney Morning Herald
23-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Opera Australia's in dire trouble. As a former CEO, I think I know why
My recommendation was that this obligation cease and Opera Australia reduce its footprint to seasons at the Sydney Opera House which, after all, is one of the world's most famous buildings and happens to be (kind of, among other things) an opera house. The opera on the harbour could continue but honestly should do so only if the repertoire was there to sustain interest. I have been away from Australia for many years but Guys & Dolls on the harbour? Seriously? What's the point? The federal funding for the national company should be proportionally reduced and redistributed to the state-based companies and also to one of the Melbourne companies, who all do fine work as it happens. If cutting Melbourne's apron strings was long past due then, it's simply irrational today. I then turned my mind to the financial challenges that were coming thick and fast. The company had an impressive property portfolio thanks to previous administrations. However, having such non-liquid assets tied up was not helping the day-to-day operations of the company. I recommended rethinking the Surry Hills headquarters. Perhaps a joint venture could be explored with our neighbour – Belvoir Street Theatre – which owned an adjacent building. We could partner with a developer to redesign the whole (large downtown) site to accommodate rehearsal rooms, administration offices and apartments above: both literally and figuratively be that 'beacon on the hill' rightly expected of a supposedly national flagship performing arts company. The notion of having scenery and costume manufacture in such a plum location made no sense at all. This was especially odd when the company already owned a large scenery storage warehouse in Alexandria which could be fitted out to accommodate manufacturing functions. It could also have easily been possible to offload the Alexandria site and move both manufacturing and storage to a regional base. The Royal Opera House in London builds productions in the Thames estuary and stores productions in Wales, for example. Frankly, given the dire financial position revealed by Opera Australia's most recent set of accounts, it insults artists, crew and remaining donors for the company to maintain its obdurate and irrational resistance to leveraging for survival, an asset of the magnitude as the company possesses. And finally to the conundrum of the musical. In my early days, Opera Australia would regularly present Gilbert & Sullivan and Viennese operettas to large, enthusiastic audiences. These productions were cost-effective, a great way to use the chorus and resident principal artists and terrific for the bottom line. Of course, tastes change and the company had to move on. The introduction of large-scale musicals as a co-production with a commercial producer was, for a while, a sensible way to mitigate the rising costs of main-stage opera and a great boost to the box office. Loading There were, though, a number of challenges, even in the good old days of my time. Supply of venues was an annual challenge. Sydney and Melbourne were certain; Perth and Adelaide were generally not financially sensible; and Brisbane was possible only should the Queensland Performing Arts Centre be interested in the title. Without a substantial length of season, the cost base made the musical unviable. There was always a concern, as with Handa Opera on the Harbour, that we would run out of titles. Fast forward to now and the company is presenting the aforementioned Guys & Dolls on the harbour and is licking its wounds from a disastrous season of Sunset Boulevard. It's crazy. The annual musical became the artistic heroin of the company. We knew it was not really what we were supposed to be doing (we were meant to be an opera company, after all) and we were not confident of our supply, but without it, we would be in greater trouble. As it happened, by the time I left the company to return to London, we were presenting as many performances of the national season of My Fair Lady as all of the main-stage operas combined – surely not a sustainable construct. More importantly, this addiction to musicals dangerously deprecated the company's assumed raison d'être: first and foremost, to present opera. Musicals are not opera. I have a huge fondness for this company, Opera Australia and I count some of the finest productions of my professional life in its catalogue (Luhrmann's La Bohème, Armfield's Tristan & Isolde) and so I learn of the catalogue of woes from afar with great concern and sadness. However, none of the issues I've described in this cook's tour of my time at the helm of Opera Australia are new. Many people of goodwill have lent much time and expertise over the years to help the company – it tells us something that surely no art form in Australia has endured more inquiries than opera. So what baffles therefore is how it is that successive boards have either failed to understand or worse, have shown themselves deaf to the need to undertake reforms so obviously necessary to save, not just the company, but the sustainability of the wider arts ecology. If Opera Australia is indeed our national flagship performing arts company, it needs to conduct itself accordingly because its fortunes affect many. There is no natural right to existence for a publicly subsidised opera company. The company must dig deep and identify exactly who and what it is for. For whom does it exist to serve? Fresh thinking at board level is needed. I love opera and I love Opera Australia. I sincerely hope a solution can be found. Many opera companies around the world are experiencing similar difficulties but sadly, for our own national company, the problem is particularly acute.
The Age
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Opera Australia's in dire trouble. As a former CEO, I think I know why
My recommendation was that this obligation cease and Opera Australia reduce its footprint to seasons at the Sydney Opera House which, after all, is one of the world's most famous buildings and happens to be (kind of, among other things) an opera house. The opera on the harbour could continue but honestly should do so only if the repertoire was there to sustain interest. I have been away from Australia for many years but Guys & Dolls on the harbour? Seriously? What's the point? The federal funding for the national company should be proportionally reduced and redistributed to the state-based companies and also to one of the Melbourne companies, who all do fine work as it happens. If cutting Melbourne's apron strings was long past due then, it's simply irrational today. I then turned my mind to the financial challenges that were coming thick and fast. The company had an impressive property portfolio thanks to previous administrations. However, having such non-liquid assets tied up was not helping the day-to-day operations of the company. I recommended rethinking the Surry Hills headquarters. Perhaps a joint venture could be explored with our neighbour – Belvoir Street Theatre – which owned an adjacent building. We could partner with a developer to redesign the whole (large downtown) site to accommodate rehearsal rooms, administration offices and apartments above: both literally and figuratively be that 'beacon on the hill' rightly expected of a supposedly national flagship performing arts company. The notion of having scenery and costume manufacture in such a plum location made no sense at all. This was especially odd when the company already owned a large scenery storage warehouse in Alexandria which could be fitted out to accommodate manufacturing functions. It could also have easily been possible to offload the Alexandria site and move both manufacturing and storage to a regional base. The Royal Opera House in London builds productions in the Thames estuary and stores productions in Wales, for example. Frankly, given the dire financial position revealed by Opera Australia's most recent set of accounts, it insults artists, crew and remaining donors for the company to maintain its obdurate and irrational resistance to leveraging for survival, an asset of the magnitude as the company possesses. And finally to the conundrum of the musical. In my early days, Opera Australia would regularly present Gilbert & Sullivan and Viennese operettas to large, enthusiastic audiences. These productions were cost-effective, a great way to use the chorus and resident principal artists and terrific for the bottom line. Of course, tastes change and the company had to move on. The introduction of large-scale musicals as a co-production with a commercial producer was, for a while, a sensible way to mitigate the rising costs of main-stage opera and a great boost to the box office. Loading There were, though, a number of challenges, even in the good old days of my time. Supply of venues was an annual challenge. Sydney and Melbourne were certain; Perth and Adelaide were generally not financially sensible; and Brisbane was possible only should the Queensland Performing Arts Centre be interested in the title. Without a substantial length of season, the cost base made the musical unviable. There was always a concern, as with Handa Opera on the Harbour, that we would run out of titles. Fast forward to now and the company is presenting the aforementioned Guys & Dolls on the harbour and is licking its wounds from a disastrous season of Sunset Boulevard. It's crazy. The annual musical became the artistic heroin of the company. We knew it was not really what we were supposed to be doing (we were meant to be an opera company, after all) and we were not confident of our supply, but without it, we would be in greater trouble. As it happened, by the time I left the company to return to London, we were presenting as many performances of the national season of My Fair Lady as all of the main-stage operas combined – surely not a sustainable construct. More importantly, this addiction to musicals dangerously deprecated the company's assumed raison d'être: first and foremost, to present opera. Musicals are not opera. I have a huge fondness for this company, Opera Australia and I count some of the finest productions of my professional life in its catalogue (Luhrmann's La Bohème, Armfield's Tristan & Isolde) and so I learn of the catalogue of woes from afar with great concern and sadness. However, none of the issues I've described in this cook's tour of my time at the helm of Opera Australia are new. Many people of goodwill have lent much time and expertise over the years to help the company – it tells us something that surely no art form in Australia has endured more inquiries than opera. So what baffles therefore is how it is that successive boards have either failed to understand or worse, have shown themselves deaf to the need to undertake reforms so obviously necessary to save, not just the company, but the sustainability of the wider arts ecology. If Opera Australia is indeed our national flagship performing arts company, it needs to conduct itself accordingly because its fortunes affect many. There is no natural right to existence for a publicly subsidised opera company. The company must dig deep and identify exactly who and what it is for. For whom does it exist to serve? Fresh thinking at board level is needed. I love opera and I love Opera Australia. I sincerely hope a solution can be found. Many opera companies around the world are experiencing similar difficulties but sadly, for our own national company, the problem is particularly acute.
