Following the reveal of the new Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, the harbour city’s most salient architectural gem has now set sights squarely on its 50th anniversary. The icon won’t be hitting the big five-zero until October 2023, but the team behind Sydney Opera House is wasting no time planning for the occasion, with 12 whole months of performances and events being planned. It’s all come together as a lineup with over 230 scheduled events spanning both indoor and outdoor concerts, tours, public art exhibitions.
With a nightly project series conceived as From the Sails: Light Years wrapping up earlier this week, the Sydney Opera House 50th anniversary celebrations have officially kicked off. From now until the end of next October, you can expect even more activity than usual from the house, bringing a bunch of big-ticket performances down under including the already-announced Amadeus with Michael Sheen taking residence in the Concert Hall from Tuesday, December 27 to Saturday, January 31.
That’s one of the headliners, at least. And it’s well worth checking out, considering Amadeus is a Tony Award-winning production dating back to 1979, when it premiered in London to reimagine the lives of Mozart and Salieri.
The entire Sydney Opera House 50th Anniversary lineup will be announced in stages over the next year, but seeing as it’s being bankrolled by the state government’s Blockbuster Funding initiative, we’re expecting some big names to be heading down both in an international and domestic capacity.
Already on the cards is an Opera House Forecourt concert series running in November with the likes of Tim Minchin, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Vance Joy all headlining ticketed events. There’ll also be two free public concerts on the agenda, one which is dedicated to showcasing Yolŋu music and culture and the other featuring Sydney musician Ngaiire backed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
More announcements are on the horizon, in addition to two big festivals next year. Inside/Out at the House will bring a packed schedule to the building’s numerous venues, championed by performances from London Symphony Orchestra, Australian Ballet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Australian Chamber Orchestra. Then you’ve got Open House Festival, hosting more performances and events while also hosting an open day where the public will get a chance to explore the Sydney Opera House much deeper than usual.
