“As part of a five-year program in which the Sydney Opera House has been progressively upgrading its core infrastructure, construction is about to begin on a $150m revamp of its largest performance space, the 2,500-seat concert hall, designed to remedy the shortcomings,” writes Stephanie Convery in Thursday’s (1/30) Guardian (U.K.). The hall will close during construction from February 2020 until late 2021. The Sydney Opera House, built in 1973, “has become an international cultural landmark for the way it looks…. Members of the resident Sydney Symphony Orchestra have long complained that they cannot hear their fellow musicians on stage…. At 45 metres, the concert hall is at least 10 metres longer than most acoustic-oriented spaces, and double the optimum height…. The fibreglass acoustic reflectors on the roof will be upgraded, and new wood panelling with a rippled surface will replace the flat timber walls, to give what [Sydney Opera House chief executive Louise] Herron calls ‘a softer, more surrounding sound—a truer sound… The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has wanted the concert hall acoustics to be improved since it opened,’ Herron says. ‘You could say it’s a project that’s been in the works for 47 years.’ ” The Sydney Symphony Orchestra will perform at Sydney Town Hall during construction.
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