Around 5:00, Dad and I went down to the 3rd floor to meet the other YTSOers and go on a tour of the Opera House. It's just a short walk over there from the hotel, so we got a lovely tour of the harbour as well since we walked pretty much all the way around it. It's rather like Victoria's Inner Harbour, except bigger and more restaurants and such. Buskers are everywhere, but they use amplification and speakers. Huh.
We went up the big, beautiful staircase into the opera house. The first place we went was straight into the concert hall, which seats well over 2000 people. It's made pretty much entirely of wood: the walls, the ceiling, even the seats are wooden, which is why the acoustics are so fantastic. The back curtain was up, but we could still see the top of the incredibly huge organ, which has over 10,500 pipes. We were told that it took ten years to finish: eight to construct, and two YEARS to tune. Can you imagine?! My goodness.
We were taken around several more of the theatres in the Opera House. There are six altogether, but we'll be rehearsing in the Studio (a theatre in the round) and in the concert hall. We saw the Concert Hall, the Studio, the Playhouse, and underneath the opera theatre. Backstage, there is the Central Passage, which is a big wide passage through which you can access any of the theatres. This is where they bring set pieces in and such things. We also saw the Green Room, which is an enormous hangout area (complete with pool table) for crew and performers, and also includes a cafeteria. We were underneath the opera stage for a while, where I heard "I Feel Pretty" being sung by what I thought was rather an over-vibrated and too operatic soprano... but I digress. We saw the set pieces for Carmen and other operas. The stage of the opera theatre descends into a giant room adjacent to where we were, set pieces are moved onto it, and then it moves back up to the audience. !!!!!!!!!
The Sydney Opera House ended up being a whole lot bigger than originally intended. It was supposed to have two theatres and cost something like 16 million dollars, but it has six theatres and cost over 100 million. It's absolutely beautiful, with views of the harbours from each of the foyers. Amazing... I CAN'T BELIEVE that I get to play there for a week. Wow.
After the tour of the opera house, we walked back around the harbour to a restaurant bar thingy. We hung out outside for a bit, sipping our drinks and nibbling on appies, and then we were invited inside. Thank yous were said, and then Michael Tilson Thomas stepped up there (HE WAS STANDING LIKE THREE PEOPLE AWAY FROM ME) and told us how excited he was, etc. After some more speaking, it was announced that they had solved the problem of us getting Australian SIM cards for our phones. Google decided to GIVE EACH OF US A PHONE. A REALLY REALLY NICE ONE.
FOR FREE.
Each of us got an... android, is it? Nexus? It looks like an iPhone... and calling anywhere is absolutely free for this week. After this week, we can keep the phone and put our own SIM cards into it. Dom, the wonderful guy who did a lot of organizing for YTSO, said he felt bad because of all the phone questions being asked, and he couldn't tell us before today that they were going to give us all phones! Naturally the first thing everyone did was scream with excitement when we heard we all got ridiculously nice phones for free. Once we all got our phones, I called Mom at home (it was 2:30 in the morning her time...) and told her. Her first question was "...how are you calling me?"
Well, Mom, it's an interesting story...
Tomorrow: the first orchestra rehearsal, and then... beach? Goodnight (morning?), everyone!
EDIT: Have a picture, why don't cha? This was at the restaurant last night, looking over the harbour.
We went up the big, beautiful staircase into the opera house. The first place we went was straight into the concert hall, which seats well over 2000 people. It's made pretty much entirely of wood: the walls, the ceiling, even the seats are wooden, which is why the acoustics are so fantastic. The back curtain was up, but we could still see the top of the incredibly huge organ, which has over 10,500 pipes. We were told that it took ten years to finish: eight to construct, and two YEARS to tune. Can you imagine?! My goodness.
We were taken around several more of the theatres in the Opera House. There are six altogether, but we'll be rehearsing in the Studio (a theatre in the round) and in the concert hall. We saw the Concert Hall, the Studio, the Playhouse, and underneath the opera theatre. Backstage, there is the Central Passage, which is a big wide passage through which you can access any of the theatres. This is where they bring set pieces in and such things. We also saw the Green Room, which is an enormous hangout area (complete with pool table) for crew and performers, and also includes a cafeteria. We were underneath the opera stage for a while, where I heard "I Feel Pretty" being sung by what I thought was rather an over-vibrated and too operatic soprano... but I digress. We saw the set pieces for Carmen and other operas. The stage of the opera theatre descends into a giant room adjacent to where we were, set pieces are moved onto it, and then it moves back up to the audience. !!!!!!!!!
The Sydney Opera House ended up being a whole lot bigger than originally intended. It was supposed to have two theatres and cost something like 16 million dollars, but it has six theatres and cost over 100 million. It's absolutely beautiful, with views of the harbours from each of the foyers. Amazing... I CAN'T BELIEVE that I get to play there for a week. Wow.
After the tour of the opera house, we walked back around the harbour to a restaurant bar thingy. We hung out outside for a bit, sipping our drinks and nibbling on appies, and then we were invited inside. Thank yous were said, and then Michael Tilson Thomas stepped up there (HE WAS STANDING LIKE THREE PEOPLE AWAY FROM ME) and told us how excited he was, etc. After some more speaking, it was announced that they had solved the problem of us getting Australian SIM cards for our phones. Google decided to GIVE EACH OF US A PHONE. A REALLY REALLY NICE ONE.
FOR FREE.
Each of us got an... android, is it? Nexus? It looks like an iPhone... and calling anywhere is absolutely free for this week. After this week, we can keep the phone and put our own SIM cards into it. Dom, the wonderful guy who did a lot of organizing for YTSO, said he felt bad because of all the phone questions being asked, and he couldn't tell us before today that they were going to give us all phones! Naturally the first thing everyone did was scream with excitement when we heard we all got ridiculously nice phones for free. Once we all got our phones, I called Mom at home (it was 2:30 in the morning her time...) and told her. Her first question was "...how are you calling me?"
Well, Mom, it's an interesting story...Tomorrow: the first orchestra rehearsal, and then... beach? Goodnight (morning?), everyone!
EDIT: Have a picture, why don't cha? This was at the restaurant last night, looking over the harbour.
Sarah, thanks for this description of day one, I shared this on my facebook page.
ReplyDelete