I’m not sure what it was but the following morning my head was spinning. Maybe it was leftover jetlag or too much wine from the previous night but it was constant and left me unbalanced. Taking pain killers wasn’t an immediate help so I chose to stay in the hotel room all morning and sleep while my parents & brother went out to explore more of Sydney. The added hours of sleep helped a lot and slowly the headache or hangover slowly dissipated until it was no more.
With time leftover before the family would arrive, I passed the time watching some television. The biggest news happening at the time was the impending arrival of American talk show goddess Oprah Winfrey & 300 of her loyal fans to record two shows at the Sydney Opera House. Oprah had announced the Ultimate Australian Adventure trip on September 13, at the end of the final season premiere show. Of course, her audience went ballistic like children who get everything they ever dreamed of having at once. And I thought evangelical Christian congregations were bad. Anyway, Oprah and her handpicked audience arrived in Australia the day before and were busy enjoying all that Australia had to offer. According to several Americans being interviewed, this was the first time they had ever left the United States and they were loving every minute of it. (Only 22% of Americans own a passport). Oprah’s entire operation was pumping $47 million USD into the Australian economy.
With the arrival of the late afternoon, the family & I changed into more formal clothing and walked from our hotel down to the Sydney Opera House. The building is probably the most recognizable Australian landmark followed by the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon and completed in 1973, 14 years after construction began. Yes, that’s a long time but it was worth it. Despite the name, the Opera House is not one building but several containing: a concert hall, opera theatre, drama theatre, playhouse, studio, The Utzon Room, and a large open air venue called the Forecourt.
When my mother was planning the Australian excursion, she was able to secure 4 tickets to a performance of Handel’s Messiah, probably his most popular oratorio. An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. The lyrics are often derived from religious texts. G.F. Handel composed the oratorio in 1741, organizing it into 3 parts: Annunciation, The Passion, and The Aftermath. The lyrics are taken from the King James Christian Bible.
The sun was just descending behind the clouds as we entered the area around the opera house. Like always, the area was filled Sydney residents and tourists. I don’t think this area ever gets quiet. The bars & cafés that line the waterfront were just filled with people. Also, the plaza in front of the opera house was fenced off because workers were putting together the grand stage for the Oprah Winfrey Show. We made our way inside the opera house and up the escalators to the concert hall area. I should mention that this was the first time we would see a performance at the iconic opera house. As we were waiting to be let into the concert hall, I was surprised to see staff selling programs for $9 AUD. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I think selling programs is wrong & they should be free. Maybe the global recession was taking its toll on the place?
Our seats gave us a good view of the main stage and after several minutes every seat in the concert hall was occupied. It was also surprising to see how big the production was; the choir alone had 250 people! The orchestra was about 60 people and there were 4 soloists. It would take too many pages to describe each part so I’ll just say that the performance was very good. Following the two century old tradition, everyone stood up during the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus. There was one funny moment when there came a loud ‘thud!’ from above. I thought someone had just suffered a heart attack but my dad argued that someone must have fallen asleep and then fallen out of their chair. Either way, I congratulate the conductor for not stopping the performance.
After the performance, we walked along the waterfront pondering where to go to next. Night had settled but the waterfront was still alive and jumping. Seeing hundreds of people sitting at the bars & drinking made us want to do the same. We settled on a place called the ICE Bar and ate very good food & drank good fine under the brightly lit Sydney skyline. What a night to remember.
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