Utzon and the Sydney Opera House: Penguin Special by Daryl DelloraMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I picked up this essay in the foyer of the Sydney Opera House while waiting to go in to see My Fair Lady. The theatre was great but the book made me angry. The way Utzon was treated by a conservative NSW government was very similar to the way Walter Burley Griffin was treated with his grand design for Canberra. These outstanding architects were basically bullied so the respective governments could take over the original plan and make a mess of it. The cheap approach ended up costing more and was less functional in both instances. I noticed the poor acoustics in the Joan Sutherland Theatre and wondered why the opera is not in the concert hall. Now I know.
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