The Sydney Opera House Story
In 1955 as a result of the vision of Eugene Goossens, the popular head
of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, an international architectural
competition to build a new performing arts centre in Sydney was
launched. Joseph Cahill was the Labor premier of New South Wales at
the time. The competition received more than 234 designs from
architects around the world. There were eminent architects from
Australia, England and the United States on the judging panel.
John Utzon from Denmark submitted an entry that did not meet the
competition rules. Eero Saarinen, the judge from Michigan in the
United States, arrived late for the beginning of the judging. Despite
the fact that the other judges had rejected Utzon's entry, Saarinen on
viewing the rejects persuaded the other judges that the Utzon design
should win. Even though it technically broke some of the competition
rules, the soaring free-form white shells were not only great
architecture but they possessed a quality that 'inspires man' said
Saarinen.
Utzon's design solved a traditional problem of differing height
requirements in theatres. The stage tower needs enough vertical height
for scenery to be hoisted above the stage. Yet the roofs over audience
seating were usually lower and the foyers lower again. Utzon's three
sets of shells resolved this difficulty. Until he won the competition
Utzon had mainly worked on large-scale residential developments.
The winner was announced in January 1957, and construction stated in
March 1959. It was originally envisaged that it would take four years
to build and cost $7 million; in fact, it took 16 years to complete
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...re of Utzon and the
appointment of local architects undoubtedly delayed the completion of
the opera house and dramatically increased its costs.
The Sydney Opera House was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973.
In 1998 the New South Wales Labor government approached Utzon to
oversee planned renovations to the building. Premier Bob Carr offered
Utzon the final say on all design principles in the 10 year, $66
million renovations contract. Particular reference was made to the
need to upgrade the acoustics of the two main theatres. It is apparent
from the size of the budget that the government does not intend to
revert to Utzon's original plans for the interiors.
Source: Robbins S, P, Bergman R, Stagg I, & Coulter M 2003,
Foundations of management, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest
“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe was published in 1839. In it, the short story’s narrator visits a childhood friend, Roderick Usher. The narrator travels to the Usher house, where the story takes place. As in other Poe stories, the settings reflect a character. Throughout the short story, there are many instances when the Usher house and Thought, the castle in Roderick’s poem, reflect Roderick Usher and his family. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the setting of the Usher house along with the setting in Roderick’s poem reflect Roderick Usher in appearances, relations with family, and physical existence.
Gothic fiction is a literary form that embodies mystery and terror. The term Gothic is a subgenre of the Romantic movement of the19th century. Gothic refers to the architecture that was intended to introduce light and height to the churches through pointed arches, ribbed vaulting and stained glass windows (Voloshin 421 ). Although, gothic fiction was initiated in England it had wide spread appeal in Italy, Germany and Ireland. Two popular fictions that follow the themes and conventions of gothic fiction are Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Guy de Maupassant’s “The Horla”. Both are short stories that embody most of the conventions that can be associated with stereotypical gothic literary fiction. Both literary works use the deterioration of the human mind and the supernatural phenomenon throughout the story, a commonly used gothic convention. Although both stories are inherently different in aspects like narration, they are both successful in demonstrating the descent of the human intellect from obsessing over the unknown which only leads to self-destruction. Fear is a guiding force in both the short stories and the fixation the main characters with it only leads to their demise. With both terror and the supernatural being common conventions in most gothic fiction
During the nineteenth century, literary writers were encouraged in transcendentalism. Their main focus was on capturing the spirituality in nature. For example, authors such as Henry Thoreau and Ralph Emerson were dominating the world of poetry and prose with their tales of nature. From Thoreau's' journey through the Maine Woods to Emerson's Nature, the transcendental ere, was in the main stream. Yet, not all of the nineteenth century writers shared this same viewpoint. As a matter of fact, one writer emerging, who proved to be just as prominent, had a viewpoint in direct opposition of his contemporaries. The great Edgar Allen Poe, though born during the same period and encountered the same influences, would emerge as a different writer. "Those others", Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Whittier and Holmes, "turned toward Wordsworth while Poe, took Coleridge as his loadstar in his search for a consistent theory of art" (Perkins 1236).
Not so long ago, my sister and I went to a haunt attraction an amusement park was holding. We walked through a house where people would jump out of nowhere to scare you. From time to time, we’d walk through items that had either moved or rattled. These simple changes made both my sister and I very uncomfortable and left us terror-stricken all night. No one would feel comfortable to look at an object, blink, then see that the object wasn’t at it’s rightful place. That’s not normal, especially when you're by yourself. That would mean someone or something else is with you. You know what else would scare us? When people around us transform. It’s like meeting someone new and thinking hey, she’s cool… but once you get to know her, you realize you
In “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, the death of Madeline and Roderick Usher represents the ending of something, and in this specific case, the ending of a generation. Throughout the story, it is made very clear that Madeline and Roderick are the last living people of the Usher generation. Roderick Usher explicitly states on page four, “‘Her decease,’ he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, ‘would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.’” Therefore, when they both die at the end, it is clear that it is the end of a generation. The ending of their generation creates a depressing and serious feeling through this story due to the fact that the Usher’s will be no more.
One of the central themes underlying the short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, is that of the nature of the house. The way it is described and the way it is so mysterious. Another central theme about this story is the nature of the people that live in the house. They are portrayed very much in the same manner throughout the story. Thus, they have several similarities with each other. All of which are of a bad feeling, showing how bad things are for the people and the house. These similarities are very well laid out in the story and are, I believe, meant to be something to be considered when reading it.
In the short story, The Fall of The House of Usher, Edgar Allen Poe chooses the setting as his main focus. This tale is one of many that focus on the character’s surroundings in order to truly emphasize and express the tone the author is trying to portray. The Fall of the House of Usher was included in Poe’s first literary collection from 1839 and is one of his most famous works. He was orphaned by the age of three, which in my opinion, would mean that he had a relatively dark childhood. A dark childhood that may or may not be the reason he allows for his stories to reveal a mysterious and dreary tone. Perhaps, setting is what truly affects the way your life plays out, and this is why the time and place has such a great affect in the world of literacy. In this essay, I would like to discuss how the setting sets the mood, affects your prejudices of the characters, and how it foreshadows where the story is headed.
Built on a broad base of multiple themes, Othello is one of William Shakespeare’s most popular tragedies. Let’s sift through the themes and try to rank them in significance.
In the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, diction is extensively used to create an air of suspense. Poe’s use of diction along with symbolism contributes to establishing a mood of despair. By using symbolic comparison between the Ushers and their house, the story’s suspense builds and the characteristics of the Ushers are portrayed. Poe’s cunning tactics are evident in the way he achieves a story of both suspense and horror.
On October 12th, I saw Tosca by Giacomo Puccini held at Atlanta Opera. Tosca is an Italian opera, directed by Tomer Zvulun, accompanied by an orchestra conducted by Arthur Fagen, included a cast of Kara Shay Thomson, Massimiliano Pisapia, and Luis Ledesma (The Atlanta Opera). Opera is an art form in which singers act out drama through a combination of acting and vocal performance. Singers deliver conversation in a musical manner, essentially singing the conversation. Since we recently learned about opera in class, I want to explore the future of opera - where it will go next with the ever advancing modern technology, media and entertainment, and what researches are currently being done at both the industry and academic levels. I will briefly describe what the traditional opera is like using Tosca as an example. Next, I will look at modern opera after the World War II. I will also select one example from the industry and university that are experimenting with opera. At last, I will offer my imagination of what the future of opera may be.
How would feel if you were in the La Scala opera house, listening to a Vincenzo Bellini operas. Would it be warm felt or just would be nice to be there. To know that there is people out there that can sing with the power and flexibility that they can do. Vincenzo Bellini is one of the many opera composers that the nineteenth century had to offer (The National Opera Center America). Bellini like many of the composers in this time was born in Italy. During the nineteenth century, opera stories most of the time was had a theme of passion and romance. That is one of the reasons that this century is also called Romantic Era.
In this paper I will present two differing views on the topic of the design argument. In particular, I will explain William Paley's view supporting the design argument and Bertrand Russell's view against the design argument. After a presentation of the differing views, I will then evaluate the arguments to show that William Paley has a stronger argument.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, The story takes place on the outskirts of Usher’s where the narrator is arriving. In the story we follow the narrator and his experience meeting his childhood friend Roderick Usher for the first time in years.
Versailles was not always a château or a royal palace it was also a country village on the road to Paris. Now let’s step back to when it was being built. There was a total of four campaigns each lasting around 4-20 years. The first campaign was building the garden and apartments to accommodate 600 guest invited to a celebration party and not much else happened in this campaign. The second building campaign was mainly about creating a place for the royal family to stay at. Louis XIV the king had his own room and his queen also had her own room. Louis’ XIV brother and sister-in-law had their own room as well. A hunting lodge for the royal family was also created for them to stay at as well. The second campaign was also being at the same time as the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was being signed.
Last year, I was involved in designing a roof for a proposed Tate Modern extension in a project sponsored by architecture firm Ove Arup. For this, I gained a Crest 'Gold' Award but more importantly the opportunity to investigate something from a technical point of view, thus branching away from my mainly unscientific subject base.