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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that examines notable events that happened years ago. Today,

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode, we're looking at

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Speaker 1: the rocky history behind one of the great architectural works

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Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, the much delayed and surprisingly controversial

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Speaker 1: Sydney Opera House. The day was October three. The iconic

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Speaker 1: Sydney Opera House was dedicated by Queen Elizabeth the Second.

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Speaker 1: Half a million people watched the opening ceremony from watercraft

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Speaker 1: in the harbor and from parks along the shoreline. Many

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Speaker 1: millions more watched on TV at home, eager to catch

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Speaker 1: their first glimpse of a new national landmark that had

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Speaker 1: cost eighty million dollars and taken nearly fifteen years to complete.

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Speaker 1: The opera houses defining features, it's curving expressionist design and

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Speaker 1: nesting sale like spires, had proven trickier to build than anticipated.

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Speaker 1: Construction had also been delayed by a bevy of creative disputes,

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Speaker 1: political controversies, and an ever ballooning budget. Some had worried

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Speaker 1: that with all those setbacks, the venue might never be finished.

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Speaker 1: But finally, after fourteen years, seven months, in eighteen days,

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Speaker 1: the Sydney Opera House was finally ready for its big debut.

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Speaker 1: Today it's one of the most beloved and recognizable buildings

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Speaker 1: in the world. Well over eight million visitors come to

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Speaker 1: marvel at it each year, and roughly two million of

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Speaker 1: them had inside to see one of the three thousand

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Speaker 1: or so live shows performed there annually. Initial planning for

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Speaker 1: the Sydney Opera House began in the nineteen fifties when

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Speaker 1: English conductor and composer Eugene Goossen's secured the support of

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Speaker 1: Joseph Cahill, government Premier of New South Wales, the Australian

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Speaker 1: state that contained Sydney. Goosen's had complained for years that

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Speaker 1: the Sydney Town Hall was too small to host full

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Speaker 1: scale productions, and that a new concert venue should be

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Speaker 1: built to replace it. Ca Hill backed the idea, and

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty six he organized an international design competition

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Speaker 1: to choose an architect. The goal was to design a

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Speaker 1: multi purpose venue with one hall big enough for three

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Speaker 1: thousand people and another smaller hall for twelve hundred people.

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Speaker 1: It was to be an opera, ballet and lecture house.

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Speaker 1: All in one, more than two hundred and thirty designs

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Speaker 1: were considered, but in the end it was Danish architect

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Speaker 1: yearn Utzon and his white eggshell shaped roof that won

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Speaker 1: the day. With the design settled on been Along Point

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Speaker 1: was chosen as the site of the Sydney Opera House,

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Speaker 1: and construction began in March of nineteen fifty nine. The

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Speaker 1: first unofficial performance at the venue took place a year later,

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Speaker 1: when American singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson scaled

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Speaker 1: the scaffolding and saying old Man River to the construction

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Speaker 1: workers below. It was an upbeat start for the project,

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Speaker 1: but tensions were already growing within the team, and trouble

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Speaker 1: was just around the corner. Part of the issue was

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Speaker 1: that Utson's drawings were quite simplistic and therefore hard to

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Speaker 1: realize in physical form. For example, the building's roof featured

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Speaker 1: those now famous shells, which were made using pre cast

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Speaker 1: concrete panels overlaid with ceramic tile. Unfortunately, since Utzon hadn't

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Speaker 1: specified the exact shape of the shells and his design,

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Speaker 1: the casting process stalled considerably. Utzon was reportedly a bad

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Speaker 1: communicator too. He was reluctant to ask for help even

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Speaker 1: when he needed it, and was prone to taking sudden

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Speaker 1: extended vacations without otis. However, Utson wasn't the only one

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Speaker 1: slowing things down. Minister for Public Works Davis Hughes was

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Speaker 1: highly critical of the project. He scrutinized every detailed decision,

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Speaker 1: deadline and cost, and eventually wrote off Utson as a

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Speaker 1: quote impractical dreamer. By nineteen sixty six, their relationship had

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Speaker 1: soured to the point that Hughes stopped approving Utson's paychecks.

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Speaker 1: The architect quietly resigned not long after, leaving both the

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Speaker 1: project and Australia itself in February of that year. After

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Speaker 1: Utson's unceremonious departure, Hughes and a government architect brought in

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Speaker 1: a new team to finish building the Opera House. By

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Speaker 1: that point, the project was massively over budget, and additional

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Speaker 1: funds had to be raised through a series of Opera

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Speaker 1: House auctions and lotteries. Finally, in nine seventy three, the

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Speaker 1: Sydney Opera House was ready to be formally open to

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Speaker 1: the public, ten years overdue and estimated one thousand, four

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty seven percent over budget. The festivities kicked

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Speaker 1: off at just after two thirty pm on October twenty,

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Speaker 1: a warm but blustery spring day in the Southern Hemisphere.

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Speaker 1: The event's first guest was Aboriginal actor Ben Blakeney, who

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Speaker 1: took to the roof of the Sydney Opera House to

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Speaker 1: give a brief performance and what he later called, quote,

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Speaker 1: the most important two minute part of my life. Blakeney

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Speaker 1: gave an in character speech, has been Along, an Aboriginal

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Speaker 1: man who had been captured by British settlers in the

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Speaker 1: late seventeen hundreds. The land where the Opera House was built,

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Speaker 1: been Along Point, was later named for him. I hope

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Speaker 1: my people will realize the importance of this building, Blakeney said,

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Speaker 1: White people may have built it, but the spirit of

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Speaker 1: the Aboriginal still lives on the point. After Blakeney gave

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Speaker 1: his speech about the structures ties to the past, it

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Speaker 1: was time for the Queen of Australia to speak about

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Speaker 1: its present and its future. She addressed the project's turmoil

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Speaker 1: head on, saying quote, the Sydney Opera House has captured

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Speaker 1: the imagination of the world, though I understand that its

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Speaker 1: construction has not been totally without problems. The human spirit

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Speaker 1: must sometimes take wings or sales and create something that

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Speaker 1: is not just utilitarian or commonplace. But every great imaginative

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Speaker 1: venture has had to be tempered by the fire of controversy.

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Speaker 1: Controversy of the most extreme kind attended the building of

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Speaker 1: the Pyramids, yet they stand today, four thousand years later,

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Speaker 1: acknowledged as one of the wonders of the world. So

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Speaker 1: I hope and believe it will be with the Sydney

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Speaker 1: Opera House. The Queen's optimistic message was well received by

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Speaker 1: the crowd, and the party on been a long point,

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Speaker 1: continued all the way until midnight. The construction of the

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Speaker 1: Opera House had been a long and fraud process, but

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Speaker 1: now that it was finally over, people were ready to

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Speaker 1: celebrate the achievement of Utzon's grand design. Sadly, Yurin Utzon

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Speaker 1: was not invited to the opening ceremony and his name

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Speaker 1: wasn't even mentioned. In the late nineteen nineties, the Sydney

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Speaker 1: Opera House Trust tried to reconcile with the architect by

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Speaker 1: hiring him to produce a set of design principles to

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Speaker 1: guide future work on the building. Then in two thousand four,

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Speaker 1: the Opera House renovated its reception hall and renamed it

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Speaker 1: the Utzen Room in his honor. Other organizations began to

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Speaker 1: honor Utzon as well. He was awarded an honorary doctorate

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Speaker 1: by the University of Sydney, gifted the keys to the city,

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Speaker 1: and even received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, a top

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Speaker 1: honor in his field. Those accolades were well intentioned and

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Speaker 1: well deserved, but they arrived much too late in Utson's

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Speaker 1: life to fully mitigate the earlier harm. The architect chose

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Speaker 1: not to return to Australia and died in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and eight, having never seen his greatest work in person.

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Speaker 1: The conception, design and construction of the Sydney Opera House

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Speaker 1: had been a bold and ambitious venture for the still

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Speaker 1: young nation of Australia, and while the project had encountered

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Speaker 1: numerous frustrating setbacks, the resulting structure was every bit as

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Speaker 1: breathtaking as Utzon's initial designs had promised. The scope of

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Speaker 1: his achievement was outlined in the Printzker Prize citation he

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Speaker 1: received in two thousand three. It said, quote, there is

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Speaker 1: no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece.

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Speaker 1: It is one of the great iconic buildings of the

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Speaker 1: twentieth century, an image of great beauty that has become

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Speaker 1: known throughout the world, a symbol for not only a city,

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Speaker 1: but a whole country and continent. Not a bad legacy

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Speaker 1: for a so called impractical dream. I'm Gay Bluzier, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about his threat

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you have a second

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Speaker 1: you can send your feedback directly to me by writing

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Speaker 1: to this Day at ihart media dot com. Thanks, as

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Speaker 1: always the Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks

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Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in History class