Arts venue, tourism drawcard, political hot potato: running the Sydney Opera House is a rare privilege that also comes with its fair share of challenges. Four CEOs reflect on the gig.
Louise Herron: CEO since 2012
Herron with former US president Barack Obama, who visited the Opera House twice.Credit: Courtesy of Louise Herron
What are you most proud of achieving? The Concert Hall renewal, which took about two-and-a-half years to complete and reopened in July 2022. It’s something people have always wanted to do, to improve the acoustics and the accessibility, and to be able to change from one mode to another to host a wide range of performances. We did it during COVID-19, and pretty much within budget and on time.
What’s kept you awake at night? Recovery from COVID. We were well supported by the NSW government during COVID, but the difficult thing since has been being open with fewer tourists and the skills shortage that’s been an issue industry-wide, from staging, sound and lighting to events and hospitality. People’s appetite for shows has changed, too; we’re still trying to read the trends because they’re still changing.
Who was your favourite visiting dignitary? It’s a toss-up between [the then German chancellor] Angela Merkel and [former US president] Barack Obama, who came twice. Angela Merkel strikes you as this formidable person but up close she is so personable. She met the dancers in the rehearsal room and started talking to them about what they were dancing; she was so in touch with whoever she was speaking to.
Herron and former German chancellor Angela Merkel.Credit: Courtesy of Louise Herron.
It was the same with Obama. His first visit was at a time when he was building his house in Hawaii, which included a lot of concrete, so we had a long discussion about concrete. His second visit was after COVID, when he came with Michelle. I asked him how the concrete had worked out in his house and he laughed that I’d remembered. He was so personable and fresh, you couldn’t believe it was a president of the US you were talking to. The more powerful dignitaries tend to be like that, they have a lot more of that realness to them, that ability to relate to people.
My other favourite was drinking tea with Julie Andrews when she was here for My Fair Lady. Her minders said she could only stay for 20 minutes but after about half an hour she said, “Would you mind terribly if we had another cup of tea?” Sitting there drinking tea with Mary Poppins, that was quite something.
Do you ever get sick of that office view? No, never. When I have people in my office, I always make sure they sit facing the view. I like taking them out to the balcony and asking if they’d like to have their photo taken, too, particularly if they’re foreign dignitaries, to impress upon them the importance of this building to Australia.
Current CEO Louise Herron with Sydney Symphony Orchestra chief conductor Simone Young during the Concert Hall redevelopment last year.Credit: Courtesy of Louise Herron.
If you could change one thing about the Opera House, what would it be? I would increase the back office areas. It was built for two halls and 60 administration people; we’ve ended up with really seven performance spaces and close to 1000 staff, a good proportion of whom have to work off site, which is disappointing. We have a real problem with storage, too, which is an issue when you’re rotating shows in and out, and limits what we can present.
Richard Evans: CEO 2008-2012
What are you proud of achieving during your term? We’re all part of a continuum, so to continue the re-engagement with the Utzon family was really important. I remember visiting Jørn Utzon in Denmark and talking about his vision for the Opera House, and him saying he didn’t want it to be a monument. He wanted it to be a living building that changed with the needs of the artists and the audience.
The role of Bennelong Point was really important in Indigenous reconciliation and we did the first Reconciliation Action Plan in the arts, and appointed Rhoda Roberts to the role of First Nations programming, which she said was a first anywhere in the world.
We got money to redo the underground loading dock and take cars off the Forecourt, which began the renewal works. In programming there’s so much: we worked with Destination NSW on the inaugural Vivid festival, when the sails were lit with art for the first time, and established the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Spring Dance, Kids at the House, the World Orchestras programming and so on.
Richard Evans with Utzon in Denmark in 2008, a few months after Evans became Opera House CEO.
Can you tell me about some of the memorable performances? There are so many. The opening of the Berlin Philharmonic; Christopher Hitchens at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas saying why the Pope should go on trial; the Japanese thrash metal band Boris playing in The Studio, the loudest thing I’ve ever heard in my life; and Oprah Winfrey recording her show there in 2010, which really amplified Australia’s tourism assets.
A favourite visiting dignitary? I remember giving John Travolta a midnight tour; he didn’t want to come when there were lots of people around. He was warm, generous, friendly and curious.
Did you ever get sick of that office view? No. I remember the boss of Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center saying, “You have the best office of any arts centre in the world.” I said, “Not just of any arts centre, of any office, full stop.”
If you could change one thing about the Opera House, what would it be? The way the sails get lit up so often; it’s not a screen and shouldn’t be used as one. It’s cheap and demeaning and takes away from its specialness. There should be a moratorium on it.
Norman Gillespie: CEO 2002-2007
Norman Gillespie with Jørn Utzon at his house in Mallorca, 2003; Utzon is wearing his Pritzker Prize medallion.Credit: Courtesy of Norma Gillespie
Tell me about some great moments. When Jørn Utzon won the Pritzker prize [in 2003] his son Jan said, “Do you want to take the medal to my father?” He couldn’t do it himself. So I went to Mallorca and pressed the doorbell to their home. Out came his wife, Lis, who interviewed me for about half an hour. She usually sent everyone away, saying he was not available, but I got through. Jørn came bounding up to me like a great Dane and I gave him his medal. He put it around his neck and didn’t take it off.
To get World Heritage listing we had to go through a lot of heritage angst, worries about the precinct, the closeness to the Toaster and so on. It took two to three years, but it wasn’t the length of time it took, it was the number of meetings.
What kept you awake at night during your tenure? Heightened security concerns. The Iraq War began in 2003 and the Opera House was identified as a prime potential target. We had to quickly ramp up security to unprecedented levels, include erecting permanent security barriers for the first time.
The morning [in 2003] “No War” was painted on the sails, I was in a meeting. At 8.30am, the marketing director rushed in and said, “You have to come, they’re on the roof!” The first call was from [then premier] Bob Carr yelling at me; he’d been doorstopped about it and someone had said there was a ladder. I had to explain that we didn’t know how they got up there. The real shame was that they used cement-based red paint – the clean-up was absolutely horrendous.
Workmen remove anti-Iraq War graffiti painted on the Opera House sails, 2003.Credit: Rick Stevens
Name one performance that’s stuck with you. Bringing the Vienna Philharmonic to Australia for the first time in their 160-year history with conductor Valery Gergiev was pretty special. The performances were extraordinary – no complaints about acoustics from them, they simply “adapted” – but that’s not why it stuck with me. I was concerned that only well-heeled patrons could experience them with ticket prices in the hundreds of dollars, so I approached the orchestra to ask if we could broadcast a simultaneous transmission to a large screen on the Forecourt, which would be open to all on a first-come, first-served basis.
I was brought to tears when I stood on the Opera House steps and saw the queue all the way up Macquarie Street. Some 3500 eventually filled the Forecourt. The transmission had a delay of a few minutes and Gergiev suggested he bring the brass section out after the concert to give the non-paying audience an additional live experience. The crowd were ecstatic as Gergiev
addressed them in his huge black cloak. That’s what making arts accessible to all is about.
If you could change one thing about the Opera House, what would it be? I wish we’d got those beautiful great spans of glass without the very 1970s angular “kink” which, for practical engineering reasons at the time, were the compromise. Also, I wish the underground car park had been placed in the ownership of Opera House [it’s independently owned and run]; the revenue would have supported so many more accessible shows and events over the years.
Michael Lynch: CEO 1998-2002
Crowds at Charlie Perkins’ 2000 wake.Credit: Sylvia Vincent
What were some of your proudest moments there? We hosted the reconciliation conference in 2000, when a lot of Indigenous people turned their backs on then prime minister John Howard, and in 2000 we held the wake for Charlie Perkins. Thousands marched with his coffin from Town Hall down to the Opera House. I think it was the first time it was ever that full of Indigenous people. And on New Year’s Eve 1999, when everyone was worried about Y2K, we had William Barton playing the didgeridoo from the top of the sails. That was a very special moment.
What kept you awake at night? I was there for September 11, and within 10 days of that happening we lost 40 to 45 per cent of our audience, which had been largely tourist-based. That was very challenging. Mostly the things that keep you awake as a boss of a performing arts venue, though, are things that will happen at night, when you’re not there. It’s your concern for the performers, the front-of-house people, how they’ll cope if something terrible happens, that you worry about.
Tell me about a performance that has stuck with you. Andrea Bocelli and Kylie Minogue doing a concert on the Forecourt ahead of the opening of the Sydney Olympics was pretty mind-blowing. There were leaders there from all over the world, and at one point the moon came up as a big golden orb behind the stage.
William Barton played a special role on New Year’s Eve 1999.Credit: Robert Pearce
Who were your favourite visiting dignitaries? Chelsea Clinton; Melinda Gates; [then secretary general of the UN] Kofi Annan, the most charismatic human I’ve ever met. My father had worked for the UN so I had a conversation with him about it. He was completely self-effacing, a wonderful person and an inspiring leader.
That office view … On my last day before moving to London, whales came into Sydney Harbour. My wife Chrissy rang and said, “I’m down at The Rocks, there are whales.” I said, “I know, they just sailed past my place.”
Katrina Strickland is the editor of Good Weekend.
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