The people who’ve shaped the Sydney Opera House

On winter nights as the sun sets behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Western Foyers of the Sydney Opera House fill with people buzzing with anticipation. Inside, Bangarra Dance Theatre has captivated audiences with an intoxicating mix of traditional and modern dance and stories of the past and present. Each year, they leave those audiences hungry for the next new production from its visionary Artistic Director Stephen Page, and his talented team of dancers and creatives.

As one of the Opera House’s eight resident companies, Stephen says the Drama Theatre “feels like it’s Bangarra’s home. Having the Opera House as our stamping ground where we first tell our stories before they go out on Country and the world is a very significant relationship.”

Bangarra first performed at the Drama Theatre in 1997 with Fish, a work commissioned by Rhoda Roberts as director of the Festival of the Dreaming, but it did not become the dance company’s “home” until 2004.

Since then, the partnership has brought new, global audiences to Bangarra and made the Sydney Opera House unique among the cultural centres of the world: there are many ballet and opera companies - there is only one Bangarra.

“The fact that the Sydney Opera House has the leading performing arts company that's Indigenous is just great,” says Stephen, a descendant of the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh Nation from south-east Queensland. “What a beautiful fit!”

“I mean, imagine you’re a European and you’re going to a matinee and there's an Indigenous company and they’re programming Indigenous stories... you’d just go, ‘Wow!’”

Among his highlights as a resident company, Stephen lists Bangarra’s early productions, Fish, and Skin, which played at the Opera House in 2000, along with 2004’s Unaipon, choreographed by Associate Artistic Director, Kokatha woman Frances Rings.

“But then I think just recently Bennelong and Dark Emu were amazing in that space,” he says.

In 2023, Stephen will step down from the role he has held for more than three decades. He will be passing the baton to the current Associate Artistic Director, Frances, who he describes as “an exceptional dancer and a gifted and visionary choreographer”.

But Bangarra will remain at their “home” on Bennelong Point.

“The Opera House, like Bangarra, wants to speak to all people. If we’re iconic because we carry our heritage, the Opera House is because it has its contemporary heritage. Our work in that Drama Theatre was meant to be.”

When Kit Lee began working at the Sydney Opera House almost 50 years ago, audiences turned up to opening nights in floor-length evening gowns and tux and tails. Things are a bit more casual nowadays.

“I remember some came wearing a pair of thongs and I said, ‘Look, do you have a pair of shoes in your bag? If anything happens, if something falls onto your toes, we are liable!’” 

As a former fashion student, she seems a little wistful for the elegance of the days gone by, and she laughs as she recalls the first Opera House uniform she wore in the 1970s - an embroidered minidress pinafore with a blouse underneath. “It’s still my favourite!” she says all these years later.

But as Operations Manager of the Opera House’s front-of-house team, it’s her job to make sure all patrons are taken care of – regardless of who they are or how they are dressed.

Kit began working at the Opera House in 1974, not long after it opened. The Hong Kong-born Queenslander had moved to Sydney after studying fashion, but found the industry was highly competitive and jobs were few. On a whim, she called the Opera House seeking work. One 20-minute interview later, she had gone onto the books as a casual.

Kit didn’t know it then, but she had found her second home.

As someone who likes people and likes to help them, Kit flourished in the front-of-house role and in 2000, she became theatre manager. It was her job to help make sure events ran smoothly so that patrons had an enjoyable experience. This included royalty including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, but she says her “No 1” highlight was the visit by the Dalai Lama in 2002.

“He went to give a blessing on the stage and while we were going upstairs he put his hand on my arm and straight away I was in awe,” she says. “He was such a peaceful man, his energy just came to me. I still remember it gave me goosebumps.”

Kit is now in charge of 120 people. Over the past couple of years, through the trials of the pandemic, she says their job of making patrons feel at ease has become even more important.

“Since the lockdown we have found a lot of patrons have been a bit nervous. But they know that we're there to help them whenever we can."

​​Joan Sutherland made her first appearance at the Sydney Opera House in 1965. She was already an international star, but the Opera House itself was more than a decade away from its own international acclaim as one of the world’s iconic buildings. 

The inauspicious occasion - the presenting of an award to a young local singer - took place in the unfinished Northern Foyer, where the wind off the harbour whipped through the tarpaulins covering the empty windows.

Almost a decade later, as the Opera House threw open its doors, Joan made her triumphant debut on the Opera Theatre stage, in Opera Australia’s Tales of Hoffman. It was the first of more than 250 performances at the House.  

Over the next three decades, she held Sydney Opera House audiences spellbound with her pure coloratura soprano in performances that broke numerous box-office records, including a 1983 Concert Hall gala with Luciano Pavarotti that was broadcast live on the ABC to an estimated audience of 6 million. 

Joan retired in 1991 at the age of 83. A year earlier, she gave her last full-length dramatic performance in her hometown at the Sydney Opera House. “Dame Joan was incandescent,” wrote The Age. “She gave a wondrous, full-voiced performance that should be remembered for light years to come.”

Joan’s career was studded with awards and accolades. In 1978, she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) and in 2012, two years after her death, the Opera Theatre was renamed in her honour.

A portrait of Joan, painted by renowned artist Judy Cassab in 1976, hangs in the theatre’s foyer. Dressed in the rose-coloured robe and headdress of the title character from Delibes’ opera Lakmé, La Stupenda’s commanding gaze greets modern audience members as they file up the stairs, ready to be immersed in the wonder of live performance. A reminder of the magic and power of the performing arts, and the rich legacy of a once-in-a-lifetime star.

Rhoda Roberts says her time at the Opera House was “an absolute privilege”. 

For nine years as head of First Nations programming – a role that was created for her – the proud Widjubal woman gave Indigenous artists a platform in the country’s leading arts centre to tell their stories across the cultural spectrum, in dance, music, visual art, theatre, and talks. 

“I have to remind people,” she says, “that it is the first performing arts centre in this country – and indeed the world – that had a dedicated First Nations head of programming.” 

 “To have the power to have your own budget and actually decide what to do – it's very different to working under and with someone else's budget.” 

This gave her an unprecedented autonomy to shape the First Nations program at the House and bring these works to larger, more diverse audiences. 

Among the many and varied contributions, she initiated during her time in the role were ongoing events that are now centrepieces of Opera House programming, including Badu Gili, the nightly lighting of the sails that celebrates the work of First Nations artists, and Dance Rites, a groundbreaking competition she established to preserve the diversity of First Nations’ cultures and practices. The event, which is held in the Opera House forecourt each year, provides an opportunity to “reclaim and maintain the old Songlines for a new generation of performers learning from the old people”, she says.

Actress Deborah Mailman, herself now a trustee of the house, says Rhoda is “an amazing artist in her own right but she’s always seen the bigger picture. She’s been my champion as she’s been a champion for so many Indigenous artists.”

Rhoda, now an elder known to many as Aunty Rhoda, has stepped down from her role at the Opera House, but she is still working to champion First Nations artists.