Sydney Opera House Keeps on Performing

NTD Newsroom
By NTD Newsroom
November 11, 2020NTD News Today
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The Sydney Opera House closed its doors to the public 7 months ago. While it’s theater seats remained empty, it’s stage was as busy as ever.

It hosted over 50 events, all performed to empty auditoriums. The events were part of a digital series, “From Our House To Yours,” that launched in May.

Stuart Buchanan, head of Digital Programming, Sydney Opera House, said: “When the doors closed we decided that we wanted to continue the work of the House during the pandemic and continue to present work.”

The weekly live stream included live music, dance, opera, comedy, and cabaret. Over the 31 weeks of the digital program, it received more than 6 million views and downloads from across the world.

But performing to an empty room hasn’t been easy for some artists.

Shane Johnson, head of Recording & Broadcast, Sydney Opera House, said: “Most artists are used to performing in front of a live audience, that’s what they do. So this is quite often usual for them or they don’t have much experience. We brief them on what the set up is, where the cameras are, how we mic it, how it’s going to sound, and then they can use that to maximize their performance'”

During 7 months of closure, it has a lot to show for this time.

Stuart said: “We now have a large library of programming that we didn’t have seven months ago and that will be available from now for a long time so that audiences around the world can see the work, and also see what work was recreated in these extraordinary times.”

The Sydney Opera House reopened on Nov. 2. Due to the success of the digital program, it plans to continue streaming selected new events into the future.

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