Jessica Fong, Arizona State University’s Barrett in Australia student blogger, writes in her final blog post: The Sydney Opera House is an iconic building recognized all around the world. We had the distinct pleasure of going on a group tour of this incredible cultural center.

Sydney Opera House

To begin the tour, our lovely German tour guide distributed headsets to each one of us so that we could hear her talking even if we were not right next to her. The first stop on our tour was to the playhouse theater. Currently, the show Two Weddings, One Bride is playing in that theater, which a few friends and I went and saw later in the week! (You get a discount on tickets if you take a tour, so if you ever get the chance to visit, definitely take advantage of that!) When we walked in we could see the set they use for the show all prepared on stage. The theater only seats about 200 people, so it isn’t necessary for the actors to use microphones.

The next theater we visited during the tour was designed differently than the amphitheater-style playhouse theater. This one was completely square and had seats surrounding the stage on three sides. Again, this theater was absolutely stunning and is very versatile because seats can be added or removed to create a smaller or larger stage.

The final stop required us to climb four flights of stairs to get to the top level of the opera house. The carpet on this level is completely purple! From up here we had the most breathtaking views of the harbor. At last, we went to the reception room, which was dedicated to the original architect, Jorn Utzon’s design. He was never able to see the opera house completed, but his family still has a close connection with the opera house and has overseen some of the recent renovation projects. For me, this tour one of the highlights of my trip! I love musicals and theater in general, so it was spectacular to get a behind-the-scenes tour of a building that has such a rich history and iconic stature in Australia.