2020-02-18 – Walking Around Sydney and seeing our first opera, Carmen

We have been in Sydney a couple of times before but there is always more to see.  The hotel concierge suggested we stop in at the nearby State Library and we are glad we did.  

Part of the building is from the 1800's and has architecture to match.

On the floor of the old building's entrance is a stone inlaid copy of an old map in the library collection.

We took the free Exhibition Tour where the guide introduced us to the art exhibitions and talked about the library and the art.  The library has more art in their collection that the state art museum. It was pointed out that much of their art isn’t the greatest but that it is intended to tell a story.  Much of their art is from painters from the early days of Australia’s settlement and included early governors, business men and others responsible for building Australia.

There was a painting of Pixie O'Harris, a children's writer and illustrator.  The portrait of her was specifically pointed out by our tour guide...the artist, Mary Edwards, a friend to Pixie,  had painted very subtle pixies in the background of the portrait...very hard to see but definitely there.  

There was also some interesting aboriginal art and one display that listed the word “kangaroo” in over 100 aboriginal languages…there are something over 300 aboriginal languages although some have been lost. 

And there were lots of various displays such as old coins, copper plates, dinnerware and much more...including a display of the inside covers of books.

We watched a movie about the restoration of a badly damaged portrait of a young woman named Sophia Statham O'Brien, who died in 1841 at the age of 21.  The video gave the history of the painting and the people involved with the painting and then walked us step by step through the restoration.  It was very interesting.

Restored Painting of Sophia O'Brien

Tucked away in one corner of the old library building is the Shakespeare room.  

The docent in there must not get many visitors because he seemed amazed that we had purposely looked for the room.  And he immediately launched into stories about the room.  Apparently the room is modeled after one in Hampton Court in England.  The room looked very Elizabethan, with the beautiful wooden walls and bookshelves...

stained glass windows,

and the ceiling, complete with the Tudor Rose.

It was originally used for study of Shakespeare and the library has original copies of all four Shakespeare folios (the Holy Grail of book collecting).  They had a copy of the first folio in the room and the Shakespeare family arms over the door.

We then wandered through Hyde Park where we saw Australian White Ibis...

and the Archibald Fountain.  When we saw this fountain on our first trip many years ago it had a Santa Hat on its head.

We also saw nearby St. Mary's Cathedral,

the Anzac Memorial

and the Yininmadyei Memorial, honoring aborigines people who served in Australia’s military.  The standing shells represent those who survived, and the fallen shells are for those who died.

We wandered through the streets with interesting architecture

and lots of interesting reflections in the glass walls of the buildings.  

We ended up in Chinatown.  However, other than a lot of Asian restaurants and some signs in Chinese one really wouldn’t know that it was Chinatown.

We found Queen Victoria Building, a shopping mall dating to the mid-1800’s and looking quite Victorian.

In the evening we attended our first opera, Carmen, in the Sydney Opera House.  We both actually enjoyed it very much…helped that they had subtitles.

Upon leaving the opera house we saw a huge lightning storm playing over the skyline.  Accompanied by strong winds and a few downed branches (one fell right in front of us), but only a light rain.  Unfortunately, the skies opened up about halfway to the hotel and we were soaked to the skin by the tie we got there.  The doorman brought us towels so we wouldn’t drip quite so badly on their carpets. 

Gotta roll with whatever life throws your way.  What an exhilarating (Paul questions the use of this adjective) way to end the day.

 *************************************

More Sydney Photos

*************************************