Written by Mary Anne Reid for the Sydney Opera House Trust
using material provided by
Linda Banks
Pam Lord
Jan Kneeshaw
Dawn Smith
Like most of the world’s great cultural institutions, Sydney Opera House depends in part on philanthropic support. The generous contribution of philanthropists increases the scope, scale and ambition of what the Opera House is able to do – from arts events to education and access programs. As part of its 40th Anniversary, the Opera House paid tribute to this rich philanthropic tradition by profiling one of its earliest philanthropic committees. It is extraordinary that the Sydney Opera House Ladies Committee established in 1957 still operates today and is on the cusp of a new era.
The Ladies Committee of the Sydney Opera House was born well before the Opera House itself. Young Danish architect Jorn Utzon had only just visited Australia for the first time when the committee held its inaugural meeting in August 1957. It was the calm before the storm on Bennelong Point: not a sod of soil had yet been turned for construction of what would become Australia’s most famous building.
The ambition and scale of the NSW Government’s plans for a performing arts centre on the harbour foreshore had captured the imagination of many Sydneysiders, including the founding members of the Ladies Committee of the Opera House Appeal Fund. These women were from Sydney’s high society, well suited to the task of raising funds to support construction of Utzon’s ambitious design. Membership of the Ladies Committee was by invitation only. The first president was the Lady Mayoress of Sydney, whose husband Lord Mayor Harry Jensen was Chairman of the Opera House Appeal Fund.
The women began by staging a series of grand opera balls and concerts, attended by the wealthy, the powerful and the well-connected of Sydney society.
A house for the people
The two men who most influenced the Ladies Committee during its inception – NSW Premier Joe Cahill and Sydney’s Lord Mayor Harry Jensen – were both from a Catholic, working class background and saw the Opera House as an aspirational project that would bring the best of the arts into the lives of the people of NSW, regardless of their social or economic status.
In announcing his plans for an opera house for NSW, Cahill said: “This state cannot go on without proper facilities for the expression of talent and the staging of the highest forms of artistic entertainment which add grace and charm to living and which help to develop and mould a better, more enlightened community.”
It was Cahill who suggested the formation of the Ladies Committee in 1957. He believed a human interest venture running alongside construction of the building would keep the NSW public interested in the project at the same time as raising money for the Opera House Appeal Fund.
“The Opera House is for everyone and everyone will have the equal opportunity to play and go there to listen.”
When the committee ran a national aria competition in 1962, Lord Mayor Harry Jensen said: “This competition will give impetus to the musicians and artists whom we hope will one day appear at the Opera House. It will also help to create in the public mind an image that the Opera House is for everyone and that everyone will have the equal opportunity to play and go there to listen.”
Act One – high society
That the Ladies Committee should be instigated by a man – Premier Cahill – was in keeping with Australian society in the 1950s. The new wave of feminism that would sweep the world in the 1960s, radically changing the lives and roles of women in Australia, was still some years away. The founding members of the committee are referred to in early documentation under the names of their husbands: Mrs Harry Jensen hands over the presidency to Mrs Marcel Dekyvere – wife of wealthy wool buyer Marcel Dekyvere – in 1959.
A succession of grand, arts-themed balls and parties were held during the 1960s, alongside concerts featuring the leading arts figures of the day.
Nola Dekyvere held the presidency until 1980 and is acknowledged as the Founding President. This remarkably energetic woman combined a high-profile social life with dedicated fundraising for a number of charities and the arts: She wrote a weekly social column in the Sunday Telegraph (My Week) and organised the Golden Ball in honour of Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra of Kent in the same year she became President of the Ladies Committee. She also had a long association with the Black and White Committee of Royal Blind Society of NSW and several other fundraising organisations.
The first major event of the Ladies Committee was an Easter Ball held at Sydney Town Hall in April 1959, in the presence of His Excellency the Governor of NSW Sir Eric Woodward and Lady Woodward. There was dancing to Jim Gussey’s ABC Dance Band, judging of the most glamorous “Tout Ensemble”, introduction of the winner of the Opera Ball Vocal Scholarship, and supper. A succession of these grand, arts-themed balls and parties were held during the 1960s, alongside concerts featuring the leading arts figures of the day, such as Sir Charles MacKerras conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Great Hall of Sydney University in 1960.
One of the novelty projects that made the papers was a kissing party in the Lord Mayor’s reception room at the Town Hall. Distinguished guests gathered to bid for the kisses of Australian soprano Joan Hammond, flautist Elaine Shaffer and Ruggeriero Ricci, wife of the celebrated violinist. Amongst the buyers were Premier Cahill, the Lord Mayor, and ABC boss Sir Charles Moses. Jorn Utzon topped a number of bidders with 50 pounds each to kiss Mrs Ricci and Miss Shaffer. Mrs Ricci then donated ten pounds for the kiss she received from the handsome, 6ft-4in architect.
The National Operatic Aria Competition run by the Ladies Committee in 1962 – with 10 finalists selected from five states – was extremely successful in drawing attention to the performing arts centre under construction on Bennelong Point. Qantas and the Daily Mirror sponsored the competition, and the judges were Sir Bernard Heinze (conductor, academic and Director of the NSW Conservatorium of Music), William G James (pianist, composer and pioneer of music broadcasting) and John Anthill (composer). One of the winners of the competition, 23-year-old Raymond Meyers, went on to perform the role of Napoleon in War and Peace, the first opera staged when the Opera House was completed.
The Opera House Appeal Fund was one of the earliest sources of funding for construction of the Opera House. The Sydney Opera House Lottery initiative was introduced soon after, in November 1957, and raised the lion’s share of the $102 million it eventually cost to complete the building. The Opera House Appeal Fund worked in parallel by providing philanthropic support.
The women of the Ladies Committee were extraordinarily effective in this early period. Between 1957 and 1968 they helped the Opera House Appeal Fund raise close to $1 million, which remains to this day one of the largest philanthropic contributions made to the Opera House from a single source.
Some decried the money being spent on the arts; others championed this bold step into the future; everyone had an opinion about the Opera House.
Mrs Dekyvere steered the Ladies Committee throughout this period, when the Opera House was an idea and a project, not yet a reality. The extraordinary building taking shape on the foreshore of Sydney harbour was a magnet for differing views and opinions.Some decried the money being spent on the arts; others championed this bold step into the future; everyone had an opinion about the Opera House.
The curtain closes – 1968-1973
The first phase of the Ladies Committee came to an end in the wake of Utzon’s resignation and the appointment by the NSW Government of a new architectural committee to complete construction of the Opera House.
By the mid-1960s, the costs of construction had escalated, the project was well behind schedule, and disputes had arisen between Utzon and the engineers. In 1965, the newly elected NSW Government refused to meet Utzon’s requests for funding for the next stage of construction and despite repeated claims, would not pay Utzon’s outstanding fees. Utzon withdrew from the project and returned to Denmark in February 1966. The Government appointed a panel of Australian architects, led by Peter Hall, to complete the project.
“While the Opera House dispute rages on, the Ladies Committee of the Appeal Fund is working on intrepidly with plans for the Opera Ball.”
It became increasingly difficult for the Ladies Committee to operate effectively against the backdrop of these events. On March 17, 1966, an article in The Sun stated: “While the Opera House dispute rages on, the Ladies Committee of the Appeal Fund is working on intrepidly with plans for the Opera Ball (on the theme of Carmen) in the Sydney Town Hall on October 20.”
In May 1968, the Minister for Public Works called a special meeting to recommend that the Ladies Committee cease fundraising activities and scale back to a single social meeting each year, at which he would update them on the progress of the Opera House. Accordingly, the committee went into recess and would not resume activities until one month after the Opera House was officially opened by Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II in 1973.
Act Two – the archive
In January 1974, the Daily Telegraph announced: “The Ladies Committee…is back in action. The committee, presided over by Nola Dekyvere, will have its first post-opening do in the Northern foyer on February 11. It’ll be a showing of the autumn fashion collection by Le Louvre of Melbourne with clothes coming direct from Paris. Lots of Givenchy perfume giveaways too.”
The Sydney Opera House Trust had officially reinstated the Ladies Committee on 20 December 1973 and the committee began operating, for the first time, from the Opera House itself. It was the only committee formed to support the Opera House Appeal Fund that continued beyond the 1960s.
Presented with a number of possible projects by Opera House management, the committee voted unanimously to support the creation of an archive of theatrical memorabilia. This collection was to come under the umbrella of the Dennis Wolanski Library and Archives, established by the Opera House in 1973 with funds from businessman, artist and philanthropist Dennis Wolanski.
A unique collection of costumes, photographs, programs, books, scores, records, tapes, portraits, fans, signed ballet shoes and letters was amassed.
Many of the early donations to the theatrical archive were items of memorabilia owned by the committee members themselves through years of involvement with the performing arts, or else tracked down through their own networks. The public’s interest was aroused by media coverage, in October 1975, of three committee members modelling opera costumes worn by Dame Nellie Melba and Hilda Mulligan, calling for donations of memorabilia. In December, the Opera House Trust held an exhibition from the archive, launched by the NSW Premier, and contributions from the public continued to stream in.
A unique collection of costumes, photographs, programs, books, scores, records, tapes, portraits, fans, signed ballet shoes and letters was amassed. One high-profile donation was the entire swimming and theatrical collection of Annette Kellerman – Australia’s first world-famous swimmer and later a movie star in Hollywood.
In this second phase of the Ladies Committee the balls and large concerts of the early era were replaced by a different style of fundraising events. The committee ran luncheons with guest artists (including Dame Joan Sutherland, June Bronhill and Simon Tedeschi), dinner dances, books launches (including biographies of artists John Antill and Dorothy Helmrich) and art exhibitions. International films days with a guest consul from a featured country (including Italy, France, Greece, Korea, and India) were popular in the 1980s-90s.
A number of social functions were held at the luxurious Eastern suburbs homes of committee office bearers, or nearby venues such as the Royal Motor Yacht Club, Double Bay. In later years events began to head north under the direction of Mrs Ann Harris-Thompson of Turramurra, who took up the presidency in 1991 and retired in 2006, having become the longest-serving president.
As well as collecting theatrical memorabilia, the Ladies Committee donated more than $50,000 to the library and archive from 1974-1993, to build up sections on dance, acting, production, direction, lighting, costume, stage design and musical theatre. In 1981, the committee funded the purchase of the Dictionary Catalogue of the Music Collection of the New York Public Library at the Lincoln Centre – widely regarded as the premier performing arts collection in the world and a valuable resource for the Australian library. In 1991, it paid $8,000 for the acquisition of a bust of Harry Rickards (1843-1911), the founder of the much-loved Tivoli Circuit that flourished in Sydney from the 1890s to the 1950s.
The Wolanski library and archive was dedicated to the history of the performing arts right across Australia, not solely the Opera House, and it was this wide-reaching brief which eventually led to the dismantling of what had become a very large onsite collection. In 1997, the NSW Government and the Sydney Opera House Trust determined that the substantial space occupied by the library should be used as a performing arts venue, in keeping with the core function of the Opera House. Accordingly, the library was closed and the space eventually converted into the smallest and most flexible of the Opera House’s theatres, The Studio (220-350 seats).
The contents of the Dennis Wolanski Library and Archive were dispersed to other key cultural institutions where they could still be enjoyed by the public – primarily the State Library of NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Victorian Arts Centre Performing Arts Collection, and Seaborn Broughton and Welford Foundation. A small percentage of the collection relating directly to the Opera House was retained by the Sydney Opera House Trust.
Act Three – the Utzon legacy
By the time the Wolanski collection was dismantled, the Ladies Committee had completed its work on the theatrical archive and begun fundraising to help preserve the legacy of Jorn Utzon.
It was many years now since the ugly duckling on Bennelong Point had grown into a swan. The residents of Sydney could no longer imagine their harbour without the white sails of the Opera House; international visitors to Sydney made the Opera House their first port of call and people around the world recognised the building as a symbol of Australia.
In 1993-94, the Ladies Committee helped fund the Opera House’s Oral History Project, which recorded interviews with architects, engineers and others associated with the protracted and controversial construction of Utzon’s masterpiece, including Over Arup, Sir Charles Moses, Sir Davis Hughes, Sir Jack Zuni and Max Dupain.
This focus on the history of the building continued through an extremely productive funding partnership between the Ladies Committee and the State Library of NSW, beginning in 1996-97. A collection of drawings, plans, documents and films donated to the State Library by Utzon had been stored for many years with little protection and needed extensive restoration work. With the support of the Sydney Opera House Trust, the committee funded the microfilming of Utzon’s drawings and manuscripts, solving the problem of deterioration and providing improved access to the collection.
It was at this time that the NSW Government and Sydney Opera House Trust were engaged in a process of reconciliation with Utzon, who had never returned to Australia to see the finished building. After a number of approaches, conversations and finally meetings, Utzon agreed in 1999 to be re-engaged by the Opera House to develop a set of Design Principles that would act as a permanent reference to guide all future changes to the building. Utzon said of the Design Principles published in 2002: “I like to think the Sydney Opera House is like a musical instrument, and like any fine instrument, it needs a little maintenance and fine tuning, from time to time, if it is to keep on performing at the highest level.”
The Ladies Committee helped to ensure that Utzon was celebrated during the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival by supporting an exhibition of his plans (the Shells Display) at the State Library as part of the festival. In 2002, they funded the creation and exhibition of 400 prints from the State Library’s collection of over 1,400 highly detailed negatives shot by Utzon during the early phase of construction of the Opera House.
Support from the committee helped ensure that this precious piece of Australian history is readily available online today.
The other major Utzon project funded by the committee was restoration of the ‘Red Book’ created by the architect in 1958. The Red Book includes plans, sections, elevations, photographs of models of the Opera House, and reports by consultants on acoustics and other aspects of the forthcoming construction project. Utzon inscribed his Red Book with the following words: “I am happy that with this book I am able to give the Premier, the Right Honourable J.J. Cahill and the Opera House Committee a project which realises in a practical form the vision of the competition.” Philanthropic support from the committee helped secure this precious piece of Australian history, which is readily available online today.
A decade of renewal – 2013-23
That the Sydney Opera House Ladies Committee operated well into the 2000s as an autonomous entity, with no formal constitution or rules and with members selected on personal recommendation, is a testament to its special and well-earned place in the story of the Opera House. In 2008, after the death of long-serving president Mrs Harris Thompson, the committee adopted a formal governance document drafted by Opera House management, including aims and objectives, rules on membership and office, and reporting procedures. This did not materially change the operations of the committee but did bring the group under the kind of governance framework expected today.
Just as Sydney has changed a great deal since Joe Cahill set up the Ladies Committee of the Opera House Appeal Fund, the women of the committee in 2013 are very different from those who organised the first Easter Opera Ball in Sydney Town Hall in 1959. The thread connecting all the women of the Ladies Committee is a passion for the performing arts and a belief in the power of the arts to enhance the life of the community. Most of the women who have joined over the years have stayed for a very long time, which is in keeping with the general wisdom that volunteering and philanthropy reward those who give as well as those who receive. It is clear from talking to the women that while they work hard, they love the benefits the Ladies Committee has brought into their lives.
The committee is now gearing up to contribute to the decade of renewal that began with the 40th Anniversary celebrations and will continue through to the 50th Anniversary of the Opera House in 2023. Utzon’s masterpiece requires significant investment to evolve and meet the expectations of a new generation of artists and audiences. No one source will be able to provide this investment; it will come from a combination of government funding, corporate sponsorship and private philanthropy. The Ladies Committee is poised assist this major renewal phase, just as it did the construction of the building in the 1960s.
The committee is looking to appoint a patron to create a higher profile for this next critical phase of philanthropic support. One of its goals is to attract younger age groups to the fundraising events which generate donations for the Opera House and a well-known patron may help achieve this goal.