00:02Louise Herron, thank you for speaking with me.
00:04Thank you for having me.
00:05It's been 14 years at the helm of this institution.
00:08What's your prevailing emotion as you prepare to say goodbye?
00:12I feel like it's been the most incredible honour and privilege to hold this role.
00:19And I have done everything that I think I'm capable of doing for this amazing place.
00:27And I feel like it's in a perfect state as far as I'm concerned to hand it over to the
00:34next person.
00:35I also think it's really important that people don't stay in these jobs for too long.
00:40And I think 14 years to the day is a really good moment to step aside.
00:46And you've made a big effort to bring people in to the forecourt, into the house,
00:52who aren't what people might regard as the traditional opera audience or performing arts audience.
00:59Why was that important to you?
01:00It was really interesting.
01:02At the 50th anniversary, we decided we would look deeply back into the history.
01:08There was all these quotes that I hadn't actually seen before about this is the people's house.
01:13The opera house is built for everyone.
01:15The opera house is built to create a better and a more enlightened society.
01:20So it started out as the people's house, what is now everyone's house.
01:24It went through a stage where it was a place of privilege, which was actually not its roots.
01:30This is a place where people absolutely love to come, to gather.
01:35That's its purpose, to have people on the forecourt, to have things inside the house,
01:40to have things for children, for engineers, for architects, for everyone.
01:45That is so important to the essence of this place.
01:48And you cannot leave it for a small minority of people because that's not what it's for.
01:55You also oversaw a massive transformation of the performance spaces as well.
02:01What were the challenges that came with doing that in a building like this?
02:05Pretty massive.
02:07We closed the concert hall in February 2020, six weeks before COVID hit.
02:14So it was a great benefit because we could make as much noise as we wanted,
02:19but it was also very difficult because it was in the time when a lot of people couldn't come to
02:26work.
02:27We also had quite a lot of international engineers who were involved and that was also technicians.
02:33That was difficult.
02:35Arguably one of the most high profile moments of your tenure was an interview with Alan Jones
02:39on whether to project the Everest horse racing logo onto the sails.
02:43It was a pretty heated exchange and a pretty heated period.
02:47How did you hold your nerve?
02:48I didn't even notice that, you know, it was particularly heated.
02:53I just thought, oh, here's a bloke, you know, carrying on.
02:57I'm kind of quite used to this sort of carry on, but I'm not going to bend to it
03:01because the Opera House is so important and we have to do what's right.
03:06It cannot be a billboard.
03:08So I never flinched.
03:10I was more worried that my dog was going to bark than that Alan Jones was barking at me.
03:15So it was totally fine.
03:18And it had a beautiful silver lining, which was it showed the level of people's love for
03:27and care for the Opera House.
03:29Another controversy arose when the protest against the lighting of the sails
03:35and the colours of the Israeli flag after the October 7 terror attack,
03:39where there were anti-Semitic chants allegedly heard in the crowd.
03:43How do you steer an arts institution at a time when controversy brings itself to your doorstep?
03:50Since October 7, it's been a really difficult time for so many people, for so many communities.
03:56I think it is important to say that the decision to light the sails was a decision of the New
04:04South Wales Government,
04:05not of the Opera House.
04:06The protest was in the hands of the police.
04:10So in a sense where even though it's on our site, those things that we as the Opera House are
04:16arm's length from,
04:18even though that's quite a difficult message to get across.
04:22You've said that you've achieved all that you could envision for the Opera House.
04:26Now someone else will take the reins.
04:29What are you hoping for the qualities for that person to have for the next phase going forward?
04:37The Opera House is just the most marvellous and incredible place.
04:42It brings joy and inspiration and hope and innovation.
04:47I'm sure they'll do different things from me and that's why I'm handing over,
04:51because it needs a new hand at this point.
04:54But I feel that they will be true to the DNA of the Opera House.
04:59Louise Herron, thank you so much and all the very best.
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