Turin Games Kick Off With Surreal Ceremony

[brooklynite]

TURIN, Italy Feb 10, 2006 (AP)— This gritty city below the Alps gave a heartfelt "benvenuto" Friday night to the Winter Games, a fiery opening ceremony dedicated to passion and to igniting the competitive spirits of more than 2,500 of the world's best athletes.

...snip...

More than 200 U.S. athletes, wearing white coats and hats of blue and red, waved and blew kisses to the cheering audience. Giant video screens showed first lady Laura Bush smiling broadly.

In a highly unusual security move, three plain-clothed guards followed the Danish team as they marched through the stadium a precaution because of recent violence by Muslims enraged at deragatory cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published in Danish newspapers.

Security was also tight for the arrival of Mrs. Bush and Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=1604405

[displacedtexan]

1. Gee, that opening ceremony looks familiar!

[MADem]

3. BINGO--my first thought as well!! nt

[lebkuchen]

5. My first thought when Team Iran walked in: you're next!

[brooklynite]

4. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

In what executive producer Marco Bacilli described as an "iconic moment," silver-clad dancers appeared with big, white bubbles stuck to their heads. Bacilli, who has staged concert shows for U2 and the Rolling Stones, said the balls signified snow, of which there is none in Turin.

[lebkuchen]

2. Laura must have felt out of her element, with all the talk of peace

...certainly a surreal moment for Mrs. Twit, actually, a surreal two-fer for the week, off the coattails of Mrs. King's funeral and the uncomfortable eulogies commemorating civil rights.

Bet Laura can't wait to get back home to her own kind.

[The empressof all]

6. It was horrendous

When the nations walk into the stadium accompanied by the Village People singing YMCA you know it's just another sign that the End is Near......

Worst Opening Ceremonies ever......until Pavarotti then I almost forgave everything else.

[HuffleClaw]

7. yer joking?

pavarotti was the worst part of that. the rest was fun, except for that royal court thing. the ferrari was kewl.

[The empressof all]

8. You're right the ferrari was great

So were the eight women carrying the Olympic flag including Susan Sarandon. Pavarotti is still amazing considering he's a seventy year old man and still has a voice of an angel. Everything else was predicible and IMO not particularly well done. I usually love pagentry and bizarre symbolisms usually found in these events--this was a disappointment.

[MADem]

9. I didn't see the whole thing, but caught the end, and Pavarotti was great

I had the pleasure of seeing him perform in TURANDOT when he was at the tip-top of his game, in Italy, before a critical audience (they were grumbling because he was getting too "commercial") that he totally won over, and the guy can SING. He can project like hell, to the very back of any hall, and hearing him live is an amazing experience.

I don't know if that was pre-recorded, or what (if it was, it was a recording of a flawless live performance) but he totally nailed Nessun Dorma, which is one of his trademark songs.

[SOS]

10. Enjoyed most of it

But the Ferrari doing donuts and the athletes marching in to 1980s pop music was bizarre.

[Rich Hunt]

11. that's the Italians for you

They're just expressing their populist sensibility.