This will be the third Summer Olympics opening ceremony with a film director at the helm.
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The hour-long cultural fiesta, capped by a spectacular display of fireworks, led to the Parade of the Nations, or the march past of the participating contingents, comprising 207 including Kosovo and South Sudan who are making their debut.
Prado and her family invited Araujo and others to gather to watch the ceremony from a distance.
NBC broadcast the opening ceremony on a one-hour tape delay because it wants the entertainment spectacle to be shown completely in US prime time. “I only ask that we get more help with health, security and education”. We have seen a lot of exuberant dance, as you would expect, from – everything from samba, to funk, to native dance, even a bit of twerking.
Brazilian supermodel Giselle Bundchen’s sashay across the stadium to the sound of The Girl From Ipanema will no doubt feature in newspapers around the globe, as will a clever section that featured a biplane appearing to fly out of the stadium and circle the city’s signature Christ the Redeemer statue. But that’s just me.
After a day in which anti-Temer protesters blocked traffic along iconic Copacabana beach and clashed with riot police outside the Maracana, the live coverage of the ceremony did little to raise the many Brazilians’ spirits.
The athletes were given tree seeds, plus cartridges of soil.
Many Brazilians remain angry that the nation has spent billions of dollars to stage these games amid one of the worst economic crises in the nation’s history, a downturn that’s hit Rio particularly hard.
BLOCK: It is still going on. He joined the show by Skype to talk about what might transpire at Maracanã Stadium.
A strong military and security presence seemed to protect the evening’s events despite noisy, anti-Olympic protests throughout the city of 6.2 million. It was reinforced in 1936 when US flag bearer did not dip the flag as an act of protest against Adolf Hitler.
Even the most enthusiastic spectators in the bar – two friends who’d come up from Sao Paulo for the Games – had mixed feelings.
As teams from across the world prepare to take to the sea for swimming, sailing, rowing and canoeing events, they’re worrying about water. What led to that? It’s been undergoing a awful recession. We had to get rid of some of our toys, as he put it. He also, though, put it in perspective.
“I couldn’t care at all about the ceremony”, said office administrator Patricia Palma, 43.
And they’ve actually used the term MacGyvering in terms of how they’re approaching this.
“It is pretty tacky to be overspending”, he said. A recent survey by Datafolha shows 63 percent of Brazilians think hosting is doing more harm than good; only 16 percent are enthusiastic.
Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriters Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil also performed at the ceremony.
Holding signs reading “Fora Temer”, and “Temer Out”, some 3,000 activists came out in support of Rousseff who believe that her removal from office was a “coup” organized by Michel Temer, Rousseff’s vice president, who is now serving as Brazil’s interim president. He has said he does expect to be booed.
Denilson Lucio Souza, said that “at this moment I am proud to be a Brazilian and that the Games are here”.
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According to reports, it would be a brutally honest reflection of what life is really like in Rio de Janeiro.
