“I hope the opening ceremony can be a kind of anti-depressant for Brazil”, said one of the show’s creative directors, the acclaimed “City of God” film-maker Fernando Meirelles. There was a street-dancing performance meant to evoke the art that springs from the miserably poor tin-roofed favelas that go staggering up the hills and valleys around Rio like makeshift Lego cities, one red-blocked unit stacked atop another; the segment was intended to be a reminder that beauty and wonder live even in the most unlikeliest and challenging places. In the almost four-hour event, nothing appeared to go awry.
Advertisement
Samba and pop music singers are expected to perform, including Grammy award winners Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.
But the climax of the show, the lighting of the cauldron, depends on whether Brazil’s most famous athlete – soccer star Pele – appears. Everyone performed for free.
Never have the organizers had such deep economic and political crisis while preparing for an Olympic Games since the turn of the century.
The celebration didn’t dwell on Brazil’s recent upheaval – its worst recession in decades, and the suspension of its president, Dilma Rousseff, who faces an impeachment trial, probably during the Olympics.
The iconic Maracana Stadium will host a pulsating gathering for more than 70,000 fans, 10,400 athletes and dozens of world leaders as the first Olympics to be staged in South America gets under way.
The action will now start happening thick and fast, with 16 gold, silver and bronze medals to be handed out across a host of disciplines on Saturday.
Due to Brazil’s most intense security operation ever, some among the 50,000 attendees faced two-hour-long lines as Brazil staged its most intense security operation ever.
Performers take part in Friday’s Opening Ceremonies.
It started with the beginning of life itself in Brazil, and the population that formed in the vast forests and built their communal huts, the ocas. Would huge gold medal hauls by American gymnast Simone Biles and multievent US swimmer Katie Ledecky justify the talk that they already deserve to be placed among their sports’ greats?
The opening ceremony included a tribute to the many nationalities that have contributed to Brazil’s culture – indigenous people, Europeans (who came as explorers and conquerers), Africans (who came as slaves), and Arabs and Asians (who came as immigrants escaping hardships). “They have to talk about that”.
Advertisement
“This is a conquest”. The women were seen in traditional sarees and a blue blazer while the men donned a nazy blue blazer on their opening ceremony walk as they waved at the public. “The Chant” tells a compelling story of personal progress and celebrates a nation’s first Olympic Games, while the “International Anthem” celebrates the collective progress of those breaking down boundaries to express unity and harmony.
