LONDON (AP) ― The London Olympics opening ceremony will be a grand spectacle ― but will it be a surprise?
In a word, no.
Director Danny Boyle wants the details to stay secret and games chief Sebastian Coe has pleaded for insiders to stop leaking details of the extravaganza. But in the age of camera phones and social media, with 10,000 performers in the ceremony, thousands of Olympic security and staff and more than 10,000 journalists already at the Olympic Park, not much can be kept out of the public domain.
“Part of the modern world means you can’t really do that,” Boyle acknowledged about keeping secrets as he showed journalists a mock-up of the set for the opening scene of the ceremony, weeks before the event.
So, a spoiler alert: Stop reading now if you want Friday’s opening ceremony to be a surprise. Stop, stop, stop.
But if you are as irresistibly curious as the rest of us, well, prepare for everything from James Bond to Lord Voldemort to a spoonful of sugar.
Queen Elizabeth II listens as IOC president Jacques Rogge speaks at Buckingham Palace on Monday. (AP-Yonhap News)
Boyle has revealed only selected details about the show, But since the performers started rehearsals in June at the Olympic Stadium ― and an army of journalists started arriving to cover the July 27-Aug. 12 games ― a trickle of details about the $42 million opening ceremony has become a torrent.
The leaks became too much for Coe, who tweeted: “Share the frustration of volunteer performers and the public at Opening Ceremony being unofficially trailed. Let’s (hash)savethesurprise.”
His imploring hashtag fell on deaf ears. Still more information emerged.
So what do we know?
The ceremony’s theme is “Isles of Wonder,” inspired by William Shakespeare’s play about shipwrecked castaways, “The Tempest.” An actor is due to recite Caliban’s speech, the one that runs “Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises.” Mark Rylance, who had been due to perform the lines, pulled out after the death of his stepdaughter. Kenneth Branagh is rumored to be his replacement.
Despite Boyle’s enchanted-island inspiration, few expect the man who depicted Scottish heroin addicts in “Trainspotting” and Indian slum dwellers in “Slumdog Millionaire” to deliver a sanitized image of Britain.
London mayor steals show LONDON (AP) ― It’s not often that Placido Domingo is upstaged at the Royal Opera House.
Yet flamboyant London Mayor Boris Johnson managed to pull it off at a star-studded Olympic gala on Monday night.
Opera stars Domingo, Renee Fleming and Bryn Terfel were the headline performers at the opening ceremony of the International Olympic Committee session at the famous venue in Covent Garden.
But it was Johnson who brought the house down with his bombastic recital ― in ancient Greek ― of a Pindaric Ode for the London Games. After the Greek version, he paused and said “which roughly translates as” before reading out the ode in English. It included word plays on the names of Olympic champions, including the “lighting bolt around the track.”
Pindar was an ancient Greek lyric poet famous for his victory odes. Johnson, who studied classics at Oxford, commissioned the poem for the games. It was written by Oxford academic Armand D’Angour and consists of six verses in rhyming couplets.
IOC president honors IsraelisLONDON (AP) ― IOC president Jacques Rogge paid tribute Monday to the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed in Munich 40 years ago, leading a solemn minute of silence in the athletes village.
It was the first time the IOC has honored the slain Israelis in a ceremony inside an Olympic village.
Rogge has repeatedly rebuffed calls to hold a moment of silence during Friday’s opening ceremony of the London Games. He said Saturday the opening was not the appropriate place to remember the Israeli team members killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
On Monday, Rogge chose a different venue and occasion to hold a special observance.
“I would like to start today’s ceremony by honoring the memory of the 11 Israeli Olympians who shared the ideals that have brought us together in this beautiful Olympic Village,” Rogge said.