Chinese opera, a massive fireworks display and a mystery ending will mark the highly anticipated opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, media reported on Wednesday.
Exact details remained closely guarded, but the ceremony’s artistic director, Zhang Yimou, China’s most famous filmmaker, has dropped the first hints on the show’s content, the Chongqing Economic Times reported.
The first full dress rehearsal for the sold-out event launching the Olympics will be held on July 10 at the new National Stadium built for the Games, the newspaper added, in a report that appeared on Wednesday on the website of the official Xinhua news agency.
China plans to use the August 8 to 24 Olympics as its coming-out party and the opening ceremony is expected to be a stunning launchpad masterminded by Zhang.
The three-part programme — to be broadcast around the globe and before about 90 000 spectators at the stadium — will last about three-and-a-half hours and conclude with the lighting of the Olympic flame, the report quoted Zhang as saying.
Only 10 people know how the flame-lighting will be carried out, he added.
”A large-scale fireworks display is something we absolutely must have” as part of a programme that will celebrate 5 000 years of Chinese history, Zhang said.
Besides the opera and pyrotechnics, other parts will focus on contemporary China and the Olympic movement, he said.
Beijing is not intent on producing the biggest and best-ever opening ceremony, but wants it to be spectacular, said Jiang Xiaoyu, the organising committee’s vice-president.
”We want to create pomp with extraordinary Chinese features, fuelled by hi-tech effects and audience interaction,” Jiang was quoted as saying by Xinhua. — AFP
