Review of the Sochi Olympics 2014 Opening Ceremony
written by Teresita Blanco
Yesterday, I saw the Sochi Olympics opening ceremony. Frankly, I was not going to watch it because the Russians did not inspire me much confidence. I am happy they proved me wrong. I must say the performances where even better than the Chinese. And that was a show hard to top. Anyhow, as usual the show began with the parade of nations.
The girl with the sign had a odd kind of dress. The way she walked with the sign was anything but avant garde. In my opinion, it was just plain weird. I always liked the parade of nations because you discover some small nations you never eve heard of.
The two countries worth noting were the US and Russia. When the Americans entered, they were with their cameras and their smart phones. Some even seemed to be yelling "USA, USA". They had the most athletes for the winter Olympics. As for the Russians, they entered with a proud attitude as if they owned the place. Well, they kinda did. Their Putin leader was saluting them in his usual cold, Russian fashion.
Afterwards, I saw the 3 minute history of Russia. It showed the proletarians building up the nation. Followed by the European like Burguousy bringing in progress and technology. Afterwards, the proletarians took over again. About the end, women became relevant. From a feminist perspective, I did not like that the women portrayed only appeared as mothers, daughters, helpers and secretaries. Eh, whatever... Let's move right along.
Following, I saw some odd horses. I thought they looked cool being followed by a strange pinwheel that was supposed to be the sun. When the sun melted the ice, there began the history of Russia told from the perspective of a little girl. I thought the intro part was really pretty. The figurines looked like candy. The TV guy said that because of Russian isolation, they developed a very unique, candy art.
That section was about Russia's mythological creation of the world. According to Russian Mythology, the world was born from a whale. From what I know, there is like a million references to supernatural whales. They either save the world, a humanity, or create humans.
Aside from the whale made of people and balloons, the floor projections looked pretty neat. The floor had a lot of cool visual projections. This section ended with the balloons released into the sky, that formed the shape of St. Basil Cathedral.
After that cute section, they changed to Medieval Russia. It focused on the works of Peter the Great. What made him great was the Navy he built. He went incognito to the West and brought back to Russia all the wonders of the Enlightenment. Under his reign, the Russians got their first Newspapers and an updated alphabet.
After the sea section, the floor became a map of St. Petersburg. The place became a center of commerce and progress. The city was built on top of a Swamp. They invented the imperial ballet. It was a bigger replica of Venice, with a unique Russian flavor. In that section, they had a cool marching band of guys. The patterns they mad went well with the way the map changed on the floor.
From that martial tone, the scenery and the music changed. It became more romantic. The floor became a ball room and maidens came to dance with the guys. There, they played a scene from "War and Peace". This part represented the peace section of the book. Within there, they played a lovely waltz and ballet. The neon columns where a lovely detail.
The music then changed and became more epic, when the winter came. According to my history teacher, when the temperature is warm Empires flourish. When things get cold, empires fall. When things got cool, the revolution came doing away with the beautiful decadent era of the Burgueasy. From that previous era, I liked best the pretty ballerina. She was one hell of a dancer.
I found it hilarious how the Russians showed the communist period without mentioning Marx, Lenin and Stalin. They made more emphasis on the proletarians. All sported the same attires. They became one with the factory machines. Their individualism was discarded. It was a pretty dehumanizing process.
The fancy decorations of the train and the figures where reminiscence of communist cubism, with their epic triangles and circles. Around the end, the music became more aggressive. The order and the figures broke down. Progress came, but at a terrible price. This was further emphasized by Russian's entry into World War II.
They lost like 20 million troops in the war. Following came the 50s. Things where a little bet better. Something about the kids crossing the streets reminded me of Communist Cuban's pioneros. Both bought the same clothing from the same bad designer. When the 60s came, the uniformity of the Russian society was broken.
Slowly, individualism returned as the communist regime was crushed. The 60s generation was fascinated with the West, the Beatles and out of space. They also did something odd with the baby boomers. It seems that they too had a baby boom generation.
By the end, they returned to the little girl. She walked up on top of a blue balloon. She let go of a red balloon. For those that do not know, the red balloon represents communism. The fact that she let it go shows that the Russians have given up on communism...for now. Hehehehe... Now they are stuck with the blue balloon, aka Capitalism.
On that note, they finished the first part of the Sochi Olympics show. Following, they did the usual boring speeches. The Russian guy talking in English had a really bad accent. He might as well have said the whole thing in Russian. The other guy who spoke was the Olympics guy. He too was a bit preachy. You know, the usual Miss Universe speech about peace and love and harmony.
After this scene, they had a lot of pretty fireworks. Later, began the second piece of the Russians. For this Olympics second event, the Russians did the Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. The jelly fish ballerinas looked pretty amassing. The neon tube where an interesting effect. They looked like Will o the wisp.
The Swan Queen was Diana Batsheva. She is currently the top dog of ballet. At the Sochi Olympics, she showed why she was the best there ever was. After the dance, some weirdos sang the Russian national anthem. As it is tradition in most Olympics, the Sochi singer was a Soprano backed by a male choir.
The soprano chick was dressed like Cinderella, for some odd reason. As for the Sopranos, they wore white tux. At the end, they did a tribute to all the Winter Olympic Gods. This part of the performance was a bit too flashy for my taste. I suppose it may have looked cooler had I been inside the actual stadium. Frankly, I liked the floor Milky Way effects the best.
The Opening Sochi Olympics ceremony ended with the lighting of the torch. I felt bad for the old geezers that had to run a whole mile to light the torch outside the stadium. They way the torch lighted was pretty epic with the crisscross fires. Overall, I found the opening ceremony to be 5 stars worthy all the way. The march of nation not so much, but what can you do. Its one of those necessary evils.
