SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Sochi lit up Thursday with music and
dance to unleash the ultimate achievement of Vladimir Putin’s Russia: a
Winter Olympics to showcase the best athletes on ice and snow that the
world has to offer.
The opening ceremony on the edge of the Black
Sea and subsequent games are Russia’s chance to tell its story of
post-Soviet resurrection to the world — and dispel the anger, fear and
suspicion that has marred the buildup to these most expensive Olympics
ever.
Just after the sun set over the Caucasus Mountains and along
the seashore just outside Fisht Stadium in the wet-paint-fresh Olympic
Park, Russian TV star Yana Churikova shouted to a pre-show crowd still
taking their seats: "Welcome to the center of the universe!"
Soon
to come are the athletes, in the traditional parade of nations that
marks every opening ceremony. Some 3,000 will compete in 98 events, more
people and events than ever at the Winter Games.
The ceremony is
crafted as a celebration of Russia and is presenting Putin’s version: a
country with a rich and complex history emerging confidently from a
rocky two decades and now capable of putting on a major international
sports event.
Not on the set list: Putin’s repression of dissent,
fears of terrorism and inconsistent security measures at the Olympics,
which will take place just a few hundred miles (kilometers) away from
the sites of an insurgency and routine militant violence. Also looked
over: the tensions with the United States over neighboring Ukraine, NSA
leaker Edward Snowden and Syria.
And the unpaid migrant workers
who helped build up the Sochi site from scratch, the disregard for local
residents, the environmental abuse during construction, the pressure on
activists, and the huge amounts of Sochi construction money that
disappeared to corruption.
In a provocative choice, Russian
singers Tatu will perform. The women in Tatu put on a lesbian act that
is largely seen as an attention-getting gimmick. It contrasts with the
very real anger over a Russian law banning gay "propaganda" aimed at
minors that is being used to discriminate against gays. Some world
leaders and activists have protested the law, and President Barack Obama
is skipping the opening ceremony and sending a delegation that includes
prominent gay athletes instead.
For people who don’t know much
about Russia, the ceremony’s director, Konstantin Ernst, promised
"relatively simple metaphors" — and no obscure references, like the
nurses in the London Games’ opening ceremony representing the National
Health Service, which he called one of the most "incomprehensible"
moments in Olympic history.
Ernst said Tatu’s "Not Gonna Get Us"
was chosen because it’s one of the only Russian pop songs that
international viewers might recognize.
Most of Friday’s
performance will instead lean on Russia’s rich classical music
traditions, with piano virtuoso Denis Matsuev performing and opera
soprano Anna Netrebko singing the Olympic anthem.
Ernst also
argued the choice of Tatu’s song was about motivating athletes with an
upbeat dance song that challenges competitors by saying, "You’re not
going to get us."
Putin referred to none of that when speaking to
IOC members and nearly 20 world leaders at a dinner late Thursday,
instead stressing the importance of "mutual understanding, justice,
pacifism."
"I’m feeling especially positive energy," he said.
Despite hang-ups with some hotel rooms and last-minute construction
problems, he said he hopes these games "allow people to appreciate our
organizational capabilities and our traditional Russian hospitality."
Ernst
said the opening and closing ceremonies will make reference to the 1980
Moscow Summer Olympics, which some view as the first time the opening
ceremony became such a big deal.
The show will be focused on TV
audiences, with projections onto the stadium floor, so fans in the
stands won’t enjoy the full effect.
Asked whether Putin might
arrive at the ceremony from the air, like stunt actors playing James
Bond and Queen Elizabeth II did at in London, Ernst said, "it’s hardly
worth hoping for that."
The Winter Games ceremony is generally a
more low-key event than the summer opener. Ernst said organizers tried
to keep it from dragging out too long, since most viewers only care to
watch their own team and its key rivals.
But who will carry the
Olympic torch to light the cauldron for the games, after the flame’s
unprecedented journey to the North Pole, the cosmos, Europe’s highest
mountain peak and beyond?
"It’s the biggest secret ever," Ernst said, with a smile.
___
Angela Charlton can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/acharlton
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.