Clowns and couture mix in Turin ceremonies
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-18 06:59

MILAN: Turin will open the Winter Olympics next month in a whirl of fashion and technology, and close the Games with a nostalgic carnival of harlequins.

Italian runner Manuela Levorato carries the Olympic torch in a gondola past St. Marco square in Venice January 17, 2006.[Reuters]

"The opening ceremony is all about passion, energy, the Italy of the future. It will be a bit aggressive," Marco Balich of Filmmaster Group, executive producer of the ceremonies, told a news conference on Monday.

"The closing ceremony will have a carnival theme - with a melancholy air because it's the end of the Games," he added after a presentation of the outlines of the events.

Olympic hosts usually try to keep details of the ceremonies under wraps. But Turin has already leaked several elements of the opening ceremony on February 10.

Veteran designer Giorgio Armani is preparing the entrance of the Italian flag into the stadium while fashion house Moschino will style the athletes' parade. Speed skaters with flame-shooting helmets will also whizz around.

The closing ceremony on February 26 will look back at Italy's cultural past with a nostalgic feel.

At the presentation, theatre director Daniele Finzi Pasca, who is in charge of the closing event, pulled back a curtain to reveal some of the clowns and acrobats that will bid farewell to the Games.

Dressed in the faded gold and black-and-white costumes of European circuses of days gone by, the group of harlequins and columbines mixed sadness with their smiles.

While Turin's budget of 28 million euros (US$34 million) for both ceremonies is a fraction of what Athens spent on its Greek gods-and-sports extravaganza, the shows will have their share of headline-grabbers.

Pop and opera singer Andrea Boccelli and grungy Canadian Avril Lavigne will entertain the Turin crowds.