Contratrombone64
Admiral of Fugues
A fascinating snipet from a man I admired years ago ...
Billions watch Olympic opening ceremonies and most expect success - indeed the sponsors demand it, the politicians require it and the viewers provide marketing opportunities. So why is there this nit-picking about the Chinese using miming and other established theatre techniques to ensure success?
At the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, the Sydney Symphony was playing at the water cascade. When the carriage with the flame momentarily stalled on the way up, part of the apparatus was derailed and the plastic membrane which contained the cascading water was breached. Water flooded the performance area and the heavy-duty backstage power installations. Huge power-carrying cables running across the floor under the feet of the musicians were becoming submerged, and the moment the music finished the musicians were moved to less dangerous territory as the rising water saturated plugged connections.
Do we imagine that if the orchestra had been removed earlier, the show would have stopped? Or that if it had rained, the musicians would have sat there playing the music while moisture destroyed millions of dollars worth of instruments?
The fact is the ceremony was guaranteed to proceed by good production planning. The music was fully recorded in the preceding weeks and the Sydney Symphony was miming on the day. Director Edo de Waart was conducting to prompts and click-tracks in his headphones. It simply didn't matter on the night if the musicians didn't play a note, provided they looked like they were. I know because I was there.
This is normal for mega events and the big outdoor pop concerts around the world. China is not the inventor of this technique - they learnt from those who have done it before.
But worse than this duplicity, the two little girls have each been needlessly robbed of their individual pride: "I sang at the Beijing Olympics" has been rendered by brainless critics into "I am an ugly duckling" and "I am a fraud for miming".
We have some monster glass houses in this country and we should take care that China doesn't throw our stones straight back at us. Our media commentators richly deserve it for their one-eyed, simplistic, indecent China-bashing beat-up.
Martin Foster (Sydney Symphony contrabasoonist, retired), North Sydney
Billions watch Olympic opening ceremonies and most expect success - indeed the sponsors demand it, the politicians require it and the viewers provide marketing opportunities. So why is there this nit-picking about the Chinese using miming and other established theatre techniques to ensure success?
At the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, the Sydney Symphony was playing at the water cascade. When the carriage with the flame momentarily stalled on the way up, part of the apparatus was derailed and the plastic membrane which contained the cascading water was breached. Water flooded the performance area and the heavy-duty backstage power installations. Huge power-carrying cables running across the floor under the feet of the musicians were becoming submerged, and the moment the music finished the musicians were moved to less dangerous territory as the rising water saturated plugged connections.
Do we imagine that if the orchestra had been removed earlier, the show would have stopped? Or that if it had rained, the musicians would have sat there playing the music while moisture destroyed millions of dollars worth of instruments?
The fact is the ceremony was guaranteed to proceed by good production planning. The music was fully recorded in the preceding weeks and the Sydney Symphony was miming on the day. Director Edo de Waart was conducting to prompts and click-tracks in his headphones. It simply didn't matter on the night if the musicians didn't play a note, provided they looked like they were. I know because I was there.
This is normal for mega events and the big outdoor pop concerts around the world. China is not the inventor of this technique - they learnt from those who have done it before.
But worse than this duplicity, the two little girls have each been needlessly robbed of their individual pride: "I sang at the Beijing Olympics" has been rendered by brainless critics into "I am an ugly duckling" and "I am a fraud for miming".
We have some monster glass houses in this country and we should take care that China doesn't throw our stones straight back at us. Our media commentators richly deserve it for their one-eyed, simplistic, indecent China-bashing beat-up.
Martin Foster (Sydney Symphony contrabasoonist, retired), North Sydney
