An ode to forests, favelas and funk
SPECTACULAR OPENING Gisele, samba in spotlight as Olympics begin with uplifting show in gritty Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil unfurled a vast canvas celebrating its rainforest and the creative energy of its wildly diverse population in welcoming the world on Friday to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, all to the pulsating beat of samba, bossa nova and funk.
The Opening Ceremony was decidedly simple and low-tech, a reflection of Brazil’s tough economic times. In one of the world’s most unequal societies, the spectacle celebrated the culture of the favelas, the slums that hang vertiginously above the renowned beaches of Rio and ring the Maracana.
There was no glossing over history either: from the arrival of the Portuguese and their conquest of the indigenous populations to the use of African slave labour for 400 years. The clash of cultures is what makes Brazil the complex mosaic that it is.
Home to the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, Brazil used the ceremony to call on the three billion people watching the opening of the world’s premiere sporting event to take care of the planet, plant seeds and protect the verdant land that Europeans found here five centuries ago.
Unlike the opening ceremonies in Beijing in 2008 and London 2012, a financially constrained Brazil had little choice but to put on a more “analogue” show, with minimal high-tech and a heavy dependence on the vast talent of Brazil and its Carnival party traditions.
FOR HALF THE COST
While the Rio 2016 organising committee has not said how much the ceremony cost, it is believed to be about half of the $42 million spent by London in 2012.
The show drew homegrown stars, like supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who walked across the stadium to the sound of the bossa nova hit ‘Girl from Ipanema’ and Paulinho da Viola, a samba songwriter who sang the national anthem with a string orchestra. Everyone performed for free.
Loud cheers erupted when Brazil’s beloved pioneer of aviation Alberto Santos-Dumont was depicted taking off from the stadium and flying over modernday Rio.