Brava Italia

After that trainwreck (or, since it was on boats, I guess shipwreck) of an Opening Ceremony in Paris, the Italians had quite a challenge on their hands with the Opening Ceremony for the Milan Cortina Games.  Especially since they had an ambitious plan to allow the athletes participating in each of the mountain clusters to participate in the ceremony.  Not only did they pull it off, they did so brilliantly!  Job well done, Italy!

When I first heard about the idea of having the main ceremony in Milan, with a separate, simultaneous ceremony in Cortina, I was a little skeptical.  I thought it was an intriguing idea that could either be spectacular if it worked or a disaster if it didn't.  As it turns out, there was no reason to worry.  The jumping between locations was seamless, and it really was cool to see the athletes be able to march in the parade regardless of where they were competing.  Milan Cortina very well might've started something that we'll see at future Winter Olympics.

What I loved most about the four separate Parades of Nations was how they still all felt like one.  Each venue had the ring for the athletes to start walking out at the same time as their teammates.  And my biggest question going in was how they'd handle having flagbearers at different locations.  Well, if they were at different locations, there were two flags and they each carried one.  If they were together, they carried the flag together.  And if there was no flagbearer at their location, they walked out with no flag.  Just a placard.  Italy even had two different sets of flagbearers, which I guess they can get away with as the host nation.  

Some people who were at the ceremony posted pictures online of just a placard entering the stadium with no flag or team behind it.  I will admit that was probably a very weird sight to see live, but the alternative would've been those athletes having to travel hours back and forth between the site of their competition and the Opening Ceremony.  Or missing the ceremony altogether.  Plus, Cortina is billed as the official co-host of these Olympics, so Cortina had to play a role in the ceremony in some way.

Cortina's ceremony was separate and distinct, but also brilliantly integrated into the ceremony that took place in Milan.  The Italian flag was raised and Italian anthem sung simultaneously in both places.  Ditto with the Olympic flag and anthem.  And, for the first time, there were two Olympic cauldrons.  Both were lit by alpine skiing legends--Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni in Milan, Sofia Goggia in Cortina.

My one issue is something that really isn't Milan's fault.  It's more an annoying trend that we've seen more and more at recent Olympics (both Winter & Summer).  The cauldron isn't inside a stadium.  In one respect, I get it.  They want it somewhere in the city where it's more accessible to more people and everyone can see it.  And, since the stadium was literally only being used for the Opening Ceremony, it wouldn't have made much sense for it to be in there.  Still, though, the lighting of the cauldron is the signature event of any Opening Ceremony, and it really feels like it's missing something when the cauldron isn't in the main stadium.

The rest of the ceremony, however, was spectacular.  It was quintessentially Italian and quintessentially Milan.  Milan is fashion.  Milan is art.  Milan is culture.  They captured all of it.  And they incorporated the synergy between the city and the mountains, uniting the two hosts that will be forever linked by these Olympics.  I would've liked to have seen more of a recognition of the 1956 Winter Olympics, the first time Cortina hosted, but that's just me being nitpicky.

I especially enjoyed the artistic program.  It's not uncommon for the artistic presentation at the Olympic Opening Ceremony to require a lot of explanation.  That wasn't the case here.  They celebrated Milan. They celebrated Italian history.  They honored a century of the Winter Olympics.  And they did it in a way where exposition wasn't needed.  It was the less is more approach.  And it worked.

In 2006, the finale of the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Torino was Pavarotti singing one of his signature songs--"Nessun Dorma."  It was his final performance before his death the following year.  Ever since then, Andrea Bocelli has been the signature Italian tenor.  So, it really was perfect for Pavarotti's successor to sing Pavarotti's song 20 years later at Italy's next Winter Olympics (in the home stadium of Inter Milan, Bocelli's favorite team).  And he performed it just as beautifully as Pavarotti did two decades ago.

As Bocelli was singing, the Olympic flame entered and made its way through the stadium.  I have to admit I found this a little weird, mainly because of the timing.  I was sitting there thinking, "It's too early," because there were several protocols that still hadn't happened.  The Games hadn't been declared open yet.  The Olympic flag hadn't even entered the stadium.  As it turns out, that was just a preview so that the fans in the stadium could see the Olympic flame before it made its way to its final destination at the heart of the city.  Seeing as the cauldron was outside the stadium, it was actually kind of cool that they did that.  Although, that didn't make it any less confusing.

Mostly, though, you couldn't help but be impressed by the show Milan and Cortina put on.  It ran a little on the long side.  At 3 1/2 hours, it was the longest Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony in history.  But part of the reason for that might've been the logistics of coordinating four separate Parades of Nations, as well as segments in both host cities.  And if that's the case, that was a small price to pay.  Because that's the element of this Opening Ceremony people will remember most.

Overall, that's the biggest takeaway from the Opening Ceremony of the Milan Cortina Olympics.  The cultural presentation was excellent, but that wasn't the memorable part.  It's how two separate ceremonies and four separate Parades of Nations were effortlessly worked together into one.  That will certainly be the biggest takeaway for the athletes.  They made it so that everybody could take part, no matter where they're competing.  The most spread out Winter Olympics in history found a way to bring all the athletes together as teammates despite the distance between them.

This, obviously, was just the start.  An ambitious Opening Ceremony as part of an ambitious Games plan that has venues scattered all across Northern Italy.  It's a huge undertaking to say the least.  But, coordinating all of the moving pieces for the Opening Ceremony was the hard part, and they passed that test with flying colors.  The Olympics themselves should be a breeze!

Milan Cortina is already one step ahead of Paris, too.  Paris recovered from a terrible Opening Ceremony to put on a spectacular Games.  If what we've got in store over the next two weeks comes anywhere close to what we saw on Friday night, the Italians are well on their way to putting on a spectacular Olympics of their own.