TORINO: Opening ceremony long on passionate symbolism

TORINO: Opening ceremony long on passionate symbolism{mosimage}TORINO, Italy – Not to give away the whole show, but Friday’s Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics is long on passion, big on fire and short on explanations.

Red-bodystockinged inline skaters with giant flames shooting out the back of their heads will zoom around the oval stage. Their odyssey is meant to symbolize the passion, speed and energy of both Italians and Olympic athletes.

There also are artificial cows pulled on rollers and dancing trees; a tribute to the Alps and their farming culture. A recessed row of benches in the middle of the stage will allow athletes to be front and center for the ceremony – after entering in the traditional parade of nations – a segment lasting more than 30 minutes in which athletes from 80 countries parade by.

Giorgio Armani has designed the costumes used for the protocol ceremony presenting the home country’s flag to be raised over the Olympic Stadium – which is the red, green and white of Italy, of course.

It will be carried to the flagpole by Italian supermodel and singer Carla Bruni, resplendent in a new Armani floor-length gown. Oscar-winning costumer Gabriella Pesucci (for Victorian-era finery in Martin Scorsese’s ”The Age of Innocence”), has also contributed her skills to a pageant tracing Italian history from Renaissance to Baroque, and several surreal points between.

But these Winter Games ceremonies feature no ice of any kind. It’s too warm in Torino to maintain skating-quality surfaces at the outdoor stadium. But there will be snow – in the form of dancers in white bearing balloon-like giant bubbles.

There are also blondes on motorcycles and 500 dancers creating a kind of synchronized-swimming spectacular in the ”mosh pit” (the recessed area where athletes will eventually sit).

Performers suspended by wires in midair will recreate a flying version of Boticcelli’s Venus, and expect to see at least six famous people carrying the Olympic flag (as in Salt Lake City in 2002, when Steven Spielberg and Desmond Tutu and other notables did the same).

At least five folks will carry the Olympic torch around the stage after it arrives, and before it is ultimately used to light the cauldron that will burn until the Games end on Feb. 26.

Who will be the carriers? The show’s producers have gone a long way to guard the secrecy of those names. But odds-on favorites include Italian Olympians Alberto Tomba and Stefania Belmondo, both of whom have been very public about coveting that honor.