Review: Winter Olympics opening ceremony was a sleek Italian spectacle, as only that country could deliver

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The Olympics are back, wearing their warm Winter Games gear.Although there will be a couple of weeks of sports competitions to come, none is possible without an opening ceremony, a combination of solemn official protocol with a fantastic representation of the host country’s culture and character, evoking the Olympic spirit itself.

There are few opportunities to mount an entertainment of this scale — not even a Super Bowl halftime show can compare.This year we are in Italy, for the bi-metropolitan Milan-Cortina Games, held in the city’s San Siro Stadium and in the north where the mountains are.The ceremonies, too, were split geographically, with Olympic cauldrons in both cities, with the athletes’ parade further shared with Livigno and Predazzo, national delegations divided according to where their events would be held.

1 2 1.Human bobbleheads of Italian composers Rossini, left, Puccini and Verdi.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) 2.Dancers on stage in San Siro Stadium.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) The main business took place in the arena.Directed by Marco Balich, who specializes in big shows, it was elegant, in a sleek, clean-lined Italian way, and over the top, also in an Italian way.

Color played a great part, the program beginning in white (a balletic interpretation of Antonio Canova’s sculpture “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss”), moving to black and white (a nod to Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” and its paparazzi), and then to a riot of color, as giant floating tubes of paint sent streams of colored fabric stageward.) There were dancing human bobbleheads of opera composers Verdi, Puccini and Rossini, as if they were mascots for Team Rigoletto, Team Tosca and Team William Tell.There were dancing gladiators and moka pots, a phalanx of runway models dressed (in Armani) in green, white and red, to represent the Italian flag.In white and shin...