Saturday, July 28, 2012

Daniel Barenboim, who brings harmony in the place of discord

Huge props to Danny Boyle for staging the magnificent opening ceremony of the 30th Olympics in London last night. By far the best one I could see in my life.

The level of cheesiness was reduced to an absolute minimum [only the "Hey Jude" part was streaming with cheese], and his team managed to stage the show without an epsilon of kitsch -- which must be the first time to happen in modern Olympic history. 



Loved the transition from the rural to industrial England (with Kenneth Branagh reciting the lines from The Tempest), and especially the director's choice to celebrate the NHS, which is a crown of humanistic idea of a civilized society. Even that was made without pathos, but entangled in the fantasy world of the children's storybooks.

The storytelling depicting our times through gigantic names of the British pop, rock, punk... music was extraordinary!

LSO made a notable appearance during the show: at the beginning conducted by François-Xavier Roth, and later on --in the segment with Rowan Mr Bean Atkinson-- under Sir Simon Rattle.

As I am a huge huge admirer of Daniel Barenboim I was holding back my tears when I saw him carrying the Olympic Flag together with other seven extraordinary persons of our time. The world recognized this huge musician who is 5 times larger than life by a phrase "Daniel Barenboim, who brings harmony in the place of discord".

3 comments:

  1. Edward Said might have been smiling from Heaven at Barenboim....:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, they both were founders of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

      Delete
  2. How could anyone not agree with all of you here? It was indeed a wonderful and unexpected moment of joy to see Daniel Barenboim honoured, or perhaps, everyone honoured with his presence beside the flag - as well as the strong presence of his friend, Edward Said. I am so very glad to see that you too feel the same way.

    ReplyDelete