August 13, 2004

The Olympic opening ceremony

I'm watching the opening ceremonty to the 2004 Olympics in Athens. I've got two quick thoughts:

  1. For starters, someone really needs to muzzle both Katie Couric and Bob Costas. As each country entered the stadium, they gave some commentary. Sometimes, it was both insightful and on topic, like when they would mention some of the medals won in the past. Other times, it was downright embarassing. Listening to them misprounce "Djibouti" and then laugh about it. Or commenting on how the athletes need to "really work at pulling off the traditional costumes." Sheesh.
  2. Previously, I commented the music for the ceremony being provided by a DJ. I was a little leery about it, but I didn't quite realize how bad it would actually be.

    The musical selection played as the last group countries entered the stadium (just prior to Greece) was Agnus Dei. AGNUS DEI!?! A requiem for the dead?!? On what planet is this an appropriate welcome to the sport? It's a great song (3rd track, if you're interested), very moving, but probably just a touch out of place

Posted by Casper at August 13, 2004 11:06 PM
Comments

hi!
I'm just curious why you're so upset by this whole dj thing at the olympics ceremony? I wasn't able to hear if the atmosphere was really working, but i can imagine that the combination of the beats, the huge crowd and all these different nationalities could have been really impressive...
not only old music is good music

and as for the requim... sure it's weird if you think about it, but not many people will know this requim and if it works for (again) the atmosphere: what's wrong about it???

have a nice day!
wendyy

Posted by: wendyy at August 14, 2004 01:04 PM

I noticed Barber's Adagio for Strings a couple of times and, when the US althletes came in, Albinoni's Adagio (or some slightly off variations on those works) and to me it didn't seem appropriate but then I know what they are. People who are not familiar with the music would just think of it as slow, formal and stately.

Posted by: Lynn S at August 15, 2004 06:20 PM

I just followed the Amazon link and listened that is the Agnus Dei set to Barber's Adagio. I had wondered because the Agnus Dei itself is not music it's just part of the Catholic liturgy and has been set to thousands of different tunes over the last few hundred years.

There is a CD you might be interested in, titled Barber's Adagio. It has eight different versions of it, including the orginal, which is the middle movement of Barber's String Quartet in B minor.

Oops, there I go again. I really get off on this stuff. I can go on and on sometimes. :-)

Posted by: Lynn S at August 15, 2004 06:31 PM

I'm not upset by the DJ thing so much as a little bothered that off all the musical choices they could have made, they went with a DJ. I don't know if you remember Nagato, but there the music selection was at least interesting. Orchestras and choirs on four different continents performing Beethoven's 9th Symphony all at the same time. That was both stirring and something that rose to the level of the Olympics.

Lynn...

Thanks for the info! I appreciate you setting me a bit more straight, having not been raised Catholic.

Posted by: Casper at August 16, 2004 12:40 AM

Casper,
I'm not Catholic either. I'm just REALLY into classical music and I've picked up a lot of this stuff from album liner notes and from people on the Internet and, most of all, just from listening to the music. It's actually pretty fascinating - well, to me at least. :-)

Posted by: Lynn S at August 16, 2004 08:41 AM