Hot Trends: Sochi officials mum on opening ceremony details

PHOTO: LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images

SOCHI, Russia - Twenty years ago in Lillehammer, it was a ski jumper who delivered "the moment", torch aloft as he soared down a jump to light the Olympic cauldron.

In Vancouver, the moment came courtesy of snowboarder Johnny Lyall, who leapt through a blazing set of Olympic rings.

There will be a "moment" in Sochi's opening ceremony, which starts at 8 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET, 8 a.m. PT) on Friday, that much is assured.

But no one is offering any hints as to what it might be.

"Tomorrow," was the only answer Sochi Olympic officials would give, when asked to provide some clues in advance.

But they are well aware of the opportunity the opening ceremony gives them to present the face of the new Mother Russia to the world: an estimated three billion people are expected to watch the performance worldwide.

According to the Moscow Times, the ceremony will include several different episodes, each portraying a certain period and aspect of Russian culture.

"Russia's biggest points of pride - classical music, ballet, the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russian avant-garde art and architecture - will receive their own special tributes," the paper wrote.

Earlier reports suggested the show would include musicians Valery Gergiev, Yuri Bashmet and Denis Matsuev, ballerina Ulyana Lopatkina and an as-yet-unnamed cosmonaut.

There will be "palpitating music" and "prolific lighting."

And there will be fireworks.

One volunteer who saw some of the ceremony described it as "interesting, to say the least." Another used the words long and boring.

Every Olympic organizing committee faces its own challenges in terms of following the one before. In Vancouver four years ago, organizers were tasked with following the most expensive and extravagant ceremony in history. The opening in Beijing featured more than 14,000 performers, lasted more than four hours and reportedly cost more than $100 million to produce.

It was a polished, sophisticated and spectacular statement about the power and pride of China.

Vancouver responded in its own, understated way, celebrating all that makes Canada unique, from our oceans and mountains to our first nations cultures to Maritime fiddlers and k.d. lang. In the end, the ceremony, lovely though it was despite a malfunctioning torch, was overshadowed by the death hours earlier of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritasvili during a training run in Whistler.

Sochi faces an entirely different challenge in following director Danny Boyle's fun and fantastical celebration of everything British at the opening ceremony in London. Paul McCartney, Mr. Bean, James Bond and the Queen? It was, indeed, an Isle of Wonder at an estimated cost of almost $50 million.

It's unlikely the Russians will take such a whimsical approach.

Finding out just how much they spent on the show proved impossible.

"We don't have budget figures for the opening ceremony immediately available," the press centre said in a statement.

But with an overall budget of close to $51 billion, expectations are high.

bwake@vancouversun.com