Beijing Olympics organisers were upbeat on Friday after a secret but apparently successful first full dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of the Games. The test run was held amid tight security on Thursday night at the National Stadium, the spectacular centrepiece for the Games better known as the “Bird’s Nest” after its interlocking structure of steel beams.
“A dress rehearsal took place last night and it was very successful,” Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Games organising committee, told AFP after a few details of the rehearsal were released in the state-run press. More than 10,000 performers have been working on the blockbuster 50-minute show for three years but they have all been sworn to secrecy, and little has been disclosed about the detailed contents of the programme. Late on Thursday the stadium was ringed by paramilitary police carrying automatic weapons, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The show is part of a three-hour August 8 opening ceremony programme that will launch the Games and also include the parade of athletes and the lighting of the Olympic flame. Celebrated Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, the director of the opening and closing ceremonies, said in an interview released on CCTV on Friday that it would not be a boring history lesson about Chinese culture. Zhang, director of hit films such as “Raise the Red Lantern” and “Heroes,” said he wanted spectators, including a TV audience expected to run into the billions, to have a good time.
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