2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Review – Opera Masters and Disco Dance Above the Stage Mariah Carey | music

TThe opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics has arrived shrouded in mystery. There hasn’t been much advance publicity about what might happen, other than a roster of musical performers, heavier with more famous classical names, including Andrea Bocelli and Lang Lang, than pop stars — and a quote from the event’s creative leader and executive producer, Marko Palić, that the event will avoid “high tech and frills.”

Anyone desperate for information could be shown a live tabloid broadcast showing the news saying “It could last three hours” — it wasn’t entirely clear whether that was meant as a lure or a warning — and a news report suggesting that the IOC was concerned about the prospect of booing the US team, as the legendary magic of the Trump administration has done so much to spread goodwill toward the United States over the past 12 months. In fact, what the IOC president said was: “I hope everyone will see the opening ceremony as an opportunity to respect each other” – so there was always a chance she was concerned the crowd might confront Denmark, but that was unlikely.

As it turned out, there were references to Roman mythology, 18th-century opera, Giorgio Armani, and indeed to the work of a film director referred to by a BBC commentator as Frederic Villenia. Additionally, the fast-paced approach to the music meant that things moved fairly quickly from Verdi to his giant-headed statues, with Puccini and Rossini dancing to the Italo disco tunes of Regera’s 1980s hit Vamos a la playa; And to the work of the late Raffaella Cara, who became famous in Britain with her new song “Do It Do It Again” in 1978 and the terrifying dance routine that accompanied it. (If you haven’t watched it, or can’t remember, go to YouTube and be puzzled that the poor woman wasn’t helped off the Top of the Pops stage with a neck brace.)

It could have been confusing, but fortunately, the BBC commentary team were always on hand to keep you informed. “Beauty – a way of life in Italy!” “This puffa coat is Impressive!” “Many Mariah Carey fans shouldn’t go to the toilet!” Still, some valuable context was provided for a high-profile piece of contemporary dance, about “how to maintain a balance between human ambition and the natural world,” set to sparse percussion in the style of those neo-Puritans and neo-classical strings. In the stands, J.D. Vance was probably scratching his head.

For anyone neither influenced by light classical music nor influenced by Italian pop (Laura Pausini, who has sold 40 million albums without disturbing the UK mass consciousness, sang the Italian national anthem), Carey was the big attraction, but was dispatched too early in the proceedings. Dressed in sequins and staring a thousand yards away, she gave a slow, relatively subdued reading — at least by Mariah Carey’s standards — of Volari (or rather, Nel blu, dipinito di blu, since she sang it in Italian) before hitting a startling whistle note that referenced a verse from her latest single, “Nothing’s Impossible.”

The live performances were divided in two by the procession of athletes – the US team ended up getting what the BBC politely described as a “mixed reception” – and resumed with dance from Olympic history. The 1960s and 1970s were soundtracked by Adriano Celentano’s brilliant 1973 single “Prisencolinensinainciusol”, which of late became famous in the UK as the soundtrack to an easyJet television advert. From then on, the musical entertainment was popular classics all the way – Andrea Bocelli performing “Nessun Dorma”, Lang Lang accompanying Cecilia Bartoli – except for a brief appearance by Italian rapper Gali.

Ghaly, largely unknown in the UK, sounds interesting on paper – not least because he has a single called Pizza Kebab – but his performance is too subdued, too close to spoken word, to give you a real flavor of what he might be capable of. As the giant-headed puppets of opera composers took the stage once again, dancing to the jaunty pop tunes the way opera composers are wont to do, I found myself wondering what the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics might be in store in 2028. And since Donald Trump will still be in power, we’ll probably be looking forward to a Kid Rock movie.