Programs
Competitions
Venues
Access
A la carte
Photo Album
From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
 |
Olympic singers happy with global gala performance
And the singers on five continents breathed a collective sigh of relief when Japanese maestro Seiji Ozawa, who conducted the globe-spanning event via satellite hookup, put down his baton at the end of Beethoven's ''Ode to Joy'' and smiled.
The 200 or so Chinese singers gathered on the 12-meter high northern Shenwu Gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing erupted in joy and raised their hands, forming the victory sign, as soon as the last note of the thundering finale subsided.
''I sang with all my heart,'' Yu Wei said. ''I felt this experiment of having people around the world sing simultaneously and pray for peace is incredibly meaningful.''
While the Chinese singers were dressed in blue ski jackets and caps, their colleagues inside the U.N. headquarters in New York wore classic formal attire.
''It was just wonderful,'' said Irene Gilblad, one of the singers in New York. ''During the rehearsals we had a slight problem with the sound, but tonight's performance was perfect,'' she said.
Fellow chorister Stan Hudson had worried that Ozawa's satellite image would not be clear enough. ''But since he conducted with big movements, I could see him well. It was exciting,'' he said.
About a hundred diplomats and their families, who attended the late-night performance, rewarded the singers with rousing applause.
The singers in Berlin had to get up in the middle of the night and dress warmly for the performance at their outdoor venue in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of German unification.
Akemi Hoshitani, a Japanese living in Germany, wore three layers of underwear as a precautionary measure, although at plus 3 C, temperatures were on the mild side.
''I was totally nervous,'' she said, describing a short bout of stage fright. Her colleague Marina Kranz, clad in a ski suit, wished the Japanese Olympic team well and ''many gold medals'' in the games.
In Sydney, host city of the 2000 Olympic Summer Games, chorus conductor Anthony Walker called the global choir ''a wonderful joint experience'' and beamed with satisfaction over the singers' accomplishment.
''It was a spectacular chorus,'' he said. ''The next time it'll be Sydney.'' Sumiyo Mimori, a Japanese member of the multinational choir, said she felt ''strangely connected'' with people in Nagano while she was singing on what was, for the southern hemisphere, a summer day.
Outside Cape Town, South Africa, a multiethnic group of singers had gathered on the sea coast as the day dawned. One female singer paid tribute to Ozawa at the end of ''Ode to Joy,'' shouting ''Thank you'' in Japanese toward his satellite image.
Joyce Pakane said she was ''very satisfied.''
''Ozawa is the greatest. I didn't feel he was conducting so far away in Japan,'' she said. (Kyodo News)
No part of the article, photographs, or illustrations presented here may be printed or used without permission.
Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun