History, art, and style shine at rainy Olympics opening

“It’s creation in the extreme,” the theater director said, considering 10,500 athletes sailing in a 3.5-mile flotilla of 94 boats, 45,000 police officers scattered around for security, and regular check-ins with the French President and the Paris Mayor. 

And what a production it was, depicting 12 scenes from French history through vignettes along the river—enacted on bridges, monuments, and buildings showcasing all the hallmarks of French civilization—from philosophy, literature, and science to visual and performing arts and sports, involving more than 15,000 workers, including dancers and musicians.

President Emmanuel Macron described it as “a great story of emancipation and freedom, from the French Revolution to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” which was signed in 1948 on the same spot where the ceremony ended. Mayor Ann Hidalgo highlighted its “playfulness and a message of the city’s openness to the world and the pleasure of diversity.” Jolly shared that the main themes are “love and shared humanity.” To help him with the script, he commissioned a medieval historian, an award-winning novelist, a screenwriter, and a playwright.

The route of the fluvial procession began in the east, at the Gare d’Austerlitz, the train station that is the traditional gate to Paris, near the site of the old Roman settlement of Lutetia. It passed through the relics of the Middle Ages, including the Cathedral of Notre Dame, a recognized symbol of the city and the nation that tragically burned in 2019 but has valiantly been undergoing repair, which was dramatized with performers on the scaffolding dancing to sounds from the construction work providing the music for elaborate choreography.

A stop at the Conciergerie, prison to Marie Antoinette, had an effigy of her holding her decapitated head, while red ribbons and smoke sprouted from the windows to the clanging of a metal band.

Leading the tour was a faceless torchbearer, an amalgam of French characters, from the Iron Mask of Dumas and the Phantom of the Opera and Ezio from Assassin’s Creed. He makes a stop at the Louvre, where famous paintings come to life, some of them as giant heads rising from the river with their eyes following the boats that pass by.

This being the city of fashion, style was always centerstage, from the costumes of performers and dancers to the athletes’ uniforms and accoutrements.

LVMH, a major sponsor, did not waste airtime to showcase Louis Vuitton trunks that contained the Olympic medals made by Chaumet, being wheeled by porters breakdancing with trollies.

Lady Gaga, in a black Dior haute-couture ensemble, sang Zizi Jeanmaire’s Mon Truc En Plumes with pink feather pompom wielding dancers on a set of stairs. French Malian singer Aya Nakamura, in gold feathered Dior, performed her songs as well as Charles Aznavour’s For Me Formidable, alongside a live band from the French Republican Guard, at the Pont Des Arts.

Of course, participating countries also showcased their designers’ works, as worn by the athletes. The Philippines was one of the countries mentioned in publications like The New York Times that singled out “The Sinag Barong by Filipino fashion powerhouse Francis Libiran, with a removable sling… but which of the athletes would even want to take it off?” The designer used “a light and airy piña-jusi fabric from Aklan for the barong with a silk organdy sling in colors of the Philippine flag. The embroidery on the sling is inspired by the Pintados warriors, depicting fierceness in battle. A yellow sun ray pattern decorates the chest, just like a warrior’s armor symbolizing bravery and hope.”

Another favorite was Mongolia’s ensemble because it’s also a nod to the country’s heritage. Designed by Michel & Amazonka, it is based on traditional deel coats worn during Naadam festival. Embroideries feature references to the festival like an image of the Nine White Banners that enter the country’s Central Stadium.

Aside from LVMH, emerging designers were also given the spotlight in the vignettes. The Debilly Footbridge, for one, was transformed into a banquet with a table-cum-catwalk featuring the collections of Charles de Vilmorin, Kevin Germanier, and Alphonse Maitrepierre, among others.

This segued to hip-hop dancers below, accompanied by rap that expressed anger at the state of world affairs, reaching dissonant levels that only found relief when a floating raft appeared with a piano in flames playing John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Imagine.

Answering the plea for peace, a glittering silver metal horse galloped across the water with an armored horsewoman, the representation of the Olympic spirit and Sequana, the healing goddess of the Seine. As she disembarked, flagbearers of the different nations appeared and two athletes (male and female for gender parity) came to light the cauldron that magically ascended to the sky on a hot-air balloon, in the very spot in the Tuileries where French inventors launched the first one in 1783. 

With the Olympics formally open, the whole of Paris was in party mode. Its enduring symbol, the Eiffel Tower, was beaming with laser lights and revealed on its top the surprise guest of the evening: Celine Dion, making a triumphant comeback after a neurological disorder prevented her from performing since 2020. Belting out Edith Piaf’s Hymne a L’amour, she ended the proceedings on a high note that was quintessentially French as well as universal—a most memorable performance of hope that will carry the athletes and the games on a most auspicious beginning.