A Five-Ring Opening Circus, Weirdly and Unabashedly British

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A Five-Ring Opening Circus, Weirdly and Unabashedly British

By SARAH LYALL The New York Times LONDON — With its hilariously quirky Olympic opening ceremony, a wild jumble of the celebratory and the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric; and the frankly off-the-wall, Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation secure in its own post-empire identity, whatever that actually is. The noisy, busy, witty, dizzying production

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July 28, 2012

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1 reader comment


1. Philip Vorgias wrote on July 28, 2012 4:28 PM	Nobody was more critical leading up to the Athens 2004 games than the Brits, they harped about EVERYTHING. And last night they had their chance to do better-and FELL ON THEIR FACE. I found the opening ceremony to be tasteless, disjointed, lacking in local culture (the whole idea of opening ceremonies!), overly theatrical and just plain BORING. Athens did better, Barcelona did better, Beijing did MUCH better, even Sydney was better! The Brits are full of themselves, as always. All show and no blow. Hopefully the actual games will make up for a dissapointing opening.
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