Sydney Olympic ceremony was also mimed ceremony, Olympic, Sydney, mimed

peter236

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=620947

Sydney Symphony has admitted miming its performance at the 2000 Olympics, in a revelation which casts new light on the criticism China received for its opening ceremony fakery.

While Chinese organisers were slammed for having child singer Lin Miaoke mime her performance, it has been revealed that much of the Sydney opening ceremony was also mimed — with some parts even recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

"It was all pre-recorded and the MSO did record a minority of the music that was performed," the Sydney Morning Herald reported Sydney Symphony managing director Libby Christie as saying.

"It's correct that we were basically miming to a pre-recording."

Beijing organisers drew worldwide scorn for having nine-year-old Lin stand in for fellow Chinese girl Yang Peiyi.

Yang was deemed not pretty enough to appear in the lavish production, despite providing her voice for the song "Hymn to the Motherland".

There was further criticism when it was revealed that the fireworks that lit up Beijing in the ceremony's television broadcast were actually computer animated.

"It was purely a workload issue," Melbourne Symphony Orchestra managing director Trevor Green was reported as saying.

"The miming side of it is perfectly normal … there are millions of people watching and if something goes wrong you'd be snookered."

Mr Green also admitted to using a backing tape at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in 2006, while Ms Christie acknowledged the opening of the Rugby World Cup in 2003 was also mimed.