''Music faked at Sydney Olympics opening ceremony''
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/372354/1/.html
Posted: 28 August 2008 2359 hrs
Photos 1 of 1
Members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra perform a concert in
Sydney harbour in 2006.
SYDNEY - Eight years after it hosted an Olympics that were
famously hailed as the "best games ever," Sydney has had to confess
that it faked one of the key musical performances at the opening
ceremony in 2000.
The revelation came after it emerged that nine-year-old Lin Miaoke
was just lip-synching when she "sang" a patriotic song before
91,000 people and a global television audience during the August 8
opening ceremony at the Beijing Games.
Orchestra bosses have admitted that the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
(SSO) mimed its entire performance at the ceremony, and that some
of the real music was in fact recorded by rival musicians in
Melbourne.
"It was all pre-recorded and the MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)
did record a minority of the music that was performed," SSO
managing director Libby Christie told Australia's Fairfax
newspapers earlier this week.
"It's correct that we were basically miming to a pre-recording,"
she said.
The respected orchestra gave the fake performance because Olympics
organisers "wanted to leave nothing to chance" and a second
orchestra was found to record the backing tape because of a
"mountainous workload" in Sydney, Christie said.
The admission has columnists in Melbourne -- which has a
longstanding rivalry with glitzier Sydney -- crowing over the fact
that its musicians ghosted a crucial performance by their
arch-rivals.
The head of the MSO confirmed the performance had been pre-recorded
but defended the move, saying it was "purely a workload issue" and
in no way reflected on the relative quality of either
orchestra.
"It's nothing to do with priorities or which orchestra is better.
It was decided to split (the work) between the two orchestras," he
said.
"It's quite a normal practice and if the Olympics had been in
Melbourne, the Sydney Symphony would have been involved -- I'm sure
of that."
Christie said the Sydney orchestra had very rarely mimed
performances but had done so at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Sydney,
while the MSO said it had used a backing tape at the opening
ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Beijing Olympic officials went on the defensive two weeks ago when
it was revealed that pigtailed Lin Miaoke, who became a celebrity
in China after her performance, had not actually done the
singing.
It later emerged the real voice belonged to chubby seven-year-old
Yang Peiyi, who was deemed not attractive enough to go on stage,
and that the switch was ordered by a politburo member of China's
ruling Communist party.
- AFP/ir----end of
quote
Before u throw stone ,look at the mirror to see if u are
a Saint.