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Friday 29 August 2008
Orchestra admits ‘miming’ at Sydney Olympics in 2000
SYDNEY (AFP) - - 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.
Orchestra admits ‘miming’ at Sydney Olympics in 2000
SYDNEY (AFP) - - 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.
BEIJING (AFP) – China hailed Thursday a three-billion-dollar oil agreement with Iraq as a win for both nations, as it sought to reassure the rest of the world that it should not be concerned by the deal.
Becoming the first foreign firm to enter such an agreement since the end of Saddam Hussein's regime, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) this week won the right to develop the Al-Ahdab oil field south of Baghdad.
"The cooperation between the relevant oil companies from China and Iraq is mutually beneficial," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters after the Iraqi embassy in Beijing said the deal had been reached.
"It will be conducive to the economic development of Iraq, and will meet China's demands in the oil field as well, and is also conducted according to market rules and will not harm any interests of any third parties."
The agreement, reached during a visit to China by Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, revives a 1997 contract that granted China exploration rights to the Al-Ahdab oil field in the province of Wassit.
After China won the rights to the al-Ahdab field in a deal then valued at 700 million dollars over 23 years, activities were suspended due to UN sanctions and security issues following the US-led war in 2003 that toppled Saddam.
Planned oil production was then 90,000 barrels per day (bpd), and CNPC had been expected to win the new exploration rights.
The Iraqi embassy statement said the new deal would be worth three billion dollars, but other details were sketchy.
The oil field will become operational in three year's time and is likely to produce oil for 20 years after that, an Iraqi oil ministry official who took part in al-Shahristani's delegation told AFP.
For China, the deal is another potential success in its sometimes controversial global quest for oil that has seen it sign a flurry of contracts in Africa and the Middle East in recent years.
China's demand for oil has grown markedly in recent years, as its economy has grown at double-digit pace and its population of more than 1.3 billion people has grown richer.
"This is certainly a breakthrough," said Liu Youcheng, a Beijing-based analyst with Hongyuan Securities.
"With oil prices surging, the global contest for oil resources is becoming ever fiercer. Many governments have realised this and have become unwilling to sell their oil resources cheaply to the multinationals."
The Al-Ahdab oil field deal is a service contract, which gives oil companies a flat fee for their efforts rather than a share of the profits from the exploitation of oil resources.
In this light, the deal may not be as attractive to China as it could have been.
However China, a net importer of oil since the 1990s, is so desperate for energy that it is prepared to make significant concessions to secure oil supplies, according to Hongyan Securities' Liu.
"Since it has become more and more difficult to obtain equity and exploit rights in oil fields, it's good for China to participate in the development through a service contract. It diversifies our oil sources and helps guarantee China's oil supplies," he said.
At the end of June, Iraq's oil ministry threw open six oilfields and two gas fields for international bidding by 41 companies.
The deals, which are service contracts only, pave the way for energy firms based abroad to return to Iraq 36 years after Saddam threw them out.
Iraq wants to ramp up output by 500,000 bpd from the current average production of 2.5 million bpd, about equal to the amount being pumped before the US-led invasion of March 2003.
CNPC declined comment Thursday on the revived deal.
Moody's Reviewing All 2006, 2007 Jumbo Mortgage Bonds
By Jody Shenn
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Moody's Investors Service is stepping up scrutiny of all prime-jumbo mortgage securities issued in 2006 and 2007 as the surge in U.S. foreclosures spreads beyond subprime loans.
Moody's is studying its rankings on the securities after late payments started increasing more quickly in recent months, according to a statement today from the New York-based ratings company. The bonds aren't all under formal reviews for downgrades, said Thomas Lemmon, a spokesman.
Defaults among homeowners ``across the credit spectrum'' have soared as home prices slump, mortgage rates rise and lenders rein in debt offerings, Moody's said. ``Serious delinquencies'' for prime-jumbo loans in securities rose 72 percent between January and June to 1.7 percent of balances, from 1 percent, according to Moody's.
``In contrast, subprime delinquencies, though much higher, rose 25 percent over the same period, increasing from 25.2 percent to 31.5 percent,'' Peter McNally, a Moody's analyst, wrote in a related report.
Jumbo loans are those too large to be bought or guaranteed by government-chartered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, currently $417,000 in most places and up to $729,750 in high-cost areas. Serious delinquencies represent loans at least 60 days late, in foreclosure or already turned into seized property.
Home-Equity Loans
Moody's also projected losses on prime home-equity loans and lines of credit underlying securities. Most of those bonds are insured, the report said.
Losses on prime non-revolving home-equity loans, also called second mortgages, packaged into 2007 bonds will rise to 17 percent on average, the report said. For 2006 bonds, losses will rise to 13 percent, while for 2005 securities they will climb to 6 percent, Moody's said.
For home-equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, in 2007 bonds, losses will rise to 26 percent, Moody's said. Losses on HELOCs in 2006 securities will increase to 24 percent, while losses for 2005 ``vintage'' bonds will reach 9 percent, Moody's said.
SEC May Let Companies Abandon U.S. Accounting Rules
By Jesse Westbrook
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission may let large U.S. companies switch to international accounting rules in six years, a step it says will lower compliance costs and make American firms more competitive.
SEC commissioners today approved a ``road map'' that might allow corporations with market values exceeding $700 million to abandon U.S. accounting standards by 2014. Under the plan, about 110 U.S. companies that are global leaders in their industries may move to international rules as soon as 2010.
``A global set of high-quality accounting standards would be an international language of disclosure, transparency and comparability,'' SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said at an open meeting in Washington. ``It's a goal worth pursuing.''
Meshing U.S. regulations with rules adopted by other countries is a priority for the agency, which has said companies will be able to reduce expenses by eliminating duplicate accounting. Investors will benefit because they ultimately bear the burden of higher compliance costs, SEC officials argue.
Critics, such as U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who heads a subcommittee that oversees the SEC, have said the agency may put investors at risk by outsourcing its oversight to less-aggressive regulators.
The SEC's plan would either require or permit the largest U.S. companies to switch to international rules in six years.
110 Companies
The SEC may either require or permit companies that rank among the 20 biggest in the world within their industry -- a group of about 110 corporations -- start following international rules in two years. The smallest U.S. companies, those with market values below $75 million, would switch to international rules in 2016.
In March 2007, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said a single set of rules will make it easier for companies to raise money in a global economy while investors will have less difficulty comparing corporate earnings reports across borders. The Washington-based Chamber is the nation's biggest business lobby.
U.S. companies have led the effort to move to international rules because they think ``it gives managers a lot more flexibility to do whatever they want in financial reports in terms of how they measure income and assets,'' said Edward Ketz, an accounting professor at Pennsylvania State University. ``Corporations are digging the grave'' for U.S. standards.
U.S. accounting rules are set by the Norwalk, Connecticut- based Financial Accounting Standards Board. The SEC has authority over FASB, including the right to review its funding, approve its status as a standards setter and nominate members.
Global Monitoring
The SEC's power over the London-based International Accounting Standards Board after American companies abandon U.S. accounting rules has yet to be determined. Cox has advocated a global monitoring group of regulators, including the SEC, to supervise the drafting of international accounting rules.
The SEC could scrap its plan in 2011 if there's inadequate convergence between U.S. and international rules or it finds U.S. auditors haven't learned global standards, said Paul Dudek, who works in the agency's division of corporation finance.
The IASB must also secure sufficient independent funding to ensure it's free from influence. FASB gets the majority of its budget from annual fees charged to public companies. The IASB is mostly financed by voluntary contributions from businesses.
The SEC will solicit public comment for 60 days before commissioners hold a second vote to make the rules binding. The SEC has already scrapped a requirement that overseas companies align their financial statements with U.S. accounting rules.
Higher Profits
At least one study has found companies show higher profits when they follow international standards.
Jack Ciesielski, publisher of The Analyst's Accounting Observer, a Baltimore-based research service, studied 137 companies that reconciled results in 2006 under International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Ciesielski found 86 firms recorded higher earnings using IFRS, 47 had greater earnings with GAAP and four companies reported earnings were unchanged.
Global accounting rules are considered tougher in forcing companies to keep on their balance sheets assets in so-called special purpose entities, said Paul Beswick, a senior adviser in the SEC's office of the chief accountant.
During the housing boom, U.S. banks kept mortgage securities that have contributed to more than $500 billion of writedowns and credit losses off their books by sticking them in those entities known as SPEs.
Cox's push toward international accounting rules is part of an aggressive agenda he's pursuing during the final months of the Bush administration.
The Republican chairman forged an agreement with Australia this week that may let that country's brokers sell securities to U.S. investors without SEC oversight. Cox, who will likely step down after a new president takes office in January, is seeking similar agreements with Canada and other nations.
SYDNEY, Australia - China isn’t the only country to fake a musical performance during an Olympic opening ceremony. It turns out that Australia knows a thing about miming music, too.
Eight years after Sydney hosted what was dubbed “the best Olympic Games ever,” officials with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra acknowledged their stirring performance at the 2000 opening ceremony was entirely prerecorded. And perhaps even more cringe-inducing for Sydneysiders: some of the music was recorded by the orchestra of Sydney’s rival city, Melbourne.
The revelation of the mimed performance _ which both orchestras have defended as a necessary precaution against embarrassing flubs _ followed an international uproar over China’s decision to pass off the voice of a 7-year-old singer as that of another girl at this year’s Olympic opening ceremony.
The Beijing ceremony’s chief music director said the real singer, Yang Peiyi, with her chubby face and crooked baby teeth, wasn’t good looking enough. So the pigtailed and perky Lin Miaoke mouthed the words to “Ode to the Motherland” instead.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra managing director Trevor Green confirmed on Friday that the 2000 opening ceremony performance had been prerecorded by both the Sydney and Melbourne orchestras, saying that steps must be taken to ensure mistakes aren’t made live during high-profile events.
“If you’ve got an event the size of the Olympics, and you’ve got billions and billions of people watching it, you definitely have a backing track and mime to it, because anything could go wrong,” Green said. “It’s just a ‘safety first’ thing. ... You cannot take the risk.”
The Sydney orchestra’s decision to call on Melbourne for help was not surprising, given the workload, Green added.
“It was just too much for one orchestra,” he said. “We share artists all the time and conductors all the time.”
Sydney Symphony Orchestra managing director Libby Christie did not return a call seeking comment Friday, but earlier this week acknowledged the performance had been mimed.
“It was all prerecorded and the MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) did record a minority of the music that was performed,” Christie told The Sydney Morning Herald for a story published Tuesday. “It’s correct that we were basically miming to a pre-recording.”
Christie said tight deadlines and a “mountainous workload” required the use of two orchestras for the backing tape.
Yvonne Zammit, a Sydney symphony spokeswoman, said Friday that Christie stood by her earlier comments.
Christie said the Sydney orchestra rarely used recordings in place of live performances, but did so during the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Sydney. Green said his orchestra had also used a backing track at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
5 comments:
Orchestra admits ‘miming’ at Sydney Olympics in 2000
SYDNEY (AFP) - - 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.
China hails $3bln oil deal with Iraq
By Fran Wang
28 Aug 2008
BEIJING (AFP) – China hailed Thursday a three-billion-dollar oil agreement with Iraq as a win for both nations, as it sought to reassure the rest of the world that it should not be concerned by the deal.
Becoming the first foreign firm to enter such an agreement since the end of Saddam Hussein's regime, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) this week won the right to develop the Al-Ahdab oil field south of Baghdad.
"The cooperation between the relevant oil companies from China and Iraq is mutually beneficial," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters after the Iraqi embassy in Beijing said the deal had been reached.
"It will be conducive to the economic development of Iraq, and will meet China's demands in the oil field as well, and is also conducted according to market rules and will not harm any interests of any third parties."
The agreement, reached during a visit to China by Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, revives a 1997 contract that granted China exploration rights to the Al-Ahdab oil field in the province of Wassit.
After China won the rights to the al-Ahdab field in a deal then valued at 700 million dollars over 23 years, activities were suspended due to UN sanctions and security issues following the US-led war in 2003 that toppled Saddam.
Planned oil production was then 90,000 barrels per day (bpd), and CNPC had been expected to win the new exploration rights.
The Iraqi embassy statement said the new deal would be worth three billion dollars, but other details were sketchy.
The oil field will become operational in three year's time and is likely to produce oil for 20 years after that, an Iraqi oil ministry official who took part in al-Shahristani's delegation told AFP.
For China, the deal is another potential success in its sometimes controversial global quest for oil that has seen it sign a flurry of contracts in Africa and the Middle East in recent years.
China's demand for oil has grown markedly in recent years, as its economy has grown at double-digit pace and its population of more than 1.3 billion people has grown richer.
"This is certainly a breakthrough," said Liu Youcheng, a Beijing-based analyst with Hongyuan Securities.
"With oil prices surging, the global contest for oil resources is becoming ever fiercer. Many governments have realised this and have become unwilling to sell their oil resources cheaply to the multinationals."
The Al-Ahdab oil field deal is a service contract, which gives oil companies a flat fee for their efforts rather than a share of the profits from the exploitation of oil resources.
In this light, the deal may not be as attractive to China as it could have been.
However China, a net importer of oil since the 1990s, is so desperate for energy that it is prepared to make significant concessions to secure oil supplies, according to Hongyan Securities' Liu.
"Since it has become more and more difficult to obtain equity and exploit rights in oil fields, it's good for China to participate in the development through a service contract. It diversifies our oil sources and helps guarantee China's oil supplies," he said.
At the end of June, Iraq's oil ministry threw open six oilfields and two gas fields for international bidding by 41 companies.
The deals, which are service contracts only, pave the way for energy firms based abroad to return to Iraq 36 years after Saddam threw them out.
Iraq wants to ramp up output by 500,000 bpd from the current average production of 2.5 million bpd, about equal to the amount being pumped before the US-led invasion of March 2003.
CNPC declined comment Thursday on the revived deal.
Moody's Reviewing All 2006, 2007 Jumbo Mortgage Bonds
By Jody Shenn
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Moody's Investors Service is stepping up scrutiny of all prime-jumbo mortgage securities issued in 2006 and 2007 as the surge in U.S. foreclosures spreads beyond subprime loans.
Moody's is studying its rankings on the securities after late payments started increasing more quickly in recent months, according to a statement today from the New York-based ratings company. The bonds aren't all under formal reviews for downgrades, said Thomas Lemmon, a spokesman.
Defaults among homeowners ``across the credit spectrum'' have soared as home prices slump, mortgage rates rise and lenders rein in debt offerings, Moody's said. ``Serious delinquencies'' for prime-jumbo loans in securities rose 72 percent between January and June to 1.7 percent of balances, from 1 percent, according to Moody's.
``In contrast, subprime delinquencies, though much higher, rose 25 percent over the same period, increasing from 25.2 percent to 31.5 percent,'' Peter McNally, a Moody's analyst, wrote in a related report.
Jumbo loans are those too large to be bought or guaranteed by government-chartered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, currently $417,000 in most places and up to $729,750 in high-cost areas. Serious delinquencies represent loans at least 60 days late, in foreclosure or already turned into seized property.
Home-Equity Loans
Moody's also projected losses on prime home-equity loans and lines of credit underlying securities. Most of those bonds are insured, the report said.
Losses on prime non-revolving home-equity loans, also called second mortgages, packaged into 2007 bonds will rise to 17 percent on average, the report said. For 2006 bonds, losses will rise to 13 percent, while for 2005 securities they will climb to 6 percent, Moody's said.
For home-equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, in 2007 bonds, losses will rise to 26 percent, Moody's said. Losses on HELOCs in 2006 securities will increase to 24 percent, while losses for 2005 ``vintage'' bonds will reach 9 percent, Moody's said.
SEC May Let Companies Abandon U.S. Accounting Rules
By Jesse Westbrook
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission may let large U.S. companies switch to international accounting rules in six years, a step it says will lower compliance costs and make American firms more competitive.
SEC commissioners today approved a ``road map'' that might allow corporations with market values exceeding $700 million to abandon U.S. accounting standards by 2014. Under the plan, about 110 U.S. companies that are global leaders in their industries may move to international rules as soon as 2010.
``A global set of high-quality accounting standards would be an international language of disclosure, transparency and comparability,'' SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said at an open meeting in Washington. ``It's a goal worth pursuing.''
Meshing U.S. regulations with rules adopted by other countries is a priority for the agency, which has said companies will be able to reduce expenses by eliminating duplicate accounting. Investors will benefit because they ultimately bear the burden of higher compliance costs, SEC officials argue.
Critics, such as U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who heads a subcommittee that oversees the SEC, have said the agency may put investors at risk by outsourcing its oversight to less-aggressive regulators.
The SEC's plan would either require or permit the largest U.S. companies to switch to international rules in six years.
110 Companies
The SEC may either require or permit companies that rank among the 20 biggest in the world within their industry -- a group of about 110 corporations -- start following international rules in two years. The smallest U.S. companies, those with market values below $75 million, would switch to international rules in 2016.
In March 2007, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said a single set of rules will make it easier for companies to raise money in a global economy while investors will have less difficulty comparing corporate earnings reports across borders. The Washington-based Chamber is the nation's biggest business lobby.
U.S. companies have led the effort to move to international rules because they think ``it gives managers a lot more flexibility to do whatever they want in financial reports in terms of how they measure income and assets,'' said Edward Ketz, an accounting professor at Pennsylvania State University. ``Corporations are digging the grave'' for U.S. standards.
U.S. accounting rules are set by the Norwalk, Connecticut- based Financial Accounting Standards Board. The SEC has authority over FASB, including the right to review its funding, approve its status as a standards setter and nominate members.
Global Monitoring
The SEC's power over the London-based International Accounting Standards Board after American companies abandon U.S. accounting rules has yet to be determined. Cox has advocated a global monitoring group of regulators, including the SEC, to supervise the drafting of international accounting rules.
The SEC could scrap its plan in 2011 if there's inadequate convergence between U.S. and international rules or it finds U.S. auditors haven't learned global standards, said Paul Dudek, who works in the agency's division of corporation finance.
The IASB must also secure sufficient independent funding to ensure it's free from influence. FASB gets the majority of its budget from annual fees charged to public companies. The IASB is mostly financed by voluntary contributions from businesses.
The SEC will solicit public comment for 60 days before commissioners hold a second vote to make the rules binding. The SEC has already scrapped a requirement that overseas companies align their financial statements with U.S. accounting rules.
Higher Profits
At least one study has found companies show higher profits when they follow international standards.
Jack Ciesielski, publisher of The Analyst's Accounting Observer, a Baltimore-based research service, studied 137 companies that reconciled results in 2006 under International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Ciesielski found 86 firms recorded higher earnings using IFRS, 47 had greater earnings with GAAP and four companies reported earnings were unchanged.
Global accounting rules are considered tougher in forcing companies to keep on their balance sheets assets in so-called special purpose entities, said Paul Beswick, a senior adviser in the SEC's office of the chief accountant.
During the housing boom, U.S. banks kept mortgage securities that have contributed to more than $500 billion of writedowns and credit losses off their books by sticking them in those entities known as SPEs.
Cox's push toward international accounting rules is part of an aggressive agenda he's pursuing during the final months of the Bush administration.
The Republican chairman forged an agreement with Australia this week that may let that country's brokers sell securities to U.S. investors without SEC oversight. Cox, who will likely step down after a new president takes office in January, is seeking similar agreements with Canada and other nations.
Sydney orchestra mimed 2000 Olympics performance
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Writer AP
SYDNEY, Australia - China isn’t the only country to fake a musical performance during an Olympic opening ceremony. It turns out that Australia knows a thing about miming music, too.
Eight years after Sydney hosted what was dubbed “the best Olympic Games ever,” officials with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra acknowledged their stirring performance at the 2000 opening ceremony was entirely prerecorded. And perhaps even more cringe-inducing for Sydneysiders: some of the music was recorded by the orchestra of Sydney’s rival city, Melbourne.
The revelation of the mimed performance _ which both orchestras have defended as a necessary precaution against embarrassing flubs _ followed an international uproar over China’s decision to pass off the voice of a 7-year-old singer as that of another girl at this year’s Olympic opening ceremony.
The Beijing ceremony’s chief music director said the real singer, Yang Peiyi, with her chubby face and crooked baby teeth, wasn’t good looking enough. So the pigtailed and perky Lin Miaoke mouthed the words to “Ode to the Motherland” instead.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra managing director Trevor Green confirmed on Friday that the 2000 opening ceremony performance had been prerecorded by both the Sydney and Melbourne orchestras, saying that steps must be taken to ensure mistakes aren’t made live during high-profile events.
“If you’ve got an event the size of the Olympics, and you’ve got billions and billions of people watching it, you definitely have a backing track and mime to it, because anything could go wrong,” Green said. “It’s just a ‘safety first’ thing. ... You cannot take the risk.”
The Sydney orchestra’s decision to call on Melbourne for help was not surprising, given the workload, Green added.
“It was just too much for one orchestra,” he said. “We share artists all the time and conductors all the time.”
Sydney Symphony Orchestra managing director Libby Christie did not return a call seeking comment Friday, but earlier this week acknowledged the performance had been mimed.
“It was all prerecorded and the MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) did record a minority of the music that was performed,” Christie told The Sydney Morning Herald for a story published Tuesday. “It’s correct that we were basically miming to a pre-recording.”
Christie said tight deadlines and a “mountainous workload” required the use of two orchestras for the backing tape.
Yvonne Zammit, a Sydney symphony spokeswoman, said Friday that Christie stood by her earlier comments.
Christie said the Sydney orchestra rarely used recordings in place of live performances, but did so during the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Sydney. Green said his orchestra had also used a backing track at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
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