Today’s noon opening of Spoleto Festival USA 2008 at Broad and Meeting was the usual great mix of Italian ices, paddle fans, St. Michael’s bell ringers watching from the steeple, speeches, horn fanfares and smiling (if sweaty) faces. The bell ringers and the presence of Mayor Riley’s mother’s blooming oleanders across the railing of City Hall’s balcony are only a couple of the Opening Ceremonies traditions.
I was standing to the side near the wrought iron gate of Washington Park, so I could not make out the speeches (except for the prayer, which really isn’t a speech) other than those by the mayors — Mayor Joe Riley of Charleston and Mayor Massimo Bruninin of Spoleto, Italy, both of whom have voices that carry.
Bass Herbert Perry, a member of the cast of “La Amistad,” sang a stirring “Star Spangled Banner.”
SpoletoToday was right a couple of posts ago about confetti replacing balloons this year. After Riley made his “let the dancers dance, the singers sing, the children play …” proclamation of the opening of festivities, the all-white confetti shot out of a gun very near me and scared me half to death.
I got my wish for Chinese acrobats from the cast of “Monkey: Journey to the West.” Whoa. The contortionist was … spectacular. I have no adjectives for those who are able to bend over backward and put their face between their ankles … except amazing, talented, wow. The acrobat who did one-handed handstands on her hip girdle, which faced skyward, was also pretty … spectacular, amazing, stunning, mind bending.
Best of all … maybe … was that the brass band (sorry, I did not get a program, or a paddle fan) broke into “Saints” at the close of the events and paraded through the crowd, N’awlins-style.
Want to see a video? Of course you do. That’s why Geoff was there …
Tags: Charleston, festival, opening, piccolo, Spoleto
Entries (RSS)
What has happened to Charleston’s manners?
From the back of the crowd and a vantage point that took in the whole seating area, it was possible to see one man — one single, solitary man — who removed his hat fort he opening invocation. This, in the Hoily City?
When Mr. Perry began his admirably stentorian renditin of the National Anthem, not only did NO ONE remove his hat, but — and this at a time when the daily press worries the matter of flag pins and hands-over-hears to death — no one on the speaking platform bothered to put hand on heart, although Joe Riley remembered himself halfway through and raised hand to chest, while also having the spirit to say the words of the anthem as well, something few if any other folks did.
Since when did we all forsake the singing of our great national hymn on great public occasions? And here in South Carolina, such an abandonment is allt he more disturbing in the wake of our oft-repeated claims to be not less but more patriotic than the rest of the country.
I would suggest, for future SFUSA opening day obsequies that a group of the Westminster Choir take their places below the dais and lead the audience in the Star-Spangled Banner, and put an end once and for all to this eager flight from the public display from patriotism that has been engendered in the last few years by those who fear its power.