Pre-ceremony activities included performances by the Russian pop duo
t.A.T.u. and the
Ministry of Internal Affairs choir, who performed a version of
Daft Punk's "
Get Lucky".
Opening section Dreams of Russia The ceremony, opened with an on-screen video showing 11-year-old Liza Temnikova playing a character named Lyubov (Russian for 'love') reciting the
Russian alphabet. Each letter is associated with images of a famous Russian person or landmark. Many of the letters features some of Russia's most famous writers such as Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and countless others that have impacted Russian history, culture, literature, and philosophy. Lyubov then flew into the air as she dreamed of grabbing the tail of a kite and being lifted far off the stage. Nine different floats, carrying Russian landscapes, passed beneath her as she slept. The volunteers moved up and down to create a waving flag motion.
Parade of Nations The Parade of Nations was led, according to custom due to hosting the original
ancient Olympics, by the Greek team, followed by other competing countries in alphabetical order based on their names in the
Russian language, with the host country, Russia, culminating the march. Athletes were then seated in the lower level of the stadium's stands. A projected rendering of the
Earth showing each competing country (along with their names in English, French and Russian, respectively) was displayed on the stadium floor as they entered. The parade was accompanied with a soundtrack by Russian
electronic dance music producer
Leonid Rudenko, which featured remixes of popular
Russian music.
Mascots After the Parade of Nations entered, the three mascots of the Games come out and walk on an ice-based shaping rink LED of the stadium. The hare is an alpine skier, the leopard and the polar bear are the skiers using skating rink shoes. The mascots bow quickly then head off for the next segment.
Performances and
Irina Skvortsova (a former bobsleigh racer who received multiple injuries in Germany) at the opening of the Games The opening ceremony focused heavily on
classical music and large scale productions. Performances journeyed through Russian history through the eyes of a little girl called Lyubov ("Love"), played by Liza Temnikova, touching on Russia's art, music, and ballet. and 17th century czar
Peter the Great building an army as Russia transitioned from medieval times to the 20th century. Czar Peter's marching cadets (160 male dancers) moved from a map of the St Petersburg projected on the stadium floor to an imperial ball inspired by Leo Tolstoy's
War and Peace, and featuring ballet dancers including Danila Korsuntsev, Ivan Vasiliev, and Svetlana Zakharova. The ball included music by Aleksander Sergeyevich Zatsepin and ended with the fifth movement (Rondo) of Alfred Schnittke's
Concerto Grosso No. 1. Fourteen columns rose from the floor, then disappeared, replaced first by scenes of the Russian Revolution and
Soviet industrialization, followed by a giant moving reproduction of the famous statue
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman made by
Vera Mukhina in 1937, with hammer and sickle flying over the arena, symbolising the
period of great industrialisation following the
Bolshevik Revolution. Dozens of men carried rockets and the name of
Yuri Gagarin appeared on the floor, followed up skyscrapers emerging against a background of modern typography. Putin declared the games open, During the flag raising, opera singer
Anna Netrebko later sang the Olympic Anthem in Russian. The
Olympic Oath on behalf of all athletes was taken by
Ruslan Zakharov (Short-track),
Vyacheslav Vedenin took the oath for all judges and
Anastasia Popkova took the oath for all coaches. For the finale, tennis player
Maria Sharapova brought the
Olympic Torch (the torch that had gone to the
International Space Station in November) into the stadium. She handed it off to pole vaulter
Yelena Isinbayeva who, in turn, passed it to wrestler
Aleksandr Karelin. Karelin then passed the torch to gymnast
Alina Kabaeva. Figure skater
Irina Rodnina took the torch and was met by former ice hockey goalkeeper
Vladislav Tretiak, handing the torch to him. Tretiak jogged out of the stadium alongside Rodnina. The pair then jointly lit the
Olympic cauldron installed at the Sochi Medals Plaza in
Sochi Olympic Park to the music of the "
Firebird Suite" by
Igor Stravinsky. Gas jets led the Olympic flame to the top of the Olympic Cauldron. This was followed by a fireworks display across the area around
Fisht Olympic Stadium, including the other sporting venues. Twenty-two tonnes of fireworks were lit as
Tchaikovsky's
Nutcracker score played. In total, the show lasted just under three hours. ==Music==