"Creative director and executive producer Marco Balich, a veteran of 16 Olympic ceremonies, says the decision to include both locations became a kind of guiding concept for the ceremony itself. Cortina, he says, is "pure mountains," while Milan is the opposite, "a total industrial, design- and fashion-driven city." "The narrative that we figured was going to be interesting was the relationship between a location in a city and a mountain, creating a metaphor between man and nature," he says."
"When the opening ceremony is televised around the world on February 6, its pomp, performances, and athlete parades will be broadcast from both Milan and Cortina, with segments from each location woven together into one show. The dichotomy led to the theme of the show, Armonia, or Harmony. "The message that we humbly propose to the world would be to take the metaphor of man and nature and underline that we need to create dialogue between those two elements," Balich says."
The Winter Olympics in Italy splits events between Milan and Cortina, with indoor events like ice hockey and ice skating held in Milan and most snow-and hill-based venues located in Cortina, a ski resort town 250 miles away. Organizers addressed the challenge of staging a singular opening ceremony by producing simultaneous ceremonies in both locations and broadcasting woven segments to create one televised show. Creative director and executive producer Marco Balich centered the ceremony on the contrast between Cortina’s mountains and Milan’s industrial, design- and fashion-driven urban character. The resulting theme, Armonia (Harmony), frames a metaphor of man and nature and calls for dialogue between those elements.
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