MILAN — The Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Milan on Friday provided a bonanza of highlights: the lighting of a Leonardo da Vinci-inspired cauldron, athletes in eye-popping apparel from high designers, Mariah Carey belting out excessive notes in Italian and rather more.

One key factor it did not present: snow.

That much-desired winter wonderland could possibly be present in a much smaller venue elsewhere within the metropolis, even with temperatures outdoors near 50 levels Fahrenheit (10 levels Celsius).

A particular version of “Slava’s Snowshow” is on the slate of cultural actions Olympics organizers are selling on the sidelines. Created by Slava Polunin, a famend Russian clown and artist, the manufacturing has stuffed theaters with storms of paper snow in additional than 60 nations since 1993.

“Snow is a really highly effective picture,” Polunin instructed The Related Press in an e-mail. “It may be immensely stunning and extremely harmful.”

In Milan, he is presenting on the Teatro Strehler until Feb. 22, the final day of the Olympics. On Friday, it had a packed home, with spectators selecting the subdued enchantment of snowfall over the grandiose spectacle within the opening ceremony that was broadcast far and large.

“We noticed the present about 15 years in the past, and now that we’ve kids, we needed to expertise it once more with them,” stated Paola Volpe. “We have been particularly desirous to return as a result of we heard this was a particular model linked to the Olympics.”

For Polunin, 75, the Olympics provided a chance to replace a manufacturing rooted in reminiscence and play.

“It’s an honor to current the present at a second when the eye of individuals world wide is concentrated on the place the place you might be performing,” he stated. “As for the variation, the present is essentially constructed on improvisation.”

The present’s actors take in the environment of the Video games, embracing surprises and creating new conditions forward of every efficiency.

Throughout Friday’s efficiency, Polunin briefly mimed a telephone name, jokingly referring to the continued Video games. At one other second, the “Chariots of Fireplace” theme music — these days, synonymous with hammy, slow-mo athletic competitors — rang out as he and his fellow clowns staged a playful scene.

Half a dozen clowns in shiny inexperienced costumes shared the stage with Polunin, wearing yellow. Actors climbed into the seats, swapped spectators’ belongings and opened umbrellas, flippantly spraying water round.

For an hour and a half, the theater crammed with clapping, laughter and youngsters’s cheers. The stage was blanketed in white till simply earlier than the ultimate curtain, when large, multi-colored globes bounced by the gang.

“The present is a dream,” stated Raquele Maggi, who has seen the present about six occasions along with her daughters in earlier years. “It’s slightly like magic.”

Polunin, 75, was born in Siberia, a spot that formed the emotional panorama of the work.

He remembers the enjoyment of constructing white cities, roads and snowmen as a baby. On the identical time, he feared his mother and father leaving house, each on foot and by automotive, throughout snowfalls or snowstorms.

“I all the time attempt to have a look at issues from completely different factors of view, to see each the comedian and the tragic facet,” Polunin stated. “For me, snow is filled with magnificence and anxiousness.”

His efficiency conveys these deeper feelings. In one of many quietest moments, Polunin clutches an empty coat near his chest, a gesture each tender and deeply lonely.

Audiences usually say his present seems like a journey towards their childhoods. For Polunin, it is usually a strategy of self-discovery, one which continues to evolve, achieved with no single spoken line of dialogue.

“Since our present isn’t tied to a language, it’s understood by everybody,” he stated, echoing the universality usually related to the Olympic spirit.

___

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics