Could Dome be home to The Greatest Show on Earth?
The leap into the next Millennium is set to be a passionate, powerful and spectacular experience at the Dome.
More than half of the 10,000 guests will be members of the public who have been nominated or won competitions to be there.
The event will also be watched by tens of millions of television viewers throughout the world.
Guests will have time to explore the 14 exhibition zones with their families, before taking their seats in the central arena from 10pm where lavish musical performances will follow the Queen’s arrival.
Pictures of the breaking Millennium from Northern Europe will be broadcast on screens inside the Dome. Musical delights include a 80 piece orchestra directed by Paul Daniel, a mixed choir of more than 400 people, Jools Holland and celebrity soloists from the worlds of popular and classical music.
The Queen, assisted by a number of Greenwich children, will lead the opening of the Dome, setting in motion an awe-inspiring sequence of special effects.
Following the much-anticipated opening, a rendition of John Tavener’s A New Beginning will start with the solo voice of a chorister, building to everyone on stage joining in and returning at the end to the solo voice blending into the quarter bells of Big Ben.
This will leave members of the audience alone with their thoughts leading up to Big Ben chiming in the new millennium, when in time-honoured tradition Auld Lang Syne will be sung.
Simultaneously, the show in the central arena explodes into life with 500 performers forming a lively and vibrant three-dimensional panorama from floor to ceiling.
Pictures of the River of Fire, pyrotechnic centrepiece of London’s Big Time, will be shown on screens just after midnight.
The performance will end with a new arrangement of the National Anthem by Jonathan Dove, the Queen will depart leading guests and performers out of the arena.
The party will then continue until around 2am.
Web’d by David Riddle
e-Mail: dpreeyore@gmail.com
Last updated: 6/12/99, 4.30pm
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