ISN'T IT GRANDIOSE PAVAROTTI PUNCTUATES A THRILLING OPENING CEREMONY.

Byline: Paul Oberjuerge Staff Writer

TURIN, Italy - The big show wasn't over till the fat man sang.

Luciano Pavarotti, Italy's greatest living cultural icon, put an exclamation mark on the Turin Olympics' opening ceremony with an orchestrally backed rendition of Puccini's Nessun Dorma on Friday night.

The portly, 70-year-old tenor then got the biggest curtain call in history. Literally. Organizers advertised the 165-foot wide, 85-foot high curtain hung at the north end of the stadium as the largest ever created.

Pavarotti's appearance marked a classic conclusion to a sprawling, three-hour event that caromed from delicate to brassy, from pop to high- brow, from unreal to surreal, a healthy helping of night-chilled live theater that generally enthralled a Stadio Olimpico crowd of 35,000.

A Ferrari-red race car smoking its wheels on an hour-glass-shaped stage got the loudest applause; the entrance of the Italian team the longest.

``It is certainly everything we hoped it would be,'' U.S. skater Tanith Belbin said. ``Definitely a memory we'll keep forever. It was spectacular and had a lot of diversity in the show, with not only acrobatics but the race car, fireworks and Pavarotti. I couldn't have asked for more from it all.''

In a surprise appearance, Yoko Ono, widow of Beatles legend John Lennon, made a plea for world peace, and Peter Gabriel sang Lennon's pacifist anthem, ``Imagine.''

In recent Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has suggested the return of the Olympic truce observed by the ancient Greeks, a suspension of military hostilities during the Games. Some interpret the call as criticism of U.S. foreign policy that has American troops in action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The IOC in recent months has made other decisions that could be construed as anti-American, from eliminating U.S.-backed sports baseball and softball from the Olympics schedule beginning in 2012 to voting American Jim Easton off the executive board, leaving the 15-member panel without a representative from the nation that bankrolls the Olympic movement through television rights fees.

In his remarks to the crowd, IOC president Jacques Rogge called for athletes to spurn performance-enhancing drugs. Earlier Friday, U.S. skeleton racer Zach Lund was banned for one year for ingesting a compound that can mask banned substances.

The core of the event, as always, was the parade of nations, some 2,000 athletes from 80 countries taking a lap of the stadium.

Most members of the 211-strong U.S. team took part, many of them waving small American flags before a politely applauding crowd.

``I have watched every opening ceremony while growing up, and always dreamed about walking into a Games,'' U.S. bobsledder Valerie Fleming said. ``It was the coolest thing.''

Athletes entered the arena to a medley of pop songs from the 1970s and 1980s, and the driving disco beat of tunes such as ``YMCA'' and ``Hot Stuff'' seemed to energize the crowd and the athletes, for a time giving the event more of the celebratory feel of a closing ceremony.

Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi declared the 20th Winter Games officially open from his spot in the VIP section, where American first lady Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth also sat. The first lady addressed the U.S. team before it entered the stadium.

A show dedicated to rhythm, passion and speed opened with drummers, flaming speedskaters and a beating heart, and shifted after the parade to lavish recreations of Italian history from the Renaissance to the Baroque.

An eight-minute segment entitled ``From Futurism to the Future'' was Fellini-esque, which is to say nearly impenetrable, burdened by symbolism and fantastical costuming, and very Italian. As were the Moschino fashion-house-designed shimmering silver outfits the Italian athletes wore.

The Olympic flag was carried into the stadium by eight female celebrities, including Italian actress Sophia Loren, American actress and political activist Susan Sarandon and Chilean writer Isabel Allende.

Italian skiing star Alberto Tomba led off the final stages of the Olympic-torch run. It concluded with seven-time Italian cross-country medalist Stefania Belmondo touching off a chain of fireworks that lit the 182-foot tall cauldron that will burn above the Stadio Olimpico until Feb. 26 - after 16 days and 84 gold medals.

Paul Oberjuerge, [phone]

paul.oberjuerge(at)sbsun.com

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Photo:

THE PAGEANTRY OF THE GAMES

(1 -- 2 -- color) The U.S. delegation enters the Olympic Stadium with flag-bearer Chris Witty, above, during the festive opening ceremony on Friday, which included the lighting of the Olympic flame, below, to offically start the Winter Games.

Eric Feferberg/Getty Images

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

(3 -- 7 -- color) The Winter Olympics' ceremony Friday night was full of the usual pomp and circumstance, but also had a unique flair, with rollerbladers in red body stockings, fake cows on rollers and dancing trees. Clockwise from top: dancers perform before 35,000 fans at Stadio Olimpico in Turin; American figure skater Michelle Kwan waves to the crowd during the parade of nations; dancers take part in a lavish recreation of Italian history, from the Renaissance to the Baroque; performers form a dove after climbing a wall; and Stefania Belmondo of Italy, a three-time cross country gold medalist, lights the flame with the Olympic torch.

Photos by Associated Press