Stars of song and sport to top Olympic closing show

A Spanish tenor, a British soccer star and a throng of kung-fu fighters are among the scheduled closing-ceremony attractions Sunday night as China concludes its first Olympics and hands over the role of Summer Games to London.

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Boys play in a fountain outside the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, August 23, 2008. The Olympics will end here Sunday with a giant closing. [Agencies]

Fireworks are planned at 18 locations across the vast city, and a packed house of more than 90,000 will be on hand in the National Stadium, or the Bird’s Nest, for the ceremony itself.

Its creators have promised a more lighthearted show than the opening ceremony Aug. 8, which focused heavily on Chinese history. Highlights for the closing include a duet by tenor Placido Domingo and Chinese soprano Song Zuying, as well as a display by several hundred kung fu practitioners from a martial arts school.

"It’s going to be very different from the opening ceremony, which was burdened with heavy responsibility to show Chinese culture to the world," one of the directors, Miao Pei, told China’s Southern Metropolis News.

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