MADONNA has done it, so have Milli Vanilli and the "flawless" Chinese singer Lin Miaoke. But miming isn't a technique associated with the world's great orchestras.

As a result, the Sydney Symphony's confirmation that it mimed its entire performance at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics comes as something of a shock. Even worse, it admits the backing tape was recorded, in part, by its southern rival, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

"It [the performance] was all pre-recorded and the MSO did record a minority of the music that was performed," the Sydney Symphony's managing director, Libby Christie, said yesterday. "It's correct that we were basically miming to a pre-recording."

Ms Christie said the reason the orchestra did not play live was that Olympics organisers "wanted to leave nothing to chance". She said short deadlines and a "mountainous workload" required the use of two orchestras to make the backing tape.

A report in a Melbourne newspaper claimed the MSO, conducted by Paul Grabowsky, played "much of the [opening ceremony] program" including the celebrated seven-minute Tin Symphony .

Not true, said Ms Christie. The majority of the repertoire was recorded by the Sydney Symphony at Studio 301 in Alexandria.

The managing director of the MSO, Trevor Green, backed her up yesterday.

"It was purely a workload issue," he said. "It's nothing to do with priorities or which orchestra is better. It was decided to split [the work] between the two orchestras ...

"It's quite a normal practice and if the Olympics had been in Melbourne, the Sydney Symphony would have been involved - I'm sure of that."

Neither Mr Green nor Ms Christie could recall which parts had been played by which orchestra. "I haven't a clue and I'm not that interested," Mr Green said.

"We should really be celebrating the fact that a country the size of Australia has six international orchestras."

It is extremely unusual for the Sydney Symphony to mime, Ms Christie said. The opening of the Rugby Union World Cup in 2003 was the only other example she could recall.

Mr Green said the MSO had used a backing tape at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

"The miming side of it is perfectly normal," he said. "There are millions of people watching and if something goes wrong you'd be snookered."

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