Artistic director Danny Boyle pleaded with the audience to 'save the surprise' during the final run-through, but the 60,000 odd crowd seemed filled with awe and amazement as they flooded out of London's Olympic Stadium late Wednesday.
The theme of the £27 million ($42 million, 34.5 million euro) spectacular is "Isles of Wonder", inspired by a passage from William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest". The show is set to be watched by a vast global television audience.
Danny Boyle -- who won an Academy Award for directing "Slumdog Millionaire" -- and his team, have explained their guiding ideas for the spectacle.
Fellow film-maker Stephen Daldry, the Games ceremonies' creative director, revealed the show champions "the rich heritage, diversity, energy, inventiveness, wit and creativity that truly defines the British Isles".
It is "a journey which will celebrate who we are, who we were and who we wish to be."
But there are some bits of it that are so secret they did not even appear in the final dress-rehearsal.
Brian Thomson reports from the London Olympics where he spoke to a number of spectators who had the chance to view the opening ceremony rehearsal.
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