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The eyes of the world will be on Zhang Yimou next week but it's your compassion he needs as much as your applause.

The director of the Olympics opening ceremony is under pressure to produce a spectacular event, but his burden has been even greater than that.

So says Dimitris Papaioannou, the opening ceremony director at Athens 2004, who thinks Zhang's job has been far more difficult.

Dimitris Papaioannou, the opening ceremony director at Athens 2004, is in Beijing to revive his 1993 production of the Greek myth Medea.

This is the same man whom Zhang Yimou said would be such a hard act to follow. "I had less to do with the Greek government and only dealt with one lady, the president of the Greek Olympic Committee, and she trusted me," he says.

"In this sense, I am luckier than Zhang, and I know he is under great pressure because everything he does has to go through big government committees."

Papaioannou is in Beijing to revive his 1993 production of the Greek myth Medea and reunited with Zhang when he visited the city in January.

He says he knows a few secrets about next week's big show and revealed there would be a prominent architectural element. "I'm sure that it will be very impressive in size," he says.

"I don't want to say any more because I know how important it was for us not to have leaks. Zhang was very careful during our conversation. We talked mostly about methodology such as how to film and which stages to follow.

"I recommended our model - I had persisted in the fight to get a 3D image, which I didn't entirely succeed in. Zhang, though, is, of course, a very good cinematographer "

Papaioannou says that although doing the Athens ceremony was a thrill and he was happy with the outcome, he actually prefers doing drama and much of his inspiration for the opening ceremony had come from Medea.

"In drama I do whatever I want to do. I can be violent, funny or terrible and have free artistic expression," he says.

"The ceremony was a job but when they came to me, I considered it an opportunity to express something unique, something that could exhaust my limits."

Sadly, Papaioannou will not be able to attend the opening ceremony, nor Saturday night's rehearsal, because his own show will be on stage at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA).

"But I expect better things than Zhang's eight-minute show at the closing ceremony in Athens!" he said, laughing.

He is clearly back in his element with Medea, an inventive water-bound dance, which explores the jealousy and revenge of a woman betrayed by her husband.

"I have accepted the fact that people in my country and China have connected me with the Olympic Games and I really feel pleasant about their praise, but I have to say I don't want to be an Olympic product myself," he says.