I met with Michael Lutz, designer for the 6th participation of Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks in Montreal, a stalwart competitor since 1992 when they won a Silver Jupiter. In business since 1895, the Ohio based company is renowned for their annual Riverfest display in Cincinnati and now organizes an international competition called Fire Up The Night, to be held this coming September 26th with entrants from Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Michael has been with Rozzi’s since 2012 and this is his first time in Montreal, though he said the company is very familiar with the site and he had watched many videos of shows in Montreal. In fact, his enthusiasm for designing a show in Montreal was manifested by him starting work on the soundtrack and design last October, several months before the official invitation.
The theme of the show, Seasons of Life, is based around Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons work and Michael noted that many pyromusicals are either all popular or all classical musi, rather than a mix of the two, as is the case here. He said that the Vivaldi work is one of his favourite pieces of classical music, but he was approaching the “Seasons” aspect in a human, rather than climatic, way. He said the show is all about emotions and the meaning of life as it passes through its different stages. For example, the Spring segment is full of hope and optimism and, as we move into Summer, there’s a chance for some turmoil as this is when we are trying to find our way in life. Autumn is more reflective as one comes to the realization this is who you are, for better or worse. Winter starts out as a bit of a downer, and then, finally we have The Show Must Go On, which Freddy Mercury wrote when trying to deal with a disease that was going to kill him. This leads to the understanding that, you have to make the best of it and it takes you back to a new beginning, completing the circle of life.
From the pyrotechnic point of view, Michael noted that there are to be many more one shots than they usually have in a show, so they had a lot of work to do to construct all the racks required. Rozzi’s are currently getting back into being a manufacturer, so they have some of their old products in the show, but chose to use a lot of material from the well known Italian company Panzera (with all the one-shots and candles coming from them, except for one Rozzi candle we spotted) as well as a lot of the shells, especially cylindrical ones. Michael noted that Rozzi is an Italian family and they felt that the Panzera shells well represented the Rozzi way of design. Other products used include Vulcan (for shells and modular cakes) as well as Foti’s Icon brand, for which Rozzi are representatives in the US.
The show will be fired with 186 32-cue FireOne modules, for a total cue count of around 5000, with approximately 3200 one-shots. There will be approximately 24 10″ shells and 130 8″ and a very large amount of 5″ and 6″. Michael said all possible firing positions would be used, including ramp 5 and the side arms of ramp 3. They will also have a five hundred foot long waterfall (probably the longest used in the competition as the cranes to suspend this will be outside of the ends of ramp 2). Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative this week with at least some wind!