Heart of Italy
Designed by Antonio Lieto; FireOne firing with ~7000 cues (assisted by Michael Lutz)
For the midpoint of the competition, muggy summer weather meant that the first radar consultation of the season was required prior to showtime. Threatening clouds did, indeed, produce some rain a couple of hours before the display, but these left the area with a rainbow in their wake.
The display featured a theme representing a diverse selection of Italian music, with a good range of rhythm and pace. Synchronization was flawless throughout, not only with the one-shots and mines, but also the shells including the many magnificent studatas. Ramp 5 was well used and contained five pontoons, not the three I had thought from the interview. There were some “magic carpet” type nautical flares but otherwise no actual nautical shells.
The quality of the fireworks was very high indeed, with a good range of effects and bright, long-lasting stars. The studatas were really excellent with great timing and we were treated to many different types of “horsetail” shells with various different effects. I particularly enjoyed the shells with heart-shaped pistils that were surrounded with dark stars that turned to crackle. Many shells had pistils, but typically we only had one or two colour changes (red, white, green being the most popular). The strobe shells and silver rain effects were also very good. There were some ghost shells, but they burst so large that it was difficult to appreciate, at first, that they were, in fact, ghost shells. It doesn’t help that the Montreal sky is not quite dark enough to really appreciate the effect.
The pyromusical design was very clean, though perhaps the firing patterns were a little bit conservative and predictable. This style did, though, all for the high-quality shells to be seen in all their glory. As expected, the finale was fantastic, building to a dazzling and deafening climax, leading to the audience stamping their feet in appreciation and standing up to give the team a well deserved standing ovation.
This was a really enjoyable display with a strong soundtrack with a good variety of rhythm and pace. There were a few errors in the setup, where we’d see the wrong shell firing from one position and a couple of places where the wrong produce was used in a sequence of one-shots. These are very minor quibbles though. The brilliance of the fireworks, together with the intense finale definitely put the Italians on the podium at this stage in the competition, along with Hungary and Canada. That said, there’s still two strong competitors ahead! What a competition it’s shaping up to be this year!