Montréal International Fireworks Competition Reports

The Prophet Tales

Designed by Salvatore and Marco Vaccalluzzo. Galaxis firing with 32 100-cue modules and ~3000 cues

Perfect summer weather for the much anticipated participation of the Italian team of Vacculluzzo. Renowned as manufacturers, they presented a strongly themed display set to the famous book by Khalil Gibran. With Michel Lacroix being otherwise occupied by the 2012 Olympics, the usual countdown at 10:00pm didn’t quite come off as expected and the display had already started as the countdown began, without the Ferris wheel being extinguished until after the countdown was over. This marred the initial introductory narration.

The display began with a fairly simplistic firing scheme of triplets of shells, but these were of very interesting effects. The pace was slow at first but eventually started to pick up as more use was made of ramp 3. Narrative sections linked the segments of the display together, but the narrator’s voice was not always easy to hear and sometimes the narrations were just a bit too long, interrupting the flow of the display.

One very noticeable element was just how good the synchronization was. Not only of the candles and one shots, but of the shells and especially the studatas. The timing on these perfectly fitted the music and, even when several were fired at once, the timing of all the individually sub-shells matched. The one-shot timing was always spot-on, the time being carefully chosen to give the correct visual appearance of synchronization no matter the effect being used.

There were many beautiful shells deployed, including some I’d never seen before such as skymine-to-multibreak and many interesting horsetail effects – especially  the shell-of-shells silver horsetails. The display was very colourful, with many bright and contrasting combinations, teal  and orange being one such. Good use was made of the space of the site, with the shells firing in a pretty broad pattern, though it was noticeable that the shells burst at a lower altitude than, say, the Japanese display. The products used always reflected the music used and moments of the display were dramatic enough that I exclaimed many WOWs.

As the clock passed 10:30, we still hadn’t had a finale, though the pace became intense enough that we thought we were in a finale, with many large shells being fired and some dramatic support from sequences on ramp 3. This being an Italian display, the expectation is always that the finale will contain salutes. So there was a gold segment ending with large shells but no salutes, leaving people to wonder if this was just a different way of ending the display. But the Ferris wheel remained resolutely dark and the music continued until 10:31 and a bit. But still the Ferris wheel remained off as drums rolled and the audience cheered. Was the Ferris wheel dark due to the disorganized countdown at the start? Then the music stopped and a final narration started, so it wasn’t over yet, even though the time was now 10:32. The finale began at a frenetic pace with studata bombardments and runs of comets below. For a full two minutes the pace increased and increase as massive barrages of studata lambis (studatas of salutes) and other shells filled the sky with a final bombardment of cracking gold nautical shells with the same above, filling the sky and then a thunderous volley of massive salutes, bringing the display to an end (at 10:34!) to raucous cheering from the capacity audience, who then rose to their feet to give the Italian team a well deserved standing ovation.

This was a fabulous display by the debutante Italian team, featuring beautiful products and the most incredible timing. Definitely a display for connoisseurs of fine Italian fireworks. I found the narrative sections somewhat of an interruption and there was some repetitiveness of some of the effects used. Also, some of the firing patterns in the early part of the display were a bit simplistic. A bit more use of the lake would have been appreciated too, especially as the final nautical shells were so dramatic.But the overall effect of the display was that it was of a quality where there’s no doubt it must win a Jupiter this year.