Hello everyone,

Please post your reviews of the Italian display here!

Cheers,

Trav.

Given the schedule released by La Ronde in early spring, I had anticipated Howard & Sons, winner of one Silver and one Bronze Jupiter awards, to close this competition with a “Bang!” Unfortunately, the commotion happened on June 28th, when La Ronde announced the withdraw of the Australian entrant, partly because some transportation issues. Giuliani Fireworks was invited with a very short notice. From Paul’s and Mylène’s interview reports, early this week, it became clear that Giuliani Fireworks was helped by Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks, a close partner of Panzera. It reminded me when Sunny International (China) contracted with American designer Erik Tucker for some of its (award-winning) shows, as well as the involvement of Panzera’s Pierre Walder in the musical design of many displays in the 1990s and early 2000s. I do hope that a such situation won’t happen again. That being said, in these unprecedented circumstances, I believe that the competition organizers at La Ronde, their Panzera and Rozzi collaborators, as well as Giuliani Fireworks, managed the situation to deliver a very good show to us.

The quality of the pyrotechnic material was the stongest aspect of this show, maybe even the show with the best fireworks pieces this year. The richness of colours was excellent. For once, we enjoyed many shells with single and double change(s) of colours. On the song Scintille, we even saw some shells of doubled colour-changing stars, with colour-changing pistils. The range of the colours was also impressive, notably with the many shades of some colours (blue, yellow, purple). Many fireworks effects deserve to be highlighted. I especially appreciated the pale blue sky mines on La Musica non c’e, the studatas bursting into bunches of very fine yellow and blue stars on Non mi avete fatto niente, and single-ascension girandolas which ended in clusters of stars. The multi-break studatas had not been numerous this year, but we saw many of them tonight!

Without being the best or the most innovative this year, the technical design was very good. With many nautical products (flares, shells), some impressive mines and fans of comets ignitated on the fifth ramp, other mines horizontally fired on the third ramp, the Italian team has managed to explore all the space in the firing area at one moment or another. There were some segments, however, where more complex, multi-layer designs, would have been a good thing. For instance, during the penultimate part of the show, on Grande amore, large shells were launched from the first ramp with no other effects below. Other segments could have been more dense, especially the finale which was nice, but not very intense.

The synchronization was generally very good, but the pyromusical design was unequal. For instance, on the song Italiana, which some lyrics refer specifically to the Italian flag, Giulinani presented a very patriotic design based on the country national colours. Thus, we saw repeated green-white-red patterns made of shells of stars, shells with inner comets, candles of stars, and shells of twinkling stars. They were a good fit and made a consistent part. On the finale, the national colours were exhibited for a long time once again. However, the Song about the Earth refers to the themes of love, the Earth, and the sun. So the repetition of the patriotic pattern didn’t appear very appropriate. Moreover, all-white pyrotechnic pieces would have been a better fit with Crystallize, the second violin music of Lindsey Stirling. Shortly after the mid-point of the show, I had to protect my camera from the rain as Francesco Gabbani’s Occidentali’s Karma referred to “singing in the rain,” but such water effects gifted by Mother Nature don’t count!

The soundtrack was original and a welcome departure, in my opinion, from some “traditional” or stereotyped Italian musics. As I examined the soundtrack a couple of hours before the show, I wondered to what extent the three Lindsey Stirling’s violin pieces The Arena (part 1), Crystallize (part 6), and First Light (part 12) were selected and positioned in order to distinguish three parts in the display, but I could not find. Looking at the English translation of the lyrics, I was surprised by the prominence of the political issues in many songs : Non mi avete fatto niente refers to many recent attacks in European cities and the radicalization of (and against) some religious groups ; Italiana evokes the political divisions in the Italian society and mentions Donald Trump ; Occidentali’s Karma critics how some social and technological changes undermine some values, like the importance of knowledge ; and, of course, The Barber of Seville, a satire of the French aristocracy. I would have like to see more connections between the fireworks and these themes, but as a political scientist, I am obviously biased on this aspect!

I don’t think it was realistic to achieve a display with the same complexity than the previous ones, given the time frame for its design. It was a very good show, and the quality of the pyrotechnics must be emphasized.

***

During the pre-show ceremony, a different person has introduced the pyrotechnic crew to the audience. Unfortunately, the national anthem began before the usual announcement which invites the audience to stand, causing some confusion in the grandstands.

As a notified early in this report, the rain started around 10:17pm. Fortunately, the rain was pretty light during the display. It became much more intense after the show as I was back to the Salon des artificiers, causing other people to leave the park more quickly than usually... and jury members to manage these bad conditions as they fulfill the assessment of the show.

***

Since the night of the Canadian display, I had tentatively ranked Apogée ahead of steyrFire with a “tight” notification and a mention that order could be revised at the end of the competition. Following a full re-viewing of both shows, I decided to reverse my ranking. While the technical design could appear more balanced in the Canadian show, the focus of steyrFire on the low-level effects was not as severe as I thought, and the 360-degree devices really added to the show.

So my personal ranking of this 34th edition of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition is:

1. Dragon Fireworks (Philippines)
2. Pyrotecnico (United States)
3. steyrFire (Austria)
4. Apogée (Canada)
5. Giuliani Fireworks (Italy)
6. Dancing Fireworks (China)

My jury predictions and some general comments are available on the thread here.

Fred

Here's my video. Unfortunately 3 songs had to be cut out because of copyright issues. Their system will automatically block videos if you upload anything containing certain songs. Nevertheless, here it is. Enjoy

https://youtu.be/8na8QeH0w_c

Which 3 songs were cut?

Paul

Lol turns out my video doesn't even play in Canada after cutting 3 songs from it.

Canto Della Terra is blocked globally
Bambola is blocked in some regions but not Canada
Grande Amore is blocked globally
Roma-Bangkok is blocked in some regions including Canada
Italiana is blocked in some regions including Canada

Is it even worth posting a pyromusical if I cut out all those songs?

It's still worth it for the quality of the video What nonsense, though, given that La Ronde already pay the performance rights fees.

Have you tried posting on vimeo? I'm not sure if they support the 4k format though.

if it doesn't work out, I can host the files, but, again, I'm not sure how the 4k format will work.

Paul.

Even if you wanted to bring it down to HD resolutions, it's not bad at all, under the same camera settings used!

The sound is more important for me - it's a pity that the copyright issues are so persistent!

Trav.

And now it's completely blocked

Paul.

My report: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1464

Paul.

I haven't tried vimeo. Their system supports 4k but in order to upload such large files, they require a paid account which I do not have. Maybe I can try to upload a smaller HD file on vimeo and see if it works. The problem with 4k is that hosting them is not practical since they are about 9GB each. I heard that Vimeo also have their own automatic copyright takedown system as well.

For me the audio is just as important as the video quality. I will cut out more of the audio and re-upload and let you guys know. Such a pity.

A classic, clean, enjoyable show.

The one word that sums up this show for me is "classic". Was it extravagant? Was it innovative? No. Was it exactly what I would expect from a very good show? Absolutely.

I thought the synchronization was excellent throughout. I particularly liked how the sounds of the shells exploding were timed perfectly with the music. Likewise, the quality of shells was excellent. As Fred mentioned, there were many shells with changing colours. Likewise, I saw many different effects throughout.

I did find it a bit repetitive at times. Likewise, the shell density could have been increased. As well, it was clearly very patriotic. (The Italian flag was visible multiple times.) That said, it was a very respectable and enjoyable show.

Now, the rain that came after... That was less enjoyable.

Final rankings will come in the other thread. However, I think this show will very likely be on the podium.

Well, it comes down to this for the video of the Italian show.

4k on youtube with 4 songs cut: https://youtu.be/WuKicdX9ugk

1080p download no cut: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtpWMATD-an3nWceq-kcsec4DlF_

You can play the 1080p download directly, but I suggest that you download it for better quality. The player is somewhat crappy. It is 1.2GB in size.

Hope you guys enjoy.

For the second consecutive fireworks day, thunderstorms and convective rain showers were favorable in a very moisture-rich and moderately unstable environment ahead of a stationary cold front. As suspected previously, severe thunderstorm watches were eventually enforced for portions Southern Quebec and Eastern Ontario, mostly North, NW and West of the island of Montreal. Ottawa was further briefly under a tornado warning by late-afternoon. The watches included the Mirabel and Lachute areas, so very closely to the NW of the island. The risk for scattered thunderstorms (40% probability) and somewhat widespread convective rain showers (thus, a 60% probability) existed throughout the evening and into the early-overnight. Some rain showers are also made an appearance over parts of the island during the late-morning period. Just at and slightly after the exact midpoint of the display, a light rain began to fall (in the case of spectators located at the other side of the river, the light rain began at 10:14 p.m.), so this was the first case in 2018 where rainfall was observed “during” a display. Fortunately, the rain was light enough to not detract from the display, but it eventually became enough for people to begin protecting cameras and preparing umbrellas and other forms of head covering. Temperatures of 24-25 C were present, though some cooling occurred later in the display as the light rain kept falling. Luckily, breezy winds (15-19 km/h) were also present, and from the South (which is the most ideal wind direction). As such, the rapidly building smoke was being pushed quickly clear to the right of the La Ronde audience (left for those on Notre-Dame), and this was extremely important, given the humidity level. Just narrowly after the display concluded, a very heavy rain began to fall. St-Hubert airport collected just over 8 mm of rain from this deluge in less than 35 minutes!

This was a fantastic display presented by the Italian debutante team, and considering the rather constraining time frame to work with, due to the late notice following the unprecedented withdrawal of Australia, the show was crafted quite well under the circumstances! Although I previously had concerns about the color richness, because of the very rich humidity concentration, the colors had frequently emerged quite well, though some still seemed to be affected (especially the blue hues) by the environment. Fortunately, the smoke was removed quickly enough to admire and enjoy the high-quality products and the low-level sequences, especially during the latter half of the show.

As I had envisioned after reading the details that Paul had shared from his interview, the display, indeed, had a very traditional and operatic (even theatrical) feel to it, and it, therefore, appeared to have adhered to the appointed theme, “Italian Dream”. The display began quietly but gracefully, and it became clear that we were in for a classically-oriented display. Although I was not familiar with the soundtrack selection, except for “Figaro”, the songs were mostly enjoyable and were usually well portrayed by the pyrotechnics, mostly towards the second half of the display. There was a suitable range of products, too, and we saw many high-calibre shells, a few classic shell-of-shells and shells of salutes. In particular, the nautical effects were quite pleasing, such as the low-angled firing positions that allowed for the “leaping fish” effects at a couple of points, and then the nautical shells that burst deeper into the finale to join upper-level activity. We were also treated to several fast-paced sequences, though these were, again, mostly confined to the latter portion of the show. The carpets of flares were also a very nice element added, as were the single-ascension girandolas later on.

In general, my negative points are similar to what I had previously expressed for the Austrian show. Firstly, this display had a somewhat dichotomous nature in firing style. Over the course of the first half, for example, the firing pattern exhibited often became a demonstration of a rudimentary interplay between the music and the fireworks, and I, thus, thought that there was more room to represent those musical pieces. Also, during most of that time, there was a sense of imbalance with high- and low-altitude support – sometimes appearing as a simple burst of shells without any low-level substance. Then, towards the second half of the show, representation became increasingly interesting, as we saw more fast-paced sequences along low-level and frequently a higher diversity of effects to illustrate those particular songs. The ”Figaro” segment was notably well executed, with the rhythm and pace usually coinciding nicely with the vocalist as that piece evolved. That said, I still found the technical design to be lacking in creativity and innovation to truly bring out the essence of the music. Also, the meaning of the theme, even though the musical choices seemed very much relevant, was not always so clear.

Like Austria and, to some extent Canada, I thought that the show could have benefited from cleaner transitions. At times, the start of a new segment would be rather abrupt, or, conversely, the termination of a previous segment would continue slightly after the music faded. Additionally, I felt that just a little too many segments ended with horsetails, which were not always, in my opinion, the best choices to conclude those particular segments. On a related note, some songs needed to end in a more robust manner, especially since those particular moments invited such a finish! Also, the color diversity in this display was a little less than the others, perhaps because of more reliance on reds, greens and whites. As for the finale, it began rather well, but it lacked a real climax beyond the thunderous volley of salutes. Still, this was the third best finale of this year, in my mind.

Overall, a very enjoyable performance by the Italian team, and considering the very tight time frame to get this done, I commend the team for being able to showcase a display like this to begin with! Indeed, there were several moments of excitement and interesting firing patterns that really captivated the audience, especially later in the show. Although the degree of creativity was lower, there were certainly moments that would take us by surprise! The show appears suitable for a Jupiter this year, likely battling for the bronze.

Trav.