Euphoria
Designed by Fernando Macedo; FireMaster 3 & 4 firing with 45 modules and 1080 cues and 138 sequences.
Summer returned to Montreal after a few cool and damp days with potentially perfect conditions for an evening watching fireworks: temperatures of around 26C and clear skies. The winds were not so cooperative, though, blowing directly at the audience with gusts between 30 and 39 km/h. This was worrying as 40km/h is the cutoff point for canceling or delaying a display. Indeed, the start was delayed due to difficulties moving the floating stage due to the strong winds – it had to be moved to the opposite side of the lake compared to normal.
All started well with a very powerful opening segment – one which Fernando had shown to me during the interview in the form of a simulation, noting that the implementation in Montreal (this sequence had been used in a previous Atlantico festival in Madeira) would be somewhat different and stronger. And stronger it was, giving definite substance to the Euphoria theme. When the first nautical shells were launched during this segment it was apparent just how strong the winds were – but it was easy to duck from any live sparks coming down as the wind actually hastened their demise. I’ve definitely had worse experiences previously, but this was the first time I ever recall feeling water from the explosion of the nautical shells themselves!
Good use was made of the different levels of the display with low level effects comprising 13 firing positions on ramp 3, used mainly for candles – some of which were obviously Ricasa due to their extremely vivid colours. Many times Macedo’s used wide fans of comet mines/one-shots in groups of three, this being something I remembered from their debut display in Montreal in 2006.
Early in the display, we were treated to some exquisite pastel gold strobing comet sequences during Lusitanta Paixão, with delicate strobing comet shells above. Crossettes also featured often. At first these were welcome, giving great depth to the display (enhanced, as well, by the wind conditions) but I found they made an appearance too often. The same can be said for some of the gold/kamuro kind of effects which were used in several segments. This repetition of the same material several time: strobes, crossettes and kamuros, gave the probably false impression that the display was not very colourful. In fact, it was, just that there were a lot of gold effects that, to my mind, detracted from their use of colour.
There were some very brilliant double-ring farfalle shells with beautiful twinkling pistils that were appreciated by the audience, but we were soon back to the strobe, crossette and kamuro formula. We did, however, see some variations on the strobe effects, particularly the tremuladas mentioned by Fernando during the interview – these being more of a “trembling” strobe than on-off-on-off. Also the fogasas – which are essentially silver comet go-getters.
The music was enjoyable, but the transitions between songs were again somewhat simplistic. I guess it’s all a matter of taste. Sometimes I felt a song came to an end too quickly, then there was darkness before the next song would start. The range of rhythm and pace was also more limited than I expected, making it difficult to build up to a true feeling of euphoria, though the finale did build to a large climax, though this was perhaps a little short compared to what one would have expected based on the strong opening song.
The display definitely felt larger than Macedo’s 2006 display, as Fernando had said that more large shells would be used – and, indeed, they were. I found the low level effects to be somewhat simplistic and not as effectively used to mark the synchronization as I expected. However, Fernando had mentioned in the interview that he had to scale back some of his plans due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient firing modules to realize his plans – FireMaster is only used by one company in North America, in contrast to the many that use FireOne and Pyrodigial – making it much more difficult to rent the requisite number of modules.
The audience, though, did appreciate this display and gave the Portuguese team a well deserved standing ovation. There were more people attending this week also, probably encouraged by the summer weather. At this point in the competition, Portugal are probably number 1, though it’s close race at the moment with four quite different displays.