Once again, perfect weather conditions for the final display in the 2010 season with clear skies, low humidity and enough wind to move any smoke. Rather on the cool side at 19C, but not threat of rain for the capacity audience for the greatly anticipated fourth participation by Brézac Artifices. Winners of the Silver Jupiter in 2006, Dominique Brézac had made it clear that, despite the budget cut this year, they were setting out to produce a phenomenal display.
Following a welcome return to Michel Lacroix’s inimitable countdown, the display began serenely, with blue and white flares being lit in sequence left and right. The intensity quickly built with the sky being filled with huge white comet shells as giant crossed mines of the same fired below.
It quickly became apparent how theatrical the pyrotechnical design was. This first segment was in duo-chrome (blue and white) with different shades of each with interesting accents to the music at the low level and every possible sky position being used above. I loudly exclaimed “what a start” at the end of this first segment.
Colours were used to represent the different elements of the display’s theme with some scenes being in monochrome (e.g. red) and others in duo-chrome. In the early part of the display, the range of effects used was impressive and the marriage of the music and fireworks was very finely crafted. There were many subtle aspects as low-level effects on ramps 3 and 5 were used to accent parts of the music or complement the high-level fireworks. It was more like watching an elaborate ballet than a fireworks show for much of the display.
One thing that should be mentioned was the incredibly high quality of the soundtrack. Whilst most of the music was unknown and was of a rather symphonic nature, the detail in the editing and mixing of the soundtrack was very impressive with sound effects inserted very artistically to suggest which sub-theme of the display was being presented. For example, in the segment representing winter, the use of bells and chimes together with a variation on the theme to the music “Jingle Bells” was very impressive. The synchronization of the shells in this portion of the display was particularly noticeable as the shells were bursting exactly on the toll of bells and, of course, the use of white strobes was perfect to represent a winter theme.
Another interesting aspect of the soundtrack was that it was clearly in stereo. This is the first time I’ve really been aware of this and there were parts of the display where the soundfield moved from left to right (or vice versa) and the low-level effects on ramp three moved in the opposite direction. This was subtle but very impressive.
Despite being monochrome or duo-chrome, the display was quite colourful, with two segments with multi-color effects, the most memorable being towards the end of the display where ramp 4 was used to great effect with horizontal firing multi-colour effects whilst multi-colour bengals lit up the lake as the Carousel Waltz music played. The only negative, in terms of colour, is that we had several segments of gold or dim effects, including the finale. I enjoyed the silver whistling girandolas used in the display, as well as the fans of rockets used towards the end – the first and only display to feature rockets this year.
One or two points of criticism. The first half of the display showed a greater variety of levels on intensity than the latter half with the middle portion of the display being somewhat less varied than I might have expected. This lead me to feel that there were fewer WOW moments than I had anticipated after the first few minutes of the display. Another negative was the re-use of several effects at different times during the display, notably shells of strobes (albeit in different colours) as well as various horsetail and falling-leaf effects, these latter two were seen several times. The finale, in all gold, didn’t quite have enough of a crescendo at the end, the final few seconds of salutes would have been more successfully used had there been either large calibre shells filling the sky at the end and/or a front of golden kamuro mines. I felt that Brézac’s all-gold finale in 2006 built in intensity in a more successful manner than this time. I’m not normally a fan of all-gold finales but I had really enjoyed Brézac’s finale in 2006. This time, I felt it fell a little flat, especially as the opening of the display really did have powerful crescendos that somewhat eclipsed the closing of the display.
All in all, though, it was an excellent and very artistic display with a very well crafted soundtrack married to a very creative use of the pyrotechnic canvas with every possible angle and position being well used. It is definitely a Jupiter-winner, but I will have to give further thought to the final standing of the stand-out shows this year.