I met with Maruska Menichelli for the second interview I’ve conducted with this team, two days before their show. The show’s designer, Telesforo Morsani, was busy setting up shells on ramp 2 and comes from a long line of Morsanis who’ve worked in the family’s fireworks business, established in 1880 by Reginaldo, Telesforo’s grandfather.
With a factory located just 80km from Rome, the company also supplies fireworks to The Vatican. Specializing in Roman candles and traditional Italian cylindrical shells (such as studatas), the company began manufacturing the products that will be used in the show as soon as they knew they were competing, late in 2013. All of the comets, candles, ground effects and traditional Italian cylindrical shells were produced specially for the show by the Morsani factories, we are in for a treat of traditional Italian craftsmanship. The remain spherical shells came from China and were manufactured by Yung Feng – Maruska emphasized that quality was foremost in their mind when designing the display.
Following their debut display in 2008, which was very well received though it didn’t win a Jupiter, the Morsani team took a different approach to designing their 2011 display and this lead them to winning the Gold Jupiter that year. They had used storyboarding techniques for that winning display and used the same process for this one. Starting in December, the whole company began brainstorming sessions to come up with outline for this display, entitled “Cosmogony, From Darkness to the Big Bang”. Maruska created the storyboard for the theme and Telesoforo created the soundtrack and the pyrotechnic design – both in terms of choreography and the production of the products used for the show.
The display that will be in three parts, telling the story from the initial creation of the Universe through the Big Bang, through the era of Energy and Matter and finally to the tranquility of the birth of The Earth and Life. Each part will be introduced by a short narration and then the fireworks will tell the story. Maruska noted that the display is designed to inspire people to turn to the stars and be inspired to look towards a brighter future. The economic crisis in Italy has taken its toll, Morsani SRL not escaping the impact, but she hopes the display will make people turn to the stars as they paint the sky and bring hope and joy. When asked what her most anticipated part of the display will be, she replied that the strong traditional Italian Finale is what she is looking forward to most!
In terms of technical specifications, the display was designed using ShowSim and, thanks to that software, we have some precise details about all of the products used. There will be:
- 242 3″ shells
- 789 4″ shells
- 427 5″ shells
- 205 6″ shells
- 17 8″ shells
- 1 10″ shell
- 4 12″ shells
- 2844 2″ comets
- 950 2″ mines
- 16 3″ mines
- 177 strobes
- 14 cakes
Of the shells more than 150 of them are cylindrical, Maruska noting that many of them having a visual effect greater than a 12″ spherical shell.
They are using the PyroLeda wireless firing system with 52 32-cues modules and 7 25-cue boxes. The script has 1238 cues – but it should be noted that a lot of the shells use tradition Italian pyrotechnic delays, so this number is a bit deceptive.
Since their last participation in Montreal, Morsani competed in Cannes in 2012 and won the prix du jury and the received 3rd prize in 2013 at a baroque competition in Hannover, but had had problems with their firing system – that system has since been retired and is not being used in Montreal. This has been a difficult year for Morsani, after being selected to compete and being informed in December 2013, Telesforo’s mother sadly passed away on Christmas Day. The team are hoping their display will bring optimism and joy to the audience!