The debutante Italian team was blessed with perfect weather for their setup, but, once again, mother nature threatened to upset proceedings on the night of the display. There had been promise of a severe thunderstorm watch for most of the afternoon and early evening, but the trajectory was moved north of Montreal. That didn’t stop us from watching the radar. At showtime, the sky was cloudy but dry, though some very light rain started at around 10:17pm. A few minutes after the show ended, the heavens opened to torrential rain for a good 30 minutes! Fortunately, the moderate breeze throughout the display served to move the smoke away.
For the first time in many years (the participations of Sunny International with Eric Tucker as the designer are the closest similar occurrences), this display was produced as a collaboration between Giuliani and Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks whose Michael Lutz acted as the chief designer and source of products. This was due to the last minute invitation to Giuliani to compete after it became clear that Howard and Sons would be unable to ship their display on time for their August 1st competition slot. Given the short timeline to assemble a soundtrack and design a show, it was an interesting achievement, especially since, unusually for a manufacturer, most of of the products were sourced from other companies.
Michael Lutz and Marco Giuliani should be congratulated on putting together a competition-level display in such a short period of time. The products used were bright, colourful and diverse, though perhaps with an over-reliance on strobe shells (though many of these were the excellent ICON brand from Foti). The pyromusical design was very well done with excellent use made of all the available space and firing positions, including ramp 5 together with nautical shells and cakes. For those companies who shy away from using nauticals when ramp 5 is in use – this, and other displays this year prove that it is possible.
It was enjoyable to see so many studatas and farfalles in use – and all of these were Giuliani products. Rozzi’s renowned skymines were also featured, as well some very old consumer fireworks that gave the appearance of mini-girandolas fired from ramp 5. Speaking of girandolas, several types were used in the display, including some that fired stars as they ascended. Michael had mentioned in the interview that he was particularly looking forward to The Barber of Seville and this, to me, was one of the most enjoyable segments in the entire display. The finale was interesting in that the “classic Italian” part with silver rain and thunderous salutes occurred before the very end of the display, leaving for a more serene, but sky-filling, ending which brought great cheers from the audience.
All in all, this was a very good display and is a serious contender for the Bronze Jupiter! Kudos to Giuliani and Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks for pulling this off at such short notice!