Historically, I have not written reports on out-of-competition shows, such as the traditional closing show that we used to enjoy by Panzera SAS. I’ll break with that tradition somewhat, but keep the report short as the tribute to Celine Dion show was not part of the competition, but the first in a newly announced series of Feux d’etoiles. One can argue the merit or otherwise of interrupting the competition in the middle with such a display, but, from a marketing perspective, it seems to have been a success for La Ronde. For the first time this year, the grandstands were completely full with cooperative summer weather and pleasant 26C temperatures. Indeed, the grandstands were more than full as there were some duplicate tickets – this situation causing a delay of 15 minutes to the start of the display to allow everyone to find their seats.
The triumphant part of the display was definitely the soundtrack, carefully prepared by none other than La Ronde’s chief pyrotechnician, Paul Csukassy, apparently with some input from the Director of Communications, Martin Roy. Paul had carefully assembled a compelling soundtrack which was extremely well edited and mixed together with seamless transitions where appropriate and just enough pause between tableaux where justified. The audience clearly enjoyed the soundtrack and I posit that even people who are not necessarily fans of the local Diva found it enjoyable.
Eric Cardinal, pyrotechnic conceptor of the show, had expressed his desire for the display to be evaluated by the judges as if it was in competition. Given the essential difference between a commercial endeavor and a competition display, this was probably not wise as financial realities are almost foremost when there is not the competition imperative. Witness, therefore, the relative paucity of high quality and large calibre shells, Eric having to rely on their Red Eagle Chinese products which, being some of the first to be homologated in Canada, are not pushing the envelope in terms of quality or performance.
Eric did manage to produce some interesting choreography, particular his use of ramp 5 with very well sequenced one-shots. A pity these effects were rather few and far between. His recreation of the outline of The Titanic was definitely a success, despite the smoke’s trajectory towards the audience detracting from the brilliance of the 1000 strobing lances used. It was somewhat amusing that the nautical fountains launched during this segment suffered from burning under the surface of the lake, rather than on top causing one to speculate that these represented passengers fleeing from the stricken liner and not faring so well in the ocean.
Two small criticisms that come to mind are as follows. Dim charcoal-effect shells such as weeping willows do not fare well on such a large stage as that presented at La Ronde, particularly if the smoke is towards the audience and mixing in brighter low-level effects makes their dimness even more apparent. I also found the pyrotechnic effects to be somewhat repetitious with crossettes being used in several pieces as well as gold effects – the nature of the music does somewhat call for these but some more variety would have been appreciated.
All in all, though, an entertaining evening for the capacity audience though I hope that, in the future, the flow of the competition is not interrupted. I think it’s more appropriate to have a full 30-minute out-of-competition show as the pinnacle of the awards ceremony. This gives three competing teams the opportunity to sit back and enjoy a display at the best dedicated site in the World, something that the recent schedule of only one display per week does not permit anymore.