Humid, overcast, and somewhat cool conditions governed the atmosphere for the debutante Chinese team (and to start the 2011 competition), with a late evening temperature of 21 C and bands of light rain just North and southeast of Montreal at the time of presentation. Winds were generally light and, combined with the borderline moderate-high humidity, led to periods of smoke accumulation (more so for the first few minutes), particularly at low levels of the display when it became more active. Luckily, the winds did gradually pick up slightly, helping to clear the smoke a little quicker as time progressed.
China (Panda Fireworks) presented a fairly enjoyable display in its entirety. The team offered, at times, some interesting sequences along low level, and the diverse set of effects employed to represent each of the soundtrack was apparent. Overall, the performance took on a general/simplistic approach in accordance with the selected theme, and, if anything, the display had a very artistic and traditional feel to it (this was probably part of the intention to begin with). The artistry was demonstrated through the good quality of product used, and the colors and effects used for representation were generally appropriate - I particularly liked the rapid sequences of z-cakes, gerbs, candles and flares, which really made synchronization quite stunning at low level when they were seen. As such, creativity was most noticeable along low levels of this display. My personal segment of preference was “Taekwondo”, as I thought the sequences were the most entertaining, and the creativity seemed more distinctive. The balance between high and low level was also better demonstrated here than most other segments, and, of course, it offered the best mixture of effects.
I personally feel that the principal problem facing this display was the lack of consistency in pace from one segment to another. Consequently, I was frequently under the impression that the fireworks were not always doing justice to the selected tracks that were used - the fireworks, then, did not really seem to be appropriately keeping up with the key changes in rhythm heard through most of the soundtrack. There were periods where I thought the music-fireworks connection was particularly tight (notably, again, with those sequences at low level), but the tempo would just randomly be lost during the same segment, and that emotional feel would subsequently dwindle in the process. A couple of instances of this was during the “Kung Fu Fighting” segment, as well as for that of “Taekwondo”. Some of the previous comments have expressed possible weather-related technical problems for these incidences, so it may be that these could have been responsible for the aforementioned dilemmas, as they all appeared to be related - the most evident was when certain effects were being fired erroneously, when there were points of brief silence while music was still in progress, or, most noticeably, when periods of asymmetry occurred, particularly at low level with the fans of comets and other related effects. While the effects were diverse in this show, there was little interplay between them, and, before the display, I withheld the expectation that delicate mixtures would have been vividly illustrated, given the nature of the music that was utilized. As a result, this led to a tendency of being redundant with certain effects, especially with the kamuro shells. Lastly, the finale was disappointing in it being so short, and the crescendo was lacking through the duration of the soundtrack, “Oh Fortuna”, prior to the climactic part. I felt that this final segment could have been so much better reinforced.
As far as the selected soundtrack was concerned, I thought that the selection was enjoyable and was relevant to the involved theme. I also found that the arrangement of soundtrack allowed for some particularly good transitions for an emotional context. That said, the transitions were not as recognizable as I had previously envisioned, largely because they were not always seamless from one piece leading to another - in particular, the transition from “Kung Fu Fighting” to “Fuhen” seemed awkward. Inconsistency with rhythm and pace in the fireworks also periodically prevented detecting subtle changes in feel. As much as I enjoyed how the second soundtrack of “Hero” was generally choreographed, it gave me a sense of discontinuity with the flow of the display, as well as with respect to the thematic premise, likely because of the more traditional/cultural perspective that most of the other soundtrack commanded.
At the very end, again, this was a good effort from team China, and the show turned out to be quite entertaining, but it is a pity that the weather-related technical problems (if they were, in fact, weather-related) played such a large role in this display, altering what perhaps could have been a very compelling performance.
Trav.
