A mostly sunny beginning to the day evolved into a very cloudy afternoon to evening period as the atmosphere saturated ahead of an occluded front. Temperatures were 20-21 C by late-evening, and very light rain showers/drizzle occurred during the early-evening period but was followed by mainly cloudy skies for the remainder of the evening (with more ubiquitous showers surrounding the island near midnight to the pre-dawn hours). Winds were also light, from the SW, at 9-12 km/h, allowing the smoke to blow adequately towards extreme right-hand sections of the La Ronde audience. The smoke was, at times, building fairly rapidly in response to high humidity, mostly at right-hand sections of the display (left for those on Notre-Dame), especially towards the final minutes of the display.
This was a very enjoyable and highly anticipated display. With some narration to open the display, the show began slowly, but it soon erupted with a large amount of energy during this introduction. It became evident that synchronization was going to be superb, and, indeed, it was throughout much of the show, sometimes quite intricately, and it flowed rather well with the soundtrack employed. Many of the songs utilized, too, were passionate, and this type of musical selection is often a good choice for a pyromusical, as well as for the theme proposed by the Portuguese team. One of the more dramatic transitional points, for me, was when the Vengelis segment made an appearance, which immediately brought my thoughts to the Argentinian display of 2003 – not necessarily the structure of that segment, but the feel of it. Many of the one-shot mines and comets were well executed and defined the soundtrack very well, and that sequence of fabulous nautical shells was very welcomed. The use of the go-getters and photoflashes were used effectively, too.
I also loved the structure of the theme, which was, for me, the most organized theme thus far of all competitors. In some ways, the thematic approach was reminiscent of the Spanish display of 2009, as well as France of 2012. Indeed, the display had a very traditional and patriotic feel to it, with the Portuguese color arrangement often making an appearance. In accordance with the theme, in many ways, the display really gave the impression as to an age of discovery, conquest and exploration. The finale was also very enjoyable and probably the best one so far this year (either that or Italy’s). There had also been a good balance of emotions felt during the display, and I particularly felt emotionally tied to the display as it segued into “O Amor A Portugal”.
As much as I enjoyed the display, I was expecting somewhat more in diversification of effects to represent some of the soundtracks used. As noted already above, a few firing positions did not come to life often during the display along low-level, causing periods of asymmetry as a gap made an appearance mostly to the right, relative to those on Notre-Dame Street. This was notable during the fans of comets sequences that emerged, and there were also moments where activity appeared skewed to the right, giving a sense of imbalance. The firing patterns of the fans of comets/mines themselves became a little redundant, though their appearances were unique.
I was also hoping to see more color richness in the display, as there tended to be a reliance on the aforementioned color arrangements. While it worked well, it still gave the impression of a less complex design, especially since all of the previous competitors had such high color richness (colors notable this year). Although we have seen a lesser variety of color in past displays, Portugal’s color selection came across as more reserved because of the richer color diversity featured by previous displays this year.
Again, I enjoyed the finale, but I would have liked to see more colors emerge with all of the activity taking place, and probably a more continuous finale (like Italy’s, except longer in duration). It was a little surprising, though, that there was still activity following the conclusion of the music (the final volleys of salutes). The display ended at about 10:34:51 p.m. on my watch. There was also another segment where the fireworks remained briefly after the music had concluded.
Overall, like France and Poland, Portugal is a contender for a Jupiter award this year. Despite the lack of color richness and periods of asymmetry, the theme was represented well and was, to me, the most organized and meaningful so far. The music was also very enjoyable, relevant and worked well with the fireworks.
Trav.
