A pleasant evening was present for the Italian display, though perceptibly a little cool at times due to the breezy Northerly winds. Nevertheless, a temperature of 23 C graced the evening under low humidity, and skies were mostly clear (some distant clusters of cirrus), allowing the moon to (appropriately) appear for this display.
This was an interesting show by the Italian team in the sense that it had large potential with its assigned theme. I previously envisioned this display to have many sequences that would directly or indirectly reflect upon discovery and space exploration, so I was quite excited to see what could come out of this performance!
The display began rather serenely, but it quickly came to life as its opening evolved. Over time, it became increasingly obvious that the thematic connection was being realized with the selected soundtrack. I was quite thrilled with the organization of the display from one segment to the next, and musical transitions usually made sense. Later in the display, I did feel more emotionally tied to it, and the vibrancy exploited by some of the sequences during the show’s final 33% was rather captivating. This is especially true with the shell-of-shells and multi-breaks during this time, along with exquisite farfalles! The product quality was also excellent, and I particularly loved the scope of the show along low-level, for the left-right extent was quite wide (amplified by the wind and firing angles).
That being said, unfortunately, I felt that the complexity and general design of this display were lacking. This is likely due to an often familiar pace observed throughout much of the show, notably over the first 22 minutes. I further found the firing angles used to be quite repetitive, as we had frequently seen the wide arching/rainbow pattern emerge at low-level. In addition, many segments tended to conclude with drooping effects (horsetails), and redundant firing patterns gave the impression that many segments were similar in their design, despite different soundtrack. I suspect that this affected the efficiency of more distinct transitions, as well as, in the end, compromising the complexity of the display. Color selection also felt more reserved in this display, and I was hoping to see at least a few note-tight sequences to exude representation of key elements that realistically engendered the theme. Therefore, I felt that the thematic connection was typically stronger with the music than with the pyrotechnics themselves. At a couple of moments, too, such as during the opening and towards the mid-section of the display, some brief periods of asymmetry could be seen as comets fired at only one side each time. There was also a firing area on a platform that struggled to come to life over the course of most of the second half of the display. Finally, I, too, would have liked to see more periods of excitement to represent the theme, and I was similarly hoping for more of an engaging ramp five made to take advantage of certain aspects of not only the theme, but also for some of the soundtrack. For the finale, it began quite well, but as pointed out above, it was too short. When the music commenced for the finale, my thoughts immediately turned to the gorgeous Panzera 2003 finale, and so I was expecting something similar (or better, of course)!
Overall, this was an enjoyable display, but I was just expecting a more complex design, more interesting firing angles and a richer coloring scheme. Perhaps my expectations were a little too high, but there was still seemingly plenty of room to showcase a more diversified approach to explore such an interesting thematic framework!
Trav
