Hi everyone,

Please use this thread for your reviews/thoughts of the Italian display!

Trav.

With the exception of the Westerlies which brought all the remnants and the smoke of this intense show, perfect weather conditions and a moderate audience size were the backdrop of this debut display of La Rosa S.R.L. I think the Italian entrant did an excellent performance, with an ingenious concept for its soundtrack, products of very good quality, great technical and pyromusical design, and, overall, very good synchronization. It is a likely contender for a Jupiter, but it nevertheless suffered of a number of minor weaknesses. Furthermore, in contrast with the Japanese show, I can’t discuss the mandatory laser segments only in a separate section because I believe the Italian display, in a certain way, has been impacted by that addition.

I found the concept very ingenious. There are different schools of thought regarding the number of items which compose a soundtrack for a 30-minute pyromusical show. Some people get excited with a lengthy line-up of 20, 30 or even more pieces or songs. Such soundtracks require a careful work of selecting and editing each segment, and connecting each with the following one (e.g., the 2024 opening show). Other people prefer a shorter line-up with more time dedicated to each music. It typically gives more space to craft the pyromusical design (e.g., the 2024 Japanese show). With its theme “Medley Italian Song,” La Rosa S.R.L. achieved a good balance : there were four songs presented in a pretty extensive way, and four medleys featuring many more, each medley being carefully edited. (Quite rare situation at La Ronde : it became difficult to properly hear the music and, especially, some lyrics during the extravaganza. It is not clear whether it is due to the noise from the fireworks, potentially reduced capacity of the sound system, or the way the soundtrack has been edited to stress some frequences over others. This is something to monitor for the next shows.)

On the criterion of the quality of pyrotechnic products, I feel the Italian team suffers from comparison with its Japanese competitor, who has set the bar particularly high, just three nights before. This should not overshadow the excellence of the products used by the Italian team, which encompassed shells of various sizes, including many large ones. Among them, I have been impressed with the many shells with a colour-changed pistil in a sequence toward one direction, followed by a change with the colours of the outer stars in the opposite direction (during the Raffaella Carrà’s medley). On the mambo song, other shells appeared as successive rings “moving” from the centre to the extremities of these shells. There were many other products with one, two and more changes of colours. The show was also filled with studatas and other kinds of multibreak shells. However, I felt the range of colours was a bit more limited, maybe because those from the national flag (white, green and red) have been heavily used during the show.

The technical design was certainly a strength of this show. While there were one or two short moments where the sky remained dark, the pyrotechnic performance has been much more continuous than during the Japanese show. Generally speaking, the density of the show was very consistent through its duration of 30 minutes and 30 seconds. All the most important firing ramps have contributed (except the circular roof above the floating technical room). Some products have been fired with low angles to create very wide sequences, with comets flying over the ride areas on each side of the firing zone. Poles along the third ramp have been used to shoot some products horizontally during the 1st medley. The 5th ramp, made of five platforms closer to the audience, have allowed powerful sequences of mines and thick comets several times during the show. Furthermore, a carpet of nautical white and red flares has appeared during the finale; however, we have not seen any other nautical effects.

The pyromusical design was, generally speaking, very good. I think it was characterized by a very strong intensity. Indeed, some tableaux were as powerful as many finales. (So much that pyrotechnic products have continued to be fired or to burst during transitions between two pieces of the soundtrack, weakening the synchronization of the performance.) Some may argue that the show did not feature a lot of rhythmic variations, that the pace was always fast and intense. This appears to be relatively accurate because the most serene parts of the soundtrack (Con Te Partiro and Caruso) have been entirely dedicated – appropriately given the circumstances – to the mandatory laser segments. Another song, Il Volo’s Great Love, started quietly with white horsetails and slow-burning chrysanthemum shells, but that was very short. If the Con Te Partiro and Caruso segments had been pyromusical, we probably would have been able to see other products and firing patterns suitable for serene parts, and the overall rhythm of the show would have seemed more balanced.

For all these reasons, I believe that La Rosa S.R.L. has a chance to be on the podium. However, it not a guarantee, especially with some anticipated contestants in the forthcoming weeks, including Steyrfire and Fireworks Spectaculars which have some Jupiter awards listed in their record of achievements.

My personal ranking so far :

1. La Rosa S.R.L. (Italy)
2. Omagari Hanabi (Japan)

***

In addition to what I wrote above regarding the potential impact of the laser segments on the pyromusical design, I believe these segments remain problematic. To be fair, the 2-minute segment on Con Te Partiro was much better than what we saw three nights before. Laser is not something as powerful as fireworks, so a serene song was a good choice. There were several laser rays above the surface of the lake and above the audience (targetting the roof of the corporate boxes and the wall of the control room). These rays were active, and their “movements” have increased simultaneously with the Bocelli’s voice. However, the 3-minute part on Lucio Dalla’s Caruso appeared much less synchronized with the musics and much more disjointed from the fireworks. Overall, these parts were slightly better this time, but I am still not convinced at all about the plus-value of that addition.

Fred

Here are some of my notes about Italy.

I liked :
- Soundtrack was entertaining, much more than I expected.
- Feeling with the soundtrack was on target.
- Great effects on ramp 5, even if some of them were so big that they were hiding what was happening behind.
- Mines were shot very wide on Ramp 3, creating the effects of a much larger site.
- Nice fan sequences on ramp 3, creating movement.
- A lot of big caliber shells, well synchronized with lower and middle effects. Some of them had several color change and pattern (specially toward the end) : awesome !
- Finale was not the most colorful and creative, but very powerful and super intense. A great feeling !

I noticed :
- Use of crackling effects became rapidly disturbing on the first part of the show, even at a point where music was difficult to hear.
- Some cakes didn't fire at the right timing. Fortunately it was mainly on the first third of the show.
- Several titanium gold (or bronze) mines were shot on ramp 3 but were mostly invisible (quality issue ?)
- Some sequence patterns on ramp 3 that were used throughout the show felt repetitive.
- Rhythm was sort of broken in the middle of the show. Large shells were mainly used and lower effects became weak. Fortunately, it didn't last too long before everything was back to normal intensity !
- Large shells became a bit repetitive (Peonies with Pistil were mostly used).

Personal thoughts
A great show from Italy. Nice rhythm, good soundtrack. Colors were great even if there was a bit of smoke accumulation. In general, the whole show was well designed and executed. But was that enough for a podium ?

After 2 shows :
1) Italy
2) Japan

Dan

This was an enjoyable show with lots of big color changing shells and a good finale, but the displays did start to get a bit redundant there was an absence of distinct “Oh Wow” moments. Comparing it to the many other Montreal competition shows I have viewed, I would deem it a good show but just good. If I was given the opportunity to sit through a live repeat performance of this show or the Japanese show, it would be a no-brainer that the Japanese show would be my choice.

BobFF

My report on this excellent display from La Rosa SRL.

http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=2314

The Italian display’s weather conditions featured a continuation of very warm and humid conditions with gradually clearing skies. However, this was accompanied by a fairly light WSW flow (8-11 km/h) that guided rapidly accumulating smoke towards right-hand and central sections of the La Ronde audience. The display temperature was 25-26 C under high humidity.

This was a very exciting performance delivered by the Italian, but it was made even more enjoyable watching from Notre-Dame/de Lorimier Streets because of improved viewing clarity with minimal interference from accumulating smoke. The colors were quite rich (though less vivid and diversified as compared with the Japanese display previously) and appeared under a good arsenal of blending across all spaces. The high humidity also likely contributed to more rapid dimming of colors, much like during the Japanese show at times, but the coloring palette was nevertheless well highlighted. The extent to which this occurred was stunning, for these colors often appeared with a careful interplay between effects. We were also treated to very engaging sequences throughout the show, and very good use was made at all altitudes of the display. Despite the higher complexity characterizing the display, a good symmetrical appearance was sustained. This left minimal opportunity for void moments, and the selected soundtrack really elicited the correct emotional feels from one segment to the other. Kudos to the team for the very good soundtrack editing, which really evoked thoroughly the right type of emotions.

The conceptual design was a traditional one and worked really well with the show. This created a real Italian-like atmosphere, and the pyrotechnics were weaved very well into the critical components defining each soundtrack. Although brief, I was enamored with the “Gloria” segment and its representation. The exciting shell-of-shells and shells-of-salutes that are common in Italian displays were also cleverly integrated here. In some cases, these appeared suddenly, adding to the already high degree of thrill that became evident early in the display.

While the display was very successful in its execution, I do have some minor reservations concerning it. Notably, there were some moments of tranquility that were seemingly out of place and did not make much sense. One instance of this happening was during the 2- to 3-minute point of the display, where inexplicable 4-5 second pauses at the time should have instead adopted more of an energetic pace. Furthermore, there were some periods of asymmetry, notably apparent during the 20th to 21st minute of the show. Other few moments featured a continuation of fireworks after a given segment had well terminated.

Much like the Japanese display, I found the theme to lack complexity and was fairly broadly portrayed. It was understood what would be expected from the show, as well as the overall musical choice, but the theme commanded a somewhat monotone tendency. The transitions themselves were quite obvious and quite clean, but the purpose behind the transitions was not always clear through the thematic framework.

Overall, the display was, once again, thoroughly enjoyed – it had the right level of energy and representation and respected the (generic) thematic framework. While the theme itself was light, it came with a fairly complex technical design, which was likely the strongest attribute of this display. The low- to mid-level sequences also reinforced each other well and kept the music alive and well illustrated. Great finale, too, but it needed more color, length and continuity.

Trav.