Hello everyone,
We certainly had an interesting last couple of days with respect to the weather along with a rewarding performance from the Spanish team last night. A cold front passing through from Tuesday gave way to thunderstorms/heavy rains leading to a much cooler and much less humid variation of weather throughout yesterday. As a result, the weather pretty much lived up to its end of the bargain with a few cloudy periods and somewhat breezy conditions around the time of commencing the display (stronger winds at around 8:00), giving way to the infamous Pirotechnia Igual! Though starting approximately 3 seconds before the countdown was completed, the first entrant of the 2007 Montreal fireworks competition really gave us a gorgeous performance with plenty of activity from beginning to end.
The opening was very dramatic with some colorful large bright mines followed by a series of shells at mid and high levels only making way for other dazzling effects throughout this section. The wide range of effects that were seen was very much welcomed, especially in the way they were ultimately sequenced with the music in different segments. Many of these included many shells of swirls, screaming serpents, hearts, triple colored ring shells, single rings, weeping willows, scattered shots, go-getters, blue and red shells that took the form of "@", mid-leveled shells constituted of a mixture of the lemon-yellow and green mixture (half-half), and then my personal favorite, the silver sparkling double-ascension girandolas shown moments after the introduction of the display. Finally, as expected from Igual, massive barrages of shells often made an appearance in many colors from mid levels to extremely high levels of the sky, creating many deafening noises and noticeable vibrations that caused car alarms to go off frequently behind where I was standing. However, I didn't notice any shell of shells integrated during the display, which would have been more than welcomed.
Ground level effects included many beautiful sequences of mines, gold sparkling fountains and many low level cracklers that made a distinctive echo. There was additionally a moment near midway where spinning wheels were lighted up nicely in red. Most notably, just after the opening at ground level, I noticed a beautiful structure centered in the middle that had been lit up and assisted with some glowing effects both to the left and right of it (not sure if these were the nautical pieces).
Synchronization was simply wonderful and made the music, at times, much more enjoyable. One particularly interesting aspect of this show was again the sequencing used in creativity; there was a good example demonstrated in a piece where the screaming serpents went along with the flute instrument in one of the soundtrack used. The music itself was generally well considered and it certainly worked well with this kind of approach altogether. Not being a fan of Jazz music didn't really influence my judgment on the show due to the fact that the fireworks were in excellent coordination most of the time with it anyway. As mentioned by Fred, though many may not necessarily be major fans of this music genre, I, too, suspect that the more well known/popular soundtracks used, which I very much enjoyed, served to perk up the audience a little more at those respective points. However, I personally would have found the show to have a little more tempo if there were more Spanish-related soundtrack involved since this usually works well with rhythmic flow and make things a little more potentially exciting. Because of the absence of Spanish-based music, it sort of felt a little different than usual when watching the display, though this not necessarily a bad thing.
The colors, as nicely stated in the press release, involved a gorgeous spectrum. I was actually remarkably impressed with much of the mixtures seen and the way they contrasted at certain periods during the show. Much of them included, blue, green, white/silver, red/crimson, orange, and magenta. I personally loved the magenta at certain points since it was nicely mixed in with the white ball stars that were often associated with it.
Trav's personal rankings:
-Synchronization: 9.5/10-A nicely synchronized display from beginning to end, though perhaps a couple of spots slightly off from my viewpoint.
-Colors: 9.5/10-Not much to say but a great selection of colors. Colors were used well to contrast in many parts of the display.
-Creativity/Originality/Concept: 9/10-While the theme was unique; I equally thought that the sequencing served as a shear force for creativity. Salutes were commonly intertwined within most segments in conjunction with other shells and/or roman candles, which is always a thrill to see. The shell of shells would have been a great addition in certain spots, though.
-Choice of music: 8/10-I had a hard time with judging this because I had mixed feelings about it. I'm not fond of Jazz music, but I felt it worked out fine with the display, so my rating may also be considered variable under these circumstances.
-Finale/General appreciation: 9.2/10-Though the faux finale was a little redundant, the real thing was powerful and had excellent crescendo followed by a dazzling shower of flamboyant colors in all their glory. Though the ending was not on par with the finale witnessed in 2001, it was still a hyper-ending that the crowd expected to see. The overall appreciation of the show was fabulous with much enthusiastic cheer from the audience most of the time!
-Overall: 9/10
^^^
There's a good chance that I will have to adjust the score to leave room for the other display rankings, but for now that's where I stand (final adjustments will be done by the closing show). *These are also my personal rankings based on my viewpoints via De Lorimier and Notre-Dame streets.
This was a very well concocted display from our first participant and I was very much impressed by it. The ground level effects were particularly stunning (especially in the first half of the display) and there was excellent contrast with the color variations. Sequencing was a particularly important factor during many pieces considering that it often moved nearly precisely with the music itself; if fact, it often appeared as if the fireworks were dancing along with the music. The fluent slow and fast paces between segments was also quite clever and allowed for good tranquil moments to suddenly burst into a more classical robust behavior. The music choice may not have been a personal favorite by many individuals, but I personally thought that the show was well choreographed and the soundtrack worked hand in hand with the fireworks throughout the show. My only criticism, besides perhaps a couple of spots being slightly off cue with the music and a small degree of redundancy, was that the theme, and therefore the music, was not typically Spanish-related, so this may potentially be of a little influence. However, on the other end of the spectrum, as already mentioned, the music did in fact work well with the display, so it may not necessarily be highly influential. If however considered to that extent, I suspect it will just come down to the personal taste in music.
Much of the effects were astonishing and the crowd always loves the shells of hearts and other unique-related shapes. The finale was particularly interesting with good sequencing (as Paul also pointed out) associated with the massive barrages and volleys of salutes, which we all enjoyed so very much. The noise was fearsome as the show came to a thunderous close followed by a high amount of delight from the smaller than normal population of spectators!
I had an excellent time last night and I really enjoyed what Igual had to offer us; this was a very strong effort from the Spanish team. I have a feeling it will be yet another difficult year for the judges!
Trav.
p.s. Did anyone hear that first shot launch and not see a flash at about 9:07? Similarly, unlike last year and the year before, I didn't notice any barrages of shells fired at about 9:27, but like the former years before 2005, we did witness the usual first salute at that time and 9:32 respectively.
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