Greetings,
Though some brief periods of very light drizzle seen just around 8:30 p.m., the skies, as expected, remained predominantly overcast, though partly cloudy conditions eventually prevailed during the display. The winds were blowing in the direction I expected (towards the bridge), though a little more in the way of speed would have been appreciated during some parts of the show (the smoke was rapidly building near the bridge and towards the Southern part of the park). Funny enough, winds were measured at 19 km/h (within the expected range) at around 9-10 p.m. and then became variable between 7-15 km/h from 10-10:30. Temperatures stayed steady between 19-20 C and moderate humidity present (dewpoint 16-17 C). All that said, the weather pattern pretty much followed closely to what I had stated earlier and thus set the stage for near-ideal conditions for the Spanish display. The crowds on Notre-Dame and De Lorimier were a little bit smaller this time around (likely weather-related) but still good attendance, nevertheless.
Not a bad start to the 2009 competition with Igual's performance tonight. I must say that the display really had a mystical feel to it and was obviously very cultural due to the framework of the selected theme - it was pretty interesting in the way the team took the Montreal audience to different parts of the world through the fireworks before arriving at their destination - the narration at the beginning, then, was good in providing an overview of what was expected from the performance. Much of the display was well balanced from top to bottom and was rather wide on some occasions as well towards low level, particularly when the candles were involved. In its entirety, the display possessed a reasonable number of sections that had a good deal of power, especially when the salutes were made several appearances. The show also started off dramatically during "Barcelona".
The overall music choice was actually quite enjoyable to me since it worked really well with what Igual was attempting to portray with respect to their overall theme. I sort of have an idea as to why they may have assigned an Avril Lavigne song for the closing part of the show, but I still thought the soundtrack was irrelevant because it deviated from the main flow seen from the rest of the show in terms of feel. As Rovira mentioned before, I, too, don't really care for pop-related songs to be incorporated to a pyromusical. This is a minor criticism, however.
The effects were fairly diverse with plenty of farfalles, go-getters, loads of salutes (right, Pierre?), photoflashes, pounding shells, single ring shells, fireflies, saturn shells, screaming serpents, heart shells at one point, flares, z-cakes at one point (I think), horsetails, kamuros, silver-double ascension girandolas, and even just couple of those tail ring shells making an appearance at one brief moment, similar to what we had seen in the American and Australian performances last year. With respect to the structures, I particularly liked the way the pyramid was sparkling when it was in effect, though I couldn't really appreciate it in its entirety since it was obscured by some trees that were blocking my view.
Synchronization was, in general, nicely done, but there were some brief moments where I found things a little slack in terms of connection. In addition, there were 2 or 3 moments where the music was going and nothing was being fired to support it (an example at the beginning of my video). Again, the selected tracks, in general, were nicely chosen for this display and worked well for transitional points in both rhythm and pace.
To conclude, this was a great effort from team Spain, but it didn't feel too much like a typical Spanish-like performance to me somehow (I got the same impression in 2007) - perhaps this is simply because of the approach taken. The display was generally clear and many of the transitional attempts were nicely implemented, some better than others, of course. There were many points in the show that were successful in delivering various emotions through the trip, and I thought that Igual did a good job exposing the audience briefly to the various cultures of the different lands that were touched on. In this sense, the pyramid structure, for example, was relevant and pretty creative when supporting the associated track(s), as was that tower to my left when it was present for some time, though that probably didn't stand out as much as it could have. The choice of music was good, but since the show involved a large number of soundtrack to work with, there were times where I felt the display was being a little bit rushed due to some songs terminating rather quickly, which kind of took away the fluidity of the display at those points. Music-fireworks connection was well done, though there were some occasions where it felt a little too simple or too general altogether. Again, to me, there were a couple of noticeable points that felt a little bit empty, so to speak, since, at those particular times, there were no fireworks occurring for about 3 seconds while the music was playing. Attempts at sequencing were one of the most strongest points of this display, especially with the mines and z-cakes when those were present - the firing patterns during the Indian or Egyptian soundtrack were good examples of the sequences I am referring to. The quality of the products was good. Colors were often in a nice delicate mix and used accordingly. The effects themselves, once more, were fairly diverse and were also used when most appropriate, although I found the go-getters a little too large in number for my tastes near the beginning. Music selection was good, suitable and convenient in a number of respects, particularly for transitions, but some ended way too quickly to have a lasting appeal or to flow into following segments successfully - of course, this was compensated for in other parts of the show.
As for the finale, I thought it was going to be way bigger than that - I actually had that finale invisioned as the faux finale in my mind, especially coming from Igual! The finale had excellent crescendo, but it ended way too abruptly. The final set of salutes were cool (reminded me of 2004), but not enough for a sufficient finish! It wasn't too bad, overall, but comparing it to what they did in 2001...Btw, did anyone hear "Bad Reputation" at the end?
Overall, an enjoyable performance from Pirotecnia Igual, and I liked many points of the show, not only because of the innovative ideas and sequencing, but also due to the fact that a fair portion of the show was powerful and on the wild side!
I think I'll hold back my scoring for a change this year until the end of the competition.
Seems more appropriate to do that, anyway. Obviously, it's way too early to say where exactly to place this display (I thought it was a fairly good performance in its entirety, especially to get things started), but we'll see as time progresses. It looks like 2009, though, is already on "fire".
By the way, guys, it's officially Summer now - it arrived at 1:45 a.m. EDT.
EDIT: I find it pretty interesting to see that both Pirotecnia Igual and Pains Fireworks (England) started the competition back to back in the same order on the same days as in 2007.
Trav.
