Weather conditions certainly resembled closely to what was forecasted, where the air was very sticky due to high humidity and making it feel into the low 30s C (actual temperatures hovering around 23-24 C at 10:00 p.m). Following the heavy rains of the afternoon, which contributed to the high humidity later on, a nice clearing was gradually present, though light showers moved onto the island just before and during the fireworks while steadier rainfall was seen towards the West Island at the time - thunderstorms and severe thunderstorms were, luckily, to our South in upstate New York, further North towards central Quebec and West into Eastern and Southern Ontario. Winds were in the anticipated range in speed and direction at 17 km/h from the Southwest - I could tell that the smoke was sometimes blowing towards the right end of the audience of La Ronde. Still, due to the high to very high levels of humidity, smoke buildup was apparent and managed to, at times, drown out portions of the display towards lower level when the display became more active there. A typical Summer evening, to say the least.
Unfortunately, this display did fall quite short of my expectations and was not really the sort of approach that I had envisioned beforehand. While many of the effects were rather dazzling, particularly in brilliance and choice of colors, they were often a little redundant (sometimes overly used) in appearance for my tastes during those segments in which they were implemented. The firing scheme from segment to segment was notoriously similar in pace towards high level with the various shells being fired - it was more of a continuous, steady flow of shells during almost every piece, just with different types of shells. Consequently, this, at times, made synchronization sloppy and less distinctive in accordance with the subtle variations in rhythm and speed involved in the selected soundtrack. In terms of activity, there was a lack of balance between high and low levels of sky - that is, often times there was scarcely any support at low level to reinforce the shells being fired directly above. Similarly, there was sometimes a loss of symmetry from left to right at low level. There were additionally some moments where elongated pauses were taking place in between segments, though this may be attributed to technical problems. Using mostly uncut songs simply did not work as the feeling became quickly monotonous, while the fireworks tended to easily lose vitality in pace/transition under this manner. The termination/fading of numerous segments were abrupt, lacked vibrancy and energy as they could have been. The choice of music, nevertheless, was generally suitable for this display, although some selections had little or no relevance to the thematic premise.
Probably the most detrimental factor to this display was the lack of a sufficient thematic framework through the fireworks - in fact, it was more the music that made the representation than the fireworks themselves. The continuity of the firing scheme in most segments often did not do the music justice. Some points, however, in terms of choice of effects, were more appropriate, such as the exquisite rainbow stars emanating from the shells during Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World" (the colors of the rainbow...). There was also a sort of dichotomy to the selected theme, which required a pivotal point later in the display that demonstrated that there is indeed hope that we can build upon collaboratively as the human race in spite of the current and long term implications of climate change. Again, the choice of music reinforced this (important) transitional component more so than a noticeable distinctive turn-around, so to speak, in the actual display in terms of tempo. Apart from the intention, the finale was lacking simply because it was disproportional (broken up), and therefore had no real direction. All that said, like Italy, though under different circumstances, this display, too, was simplistic in its overall design.
Product quality was most definitely the stronger aspect of this display, including some beautiful flamboyant colors and a fair diversity of dazzling effects, some shells of which exploded into intricate and fascinating shapes (most of these were seen roughly just past 20 minutes into the display i.e. fish shells, etc.). The lower level effects were possibly the most breathtaking pieces for me, especially the glamorous mines of gold fans and the cakes/Z-cakes. The alignment of gerbs and silver fountains when present were nicely implemented. The occasional shell of shells were equally well incorporated, as were the shells of crackling pistils, go-getters, and Saturn shells. Color choices were actually quite interesting at many points and appropriately used for some soundtrack, though some color mixing in between would have been appreciated.
All in all, this was a decent effort from the Taiwanese team, though the display could have been so much more captivating and convincing considering both the objective of the display and, more importantly, the organizational criterion in terms of foundation and structure. It's just a pity that the creativity aspect was absent for a successful and more enticing delivery.
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Other than that, Summer officially arrives today (Monday, June 21st) in the Northern hemisphere at 7:28 a.m EDT. This is appropriate as very warm weather is taking place in conjunction with Summer's arrival. I adore the season - I live for the heat and humidity.
Trav.
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