Hi everyone,

Please post your reviews/comments for the Italian display here!

Trav.

Once again, this competition continued tonight with a show extremely different than those we had seen with previous entrants, with diverse strengths and weaknesses which make the ranking pretty challenging. I hesitate between very good and excellent to qualify this debut performance of Lieto S.R.L. The Italian team, I would say, delivered an excellent performance with a conservative style, without the boldness of the Hungarian and Canadian teams. So I feel that everyone’s ranking may differ depending of personal preferences for a more traditional approach of pyromusical art or whether we allocate “bonus points” for willingness to take risks.

This performance, which last precisely 30 minutes, was entitled Italian’s Heart, and presented a soundtrack closely related to the Italian culture, with a range of styles from classical to modern musics, like a song of Mâneskin, the winner of 2021 Eurovision. In contrast with Nuvu, Lieto S.R.L. remained stick to a soundtrack emphasizing its theme, but the theme wasn’t as bold as Orion’s one. With 14 titles, each segment lasted slightly more than 2 minutes on average and were separated by a very short pause. Overall, I would say that it included musics for everyone’s taste, and a balance of serene and active moments through the show.

Generally speaking, the pyromusical design did fit with the soundtrack. The show started with a very patriotic segment on the signature theme music of Formula 1 car race which, I imagine, is a source of national pride for many Italians. We saw a range of products and combinations of green, white and red (bicolour shells, changing colour shells, mines, etc.), including some chase sequences made of mines launched horizontally over the lake, from left to right, and the reverse, along the third ramp – a pattern which appeared again on Tu Vuò Fà L’Americano. That was a climactic opening! Similarly, the finale on Andrea Bocelli’s Nessun dorma gained in intensity, both visually and by the power of the pyrotechnics which hit on the chest, with several volleys of thick comets, whistling serpents, and salutes. A couple of minutes before, the part on Mâneskin’s Zitti e buoni was almost as intense as a finale. Such active segments alternated with more serene ones with sky mines, horsetails, and other “silent” products. The Tarantella segment was a good example of this, with perfectly note-synchronized small mines and flashes on the 3rd and the 5th ramp.

Most of the material was reportedly manufactured by Lieto S.R.L. and it was of excellent quality. There were many types of multi-break shells (studatas). The colours were vivid. While the flag colours appeared very often through the show, we saw a wide range of colours, including many blue stars, and a nice colour gradient made of successive mines and comets on Tu Vuò Fà L’Americano. There were a lot of pieces with one change of colours. However, I am not sure the range of pyrotechnic effects was extremely wide : some types of shells (e.g., the green/red bicolour shells), the serpents and tourbillons appeared a couple of times, as well as some sequences like the horizontal mines I mentioned above.

The synchronization was extremely precise and it remained through the show.

Regarding the technical design, the show was really consistent through 30 minutes. A large number of pyrotechnics – much larger than what we are used to see – were installed on the fifth ramp, some of them being huge mines and very thick comets, which are always impressive to see so close. While no shell exploded at the surface of the water, other nautical products (flares) were displayed. However, the design didn’t appear to be so innovative. As I wrote above, the design had a pretty conservative style. I also noted small “mistakes.” Indeed, a couple of times, the colour of one piece in a barrage was different, or one of the shells in a set featured a different effect which didn’t match with the others. Finally, I felt sometimes the firing pattern to be somewhat predictable.

In summary, I would say that was an excellent traditional-style show with products of great quality, perfect synchronization, very good pyromusical design and a nice soundtrack. However, the richness of the colour was greater in the Hungarian show, the theme was easier than the Canadian display, the technical design was not very innovative and it included a couple of erratic effects (while minor).

So, my personal ranking so far :

1. Nuvu (Hungary)
2. Feux d’artifice Orion (Canada)
3. Lieto S.R.L. (Italy)
4. Sirius Pyrotechnics (Mexico)

My ranking reflects a preference for bolder shows, and I already know that other seasoned viewers have different views on this and preferences so far. Overall, I perceive limited differences in the quality of the Hungarian, Canadian and Italian extravaganzas. So there is room for the anticipated Croatian and British teams to take higher positions on the podium!

Fred

Hello.

An almost perfectly symmetrical, clean display with the best synchronisation is what I will describe this first Montreal show by Lieto SRL of Italy. Again I had pretty low expectations as I've seen not many videos of their previous shows, and they far exceeded my expectations. Their pyromusical program is the cleanest so far thanks to the perfect symmetry of the patterns made by all their single shot sequences and consistency of their beautiful, high quality shells. The soundtrack is just beautiful - best balance of highs and lows of mood and emotions in the competition so far. Even though they had lots of stutatas (my favorite effect always!) their shells are mostly big round ball shells that had such such quality it reminded me of a traditional Japanese show though most break low in the air unlike real Japanese shells. the Italian aspect still ruled however with the multibreak stutatas, farfalles, cylindricals, salute reports and the bright and vivid ground effects which were all exceptional knowing most of these were made from Lieto's factory. I specially liked the giant green stutata (probably 10' caliber) that fired by threes' twice in the finale. I uttered WOWs in numerous moments while watching Fred's video due to how on point the music, the fireworks effect and synchronization was. That said there are things that are just lacking which would definitely have made this my favorite show of the year at this point. There was nothing (aside from shells) on ramp 2 - although the ramp 3 and 5 ground effects kinda drowned everything behind and the low flights of shells also compensated the empty ramp 2 below. To me it felt like the show was missing a "backbone". The very consistency of the patterns and angles both ground and air made the show look less dynamic and varied than it actually was, specially when compared to the previous 2 entrants.

The finale was excellently done becoming my favorite finale so far this year. I initially thought the ending would be unsatisfying at a point into nessum dorma's climax where there's only ground whistles with no shells above, and knowing that the next note will be the ending, the extended vocals of Andrea Bocelli lasting a whole minute brought out that true Italian finale - it was totally unexpected and somehow gave us a unique finish quite unlike the ones were used to (those sky filling 12" shells in the ending) although some really powerful salutes would have made the ending perfect.

So there, 3 shows so far that are all deserving of a Jupiter award. Based from my following of the recent past editions which I still remember quite well (except from some obviously forgettable shows) - If I were to put any one of the past 3 shows (Hungary-Canada-Italy) to each of the editions from 2015 to 2019, any "one" of them would have won at least a Bronze Jupiter had their show been on any year within that period - and the last two shows ahead are "well" expected to be Jupiter contenders still. that's how great this "return of the Montreal Fireworks Competition" edition really is this year!

melvin😁[b][/b]

My report on the excellent display be Lieto: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1755

I really enjoyed the italian show. I'm a big fan of classic and conservative clean pyromusicals and the italian exhibition was one of them.

The product was great, specially the shells, the design was very clean (maybe too conservative and a bit repetitive sometimes, specially on the angles side) and the soundtrack was quite enjoyable whit differents pieces of music under the italian main theme, which is quite basic but still worked well. The finale was exiting and well built, however I felt more lower effect could have been added to give it a more exuberant feeling. The big ass singleshots fired from the pontoons during the show could have been added to the finale i think, they worked REALLY well through the display.


Some sections were pure gold for those who love conservative shows.

Overall a very nice display, to me ranking on number two after the hungarian show, which was significantly more complex and risky althought I feel the soundtrack wasnt as appealing as the italian show.


My ranking so far:

Hungary
Italy
Canada

The warmest and easily the most humid fireworks evening so far this year was present for this highly anticipated Italian display, with a temperature of 30 C during display time. Thankfully, winds were in the form of light SSE, allowing the thickly-building smoke to drift sufficiently quick enough clear to the right of and slightly away from the on-site audience.

For a first-time appearance of Lieto S.R.L, I was actually very impressed by this display. I found the show to feel quite complete, including a strongly tenacious thematic connection weaved neatly into a very traditional pyromusical design. I personally loved the arrangement of effects, and how this often came together in such an intricate mix to really highlight many of the segments. Great use was made of the firing site, and product quality was high (aided by the correct wind velocity to help demonstrate this further). Apart from a few abrupt transitions, much of the show, too, carried the correct fluidity, pace and context, providing many effective moments for clean emotional changes. Although more nautical effects would have been welcomed, good use was made of the water surface and mixed well with the mid- to upper-level support. Quite brilliantly, the opening further quickly captured people’s attention and noticeably made the audience feel interactive with the show. As such, it was quite clear that the show rapidly provided that important positive impression early! Several sequences were very subtle yet very precise in execution – this was especially true during the one-shots of comets and mines that made interesting patterns and captivating elaborations for the key moments of songs. Notably, the one-shots during “Tu Vuo Fa d’Americano” were very nicely done, and the salutes-driven piece at the fourth to last piece was quite memorable. One of my personal favorites was “Volare” – being a fan of the song altogether, this rendition was quite immersive! I loved how the fireworks often carefully defined the complex changes in pace that engendered that song, and then built to a very nice crescendo to really surprise the audience.

While the display was thoroughly enjoyed, I somehow found the firing pattern becoming saturated as the display progressed. This was nothing significant, since the display was choreographed well enough to often keep the viewer’s attention intact. However, some of the firing style did seemingly carry with it some repetition, even though the sequencing itself was magnificent throughout. I think that this notion was mostly related to the fanning effects distributed at low-level. Still, I honestly felt like this show really wanted to reach for a high degree of choreography (and it realistically did achieve that), but some additional diversity could have possibly made this display, in my mind, an even greater success. Also, just at the end of the penultimate piece, it did not make sense to me why there was a fairly enduring period of darkness, when some fireworks (perhaps horsetails or some other form of drooping effects) could have clearly filled in that void. It might have also been beneficial to shorten the length of each segment a little and add potentially other songs that perhaps could have allowed for even more effective changes in rhythm and pace.

The finale was excellent and was the best so far this year. Although it could have lasted for a little longer before that final volley of deafening salutes, it was a delightful end to an absolutely well-crafted display!

Italy may very well be on the podium this year!

Trav.