14 — Friday, July 31, 1998 — North Shore News

NORTH SHORE NEWS ENTERTAINHENT & STYLE GUIDE

~
NEWS photos Brad Ledwidge

PAOLA Nanna heads up the Italian team of Nanna Fireworks, which competed Wednesday in Symphony of Fire. Tomorrow’s fireworks are by Antonio Cabalier of Spain.

Paola’s pyr

LEAVE it to the Italians to find a
connection between fireworks and
food.

Aboard the Benson and Hedges barge
Monday with
Paola Nanna and
Elisabetta (Betty)
Parenc of Nanna
Fireworks, the all-
women Etalian
team who lit the
skies during
Wednesday's
Symphony of
Fire, the conver:
sation was rapid-
fire and animated.

The presence
of Luigi, a
reporter from an Italian language paper,
also ensured that the conversation was, for
the most part, in Italian.

As words flew and hands and arms
thagged the air, Luigi provided the transia-
tion.

A good fireworks show is like a nice spaghetti, he
said.

“The pasta: perteetly cooked; the sauce: tresh
tomatoes ... basilica (basil)... You smell the aroma and
when vou see the fireworks you should have the sanie
sensation. ‘The fireworks ... not too mach ... not too
little..."

The fireworks display must be a perfect balance of

Layne CHRISTENSEN

NEWS REPORTER

NANNA Fireworks are (from left) Cecilia Pistoiesi, Paola
Nanna, Linda Mannucci and Elisabetta Parenti.

ingredients — color and music, crescendos and quict
moments = “perkcete!.” says Nanna behind black
«aucet shades, smacking her lips and throwing a kiss
to the air. The food analogy is apr coasidering it was
an ftalian who helped introduce both pasta and fire-
works into Western civilization. According to legend,
Marco Polo brought home numerous novelties from
the Far East, among them noodles and gun powder.

ptechn

The neodles evolved into a mainstay of
the fratian diet: pasta. The gun powder
evolved into a mainstay of [ralian enter-
tanment: fireworks.

The earliest fireworks displays in [aly
date back tovhe Roman Empire and
1532, when ruler Charles V, emploved
“tireworkers™ to put on victory displays
after batiie.

Today in the arena of competitive Are-
works displays, the Italians are world
renowned for their handmade bombs,
which Nanna says pack a bigeer punch.
Under development at Narna Fireworks
in Pontadera, the company founded by
Pacia’s grandfather more than 75 vears
ago, are bombs with multiple detona-
tions, as many as 20 detonations for a
single bomb. But fire. grower isn’t every-
thing.

Nanna sees the pyrotechnics as an artistic
creation. “You hear the music and you
image [imagine]. You see the colors. It's
emotion.”

Nanna, who is hoping to butt an her
team’s suce gold trophy winners at
Jast year’s Symphony of Fire on Toronto, will have the
UK, which opened the ever: Lost Saturday, and
Spain, which mounts its ery display tomorrow, t0
contend with. All three teams will have another
chance to paint the skies with their art during the

Aug. 5 finale, which will feature 712 minutes of high-

lights from each show, with the winner to be
announced minutes betore the finale’s start.

rire facts

EVENT publicist Julic
Prescott of North Var
provides the following
information on the
Symphony of Fire.

@ The Benson and
Hedges barge is
restrained by six four-
ton anchors. A bed of
sand weighing 1,000
tons is spread evenly
trom end to end.

B Ic takes a crew of 1%
men and womes three
days, or about 600
man-hours, to prepare
the barge tor cach
show,

@ Bombs, or shells,
used in cach show
number anywhere from
2,000 to 4,500.

@ An estimated 1.6
million people are
expected to anend this
year’s event,

Tourism Vancouver
estiniates for 1994's
Symphony of Fire indi-
cate thar 34% of specta-
tors were tourists.
Visitor spending during
thar year’s event
amounted to $9.7 mil-
lion,

— Lave Christensen

MOVIES: 16 MOCK WEDDING: 17 MUSIC: 21 MALDIVES: 23 BOOKS : 24