Post by davidhr on Oct 26, 2010 14:16:22 GMT -5
While there were a number of news items this past week, it would be foolish to begin with anything other than the event that dominated, the release of the Mlle. Zhivago album.
It was noted that in the previous weeks there had been little indication that the album release was imminent – it was not available for pre-order on the web, Lara’s promo appearance on ‘Russia Saturday Night’ was cancelled, and even the Russian fans had stopped talking about it. Lara herself was busy with the promo for the ‘best of’ album in France, and of course her sojourns to North America. In retrospect, however, all this is now understandable.
First, the promo for the album in Russia got back on track with Lara’s (lip-synched) performance of the song “Ever Ever land” (previously known to us as ‘Ever’), shown on ‘Russia Saturday Night’, this past weekend. Again Lara looked exceptionally pretty, and the song added to the litany of wonderful melodies and vocals we’ve been getting to hear over the past few months. Videos of Lara’s ‘performance’ of it are readily available on the web.
Then news broke out about when the album would actually appear, and while correct insofar as it went, it turned out to be misleading. Various websites indicated that the actual release date was November 19th (4 days after the release of the ‘Best of’ album in France). The track list was also made available:
1. Demain n'existe pas 4:35; 2. Toccami 5:01; 3.Llora 5:47; 4. Russian Fairy Tale 4:08
5.Mademoiselle Hyde 3:59; 6.Desperate Housewife 3:41; 7.Lou 3:55; 8.Ever-Ever Land 3:35; 9. Mr. President 3:48; 10.Мама моя 4:21; 11.Vocalise (Ascolta la voce) 5:50; 12.Tomorrow is a Lie 4:36; 13.Любовь, похожая на сон (бонус-трек) (Love, Like a Dream) 5:03
We hadn’t previously heard the last two songs, although #12 is ‘Demaine n’existe pas’ in an English incarnation. The last song, in Russian, is a new addition, and in the promo for the album was referred to as a hit written by Igor Krutoi. (In effect, it is a bonus song). The CD is long, a bit more than 58 minutes.
However, it turns out that the date listed above seems to be only for the Russian release, and its timing of several weeks away is probably responsible for the lack of activity in that country. For lo and behold, pretty much on the date anticipated (today), the album was released in the Ukraine (one suspects this is the power of Igor Krutoi!). And if it is available there, you can be pretty sure that in these days of the internet, it is available everywhere. In particular, thanks to Lara’s fans in the ‘countries to the east’, all the songs are available at:
www.4shared.com/file/ogk7cpLQ/Mademoiselle_Zhivago__2010_.html
The album itself can be purchased from the Ukraine; it is available at:
www.yakaboo.ua/ru/catalog/tracklist/-185823
where it is already a best seller.
As you can judge for yourself, it is a tour de force singing performance by Lara. She previously indicated that this project had ‘stretched’ her vocally, and that is apparent, with her best vocal performance in many years. (It may also have helped that this was not meant for the French audience, which seems to intimidate her vocally).
Although we thought we heard most of these before, it turns out that the lip-synching Lara did on TV was probably to versions that were not the final ones, in particular as far as the instrumentation is concerned. More orchestration and choirs have been added, sometimes (in some people’s mind) to the detriment of certain cuts. So now we actually have two versions – the ones from the TV shows, and the album versions.
Also available are the other aspects of the album, including the cover picture (one can see it various places on the web, e.g., larafabiannews.com). It is obviously quite garish. Lara once commented of the photo taken of her for her first English album by Sony/Columbia that it made her look so strange even her mother didn’t recognize her. Looking at this photo one might say that her mother wouldn’t want to recognize her! Fans on the various websites rationalized it by saying that perhaps that is what one has to do to sell records in these ‘countries in the east’. However, Lara will have to live with it for the rest of its existence; perhaps when the record is released in France or Europe in general, the cover might be changed.
Another obvious aspect is that Igor Krutoi shares the cover photo and the artist title with Lara. Looking at the booklet (available in the ‘photo’ folder of the above download), one can see he gets equal prominence. At one of her shows, Lara said that the album is a ‘real duet’, and the production makes it appear so. It is fairly strange, though not unprecedented, for the sole vocalist to share top billing with the composer/piano player (remember the ‘Carpenters’ albums?). Igor Krutoi’s prominence also makes sense in these countries where he is certainly better known than Lara. One wonders if this might change when the album is made available for more general released.
The promotional blurb for the album reads (translated from Russian with the help of Google):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lara Fabian has written most of the words to the magnificent melody of Igor Krutoi! UNIQUE PROJECT OF 12 tracks! Bonus track - an exclusive performance of Lara Fabian in Russian of Igor Krutoi’s hit "Love, like a dream!” The project was recorded in studios in Hollywood, New York, Moscow and Brussels. The record features Yuri Bashmet (viola), Jivan Gasparian (duduk), and Symphony Studios «20th Century FOX» (Conductor - William Ross). Audiences in many cities in 2010 and 2011 are waiting for a concert tour with the program "Mademoiselle Zhivago
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The album is available in the Ukraine from ‘MOON Records’; according to their on-line site, MOON records is “the largest music publisher in the Ukraine that produces albums of Ukrainian, Russian and foreign representatives of pop, rap, rock music and artists of other areas”. On a Russian website (http://kvadro.ru/disc/detail.php?ID=408180) the publisher appears to be “Quad-Disk” Records, which may be another name for Igor Kruoi’s own label, Ars Records, as they have released a number of his discs; his name is actually listed first on their Mlle. Zhivago album blurb. In the enclosed booklet, the other credit goes to Lara’s own “9 Productions”. The point is that this is not a Universal Music production, not even Universal Russia (which still does not list it, although their website nominally carries Lara’s name under its artists registry). Apparently Lara and Igor are just making do with local record companies. ‘jonleee’ on the official site said that Universal had passed on the album – so in France it will be her own company’s release. That is pretty shabby treatment for what is an amazingly good album. With all this in mind, the cover makes more sense.
It would seem as if Universal feels that a vocalist album will not be a big seller in today’s market, but they may end up being very mistaken. Initial response from Lara’s fans is extremely positive, although they do recognize it is ‘old-fashioned’ in the sense that Universal probably viewed it. Ironically, it was Pascal Negre who convinced Lara to go back to being a powerful singer, and now, when that has once again come to fruition, Universal will not benefit from it. Instead, they are ‘stuck’ with the ‘best of’ release, and had to swallow the live TLFM DVD in the bargain. No wonder record companies are going under.
Fans have wondered why, if Lara is the one releasing the album, she does not release it in France now, rather than waiting ‘til next February. It seems foolish, since fans are already downloading it for free from the web [and it is pretty amazing that the download link for it was given in the official forum – perhaps Lara’s people have given up in the face of the inevitable!]. Some fans think that the French release may be in conjunction with the Mlle. Zhivago movie on DVD (remember that?). She may also need time to change the cover(!) – not only the picture, but replacing the Russian alphabet with a western language. Igor Krutoi’s prominence may also be diminished, though not necessarily. Another strong possibility is that she didn’t want to release it now in competition with Universal’s ‘best of’, competing against herself.
Six of the songs on the album are in English, two in French, two in Italian, one in Spanish and one in Russian (plus the one with mainly vocalization, although the few words spoken there are in Italian). Hence this is much more of an English album than we realized, and that brings up the possibility of a North American/worldwide release. Since it is not a Universal album, one wonders if the rumors we’ve been hearing about Lara being approached by Sony/Columbia may have to do with their interest in it (or her interest in them). This may be wishful thinking, given the musical tastes found around the world currently, but Lara (and Igor) would appear to have freedom in choosing local distributors.
In other news, ramifications of Lara’s trips to Canada and the US continue. Early this past week it was reported that Michael Bolton had posted some amazingly positive words about Lara on his website, and they are now all over the web (see larafabianweb.com and Christina’s websites). Actually, Lara has been getting almost as much positive commentary for her epic trip from Europe/Asia to Las Vegas, arriving at the last moment, as she has for her singing. ‘jonlee’ reported that Lara was supposed to have sung ‘Adagio’ at the show with the orchestra, but without rehearsal it was deemed too complicated to pull off. In Canada, TLFM ranks 54th overall, 11th in Quebec and 13th in Montreal, all down somewhat from last week, with the slippage of course related to Lara’s no longer being there. One can’t be everywhere, though with Lara’s various releases in different countries, the necessity arises to try and do so (Lara’s frequent flyer miles are presumably piling up!).
With respect to the ‘Best of’ release for France, the official site has now corrected the release date to be November 15th, and pre-orders are already being made on the on-line sites (surprisingly, for the CD alone as well as the version with the DVD). On amazon.com, three weeks before its release, it is already ranked 35th. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction continues among the fans concerning the cover (although in comparison to the Mlle. Zhivago cover, it is a masterpiece!). “valou712” came up with his own suggestion, which can be seen at:
farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5110398046_6ef2b1b7a8_o.jpg
The unhappiness with this project extends far beyond the cover, to include Lara’s apparent lack of choice in the songs, a new song (on her best of CD) that she hadn’t even written and was chosen for her, the lack of publicity, especially for the DVD, and in general Universal’s treatment of Lara. This has all the makings of a slipshod project – except of course for the artistic content that Lara has provided, which we know is always first rate. [As an aside, I’ve seen some other recent products from Universal Records, and they are also very poorly put together – when one says the record companies are slipping, it isn’t only financially…]. As far as the promo for it goes, the program ‘Dans l’universe de…Lara Fabian’ has been pushed back to the November 17th date previously announced on Lara’s website, while the program “Chabada” is schedueled to be shown November 9th on France 3. Lara already recorded the Bel RTL Emission Beau-Fixe radio show, and other media events are expected to be broadcast in conjunction with the actual release date. What remains to be seen is how much mention the Live DVD gets in all this.
Lara has regularly been the sarcastic target of Yann Barthès in his “Petit Journal” on Canal + (Be TV), the latest one being for her québécois accent when in Montreal. Lara actually responded to this, on radio “Nostalgie Belgique” by saying (in translation), “If I were as dumb as he wants to believe, I would not be in his ‘Petit Journal’. If he is not smart enough to understand the subtleties of what can be done to adapt [to local cultures] and also find the colors that belong to us, if he finds that laughable, he has the right, but it is no more than his opinion! He has the right to laugh if he wants, like he laughs at Sarka, at Carla, at Celine Dion, a lot of things are laughable only to a band of disillusioned cynics who are tired of everything, and who find in life pleasure only in demolishing others. If we were not there to feed his ‘Petit Journal’, it would not exist! There is nothing else to back it up! It is the case that there is not anyone who can express intrinsically what I can be. He has not understood who I am but it does not matter; I do not do this job for him.”
It’s doubtful that Barthes will feel all that chastened (though who knows), and keeping the controversy alive will probably not hurt the ‘Petit Journal’ ratings, but, on the other hand, keeping Lara’s name in the news will not hurt sales of her ‘best of’, either. The video of Lara’s response can be seen on youtube at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwywxmX4vLo
Far removed from all this activity, both conceptually and in time, larafabianweb has posted some story boards for the movie Charlie from their film site. Lara’s character is not really shown in them, nor is she listed in the cast (which so far has just one member noted), but unless something else intervenes, she is apparently still to be in it, with filming next year.
In the meantime, there should be more promotional activities, and more comments on her recent and upcoming releases.
David
It was noted that in the previous weeks there had been little indication that the album release was imminent – it was not available for pre-order on the web, Lara’s promo appearance on ‘Russia Saturday Night’ was cancelled, and even the Russian fans had stopped talking about it. Lara herself was busy with the promo for the ‘best of’ album in France, and of course her sojourns to North America. In retrospect, however, all this is now understandable.
First, the promo for the album in Russia got back on track with Lara’s (lip-synched) performance of the song “Ever Ever land” (previously known to us as ‘Ever’), shown on ‘Russia Saturday Night’, this past weekend. Again Lara looked exceptionally pretty, and the song added to the litany of wonderful melodies and vocals we’ve been getting to hear over the past few months. Videos of Lara’s ‘performance’ of it are readily available on the web.
Then news broke out about when the album would actually appear, and while correct insofar as it went, it turned out to be misleading. Various websites indicated that the actual release date was November 19th (4 days after the release of the ‘Best of’ album in France). The track list was also made available:
1. Demain n'existe pas 4:35; 2. Toccami 5:01; 3.Llora 5:47; 4. Russian Fairy Tale 4:08
5.Mademoiselle Hyde 3:59; 6.Desperate Housewife 3:41; 7.Lou 3:55; 8.Ever-Ever Land 3:35; 9. Mr. President 3:48; 10.Мама моя 4:21; 11.Vocalise (Ascolta la voce) 5:50; 12.Tomorrow is a Lie 4:36; 13.Любовь, похожая на сон (бонус-трек) (Love, Like a Dream) 5:03
We hadn’t previously heard the last two songs, although #12 is ‘Demaine n’existe pas’ in an English incarnation. The last song, in Russian, is a new addition, and in the promo for the album was referred to as a hit written by Igor Krutoi. (In effect, it is a bonus song). The CD is long, a bit more than 58 minutes.
However, it turns out that the date listed above seems to be only for the Russian release, and its timing of several weeks away is probably responsible for the lack of activity in that country. For lo and behold, pretty much on the date anticipated (today), the album was released in the Ukraine (one suspects this is the power of Igor Krutoi!). And if it is available there, you can be pretty sure that in these days of the internet, it is available everywhere. In particular, thanks to Lara’s fans in the ‘countries to the east’, all the songs are available at:
www.4shared.com/file/ogk7cpLQ/Mademoiselle_Zhivago__2010_.html
The album itself can be purchased from the Ukraine; it is available at:
www.yakaboo.ua/ru/catalog/tracklist/-185823
where it is already a best seller.
As you can judge for yourself, it is a tour de force singing performance by Lara. She previously indicated that this project had ‘stretched’ her vocally, and that is apparent, with her best vocal performance in many years. (It may also have helped that this was not meant for the French audience, which seems to intimidate her vocally).
Although we thought we heard most of these before, it turns out that the lip-synching Lara did on TV was probably to versions that were not the final ones, in particular as far as the instrumentation is concerned. More orchestration and choirs have been added, sometimes (in some people’s mind) to the detriment of certain cuts. So now we actually have two versions – the ones from the TV shows, and the album versions.
Also available are the other aspects of the album, including the cover picture (one can see it various places on the web, e.g., larafabiannews.com). It is obviously quite garish. Lara once commented of the photo taken of her for her first English album by Sony/Columbia that it made her look so strange even her mother didn’t recognize her. Looking at this photo one might say that her mother wouldn’t want to recognize her! Fans on the various websites rationalized it by saying that perhaps that is what one has to do to sell records in these ‘countries in the east’. However, Lara will have to live with it for the rest of its existence; perhaps when the record is released in France or Europe in general, the cover might be changed.
Another obvious aspect is that Igor Krutoi shares the cover photo and the artist title with Lara. Looking at the booklet (available in the ‘photo’ folder of the above download), one can see he gets equal prominence. At one of her shows, Lara said that the album is a ‘real duet’, and the production makes it appear so. It is fairly strange, though not unprecedented, for the sole vocalist to share top billing with the composer/piano player (remember the ‘Carpenters’ albums?). Igor Krutoi’s prominence also makes sense in these countries where he is certainly better known than Lara. One wonders if this might change when the album is made available for more general released.
The promotional blurb for the album reads (translated from Russian with the help of Google):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lara Fabian has written most of the words to the magnificent melody of Igor Krutoi! UNIQUE PROJECT OF 12 tracks! Bonus track - an exclusive performance of Lara Fabian in Russian of Igor Krutoi’s hit "Love, like a dream!” The project was recorded in studios in Hollywood, New York, Moscow and Brussels. The record features Yuri Bashmet (viola), Jivan Gasparian (duduk), and Symphony Studios «20th Century FOX» (Conductor - William Ross). Audiences in many cities in 2010 and 2011 are waiting for a concert tour with the program "Mademoiselle Zhivago
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The album is available in the Ukraine from ‘MOON Records’; according to their on-line site, MOON records is “the largest music publisher in the Ukraine that produces albums of Ukrainian, Russian and foreign representatives of pop, rap, rock music and artists of other areas”. On a Russian website (http://kvadro.ru/disc/detail.php?ID=408180) the publisher appears to be “Quad-Disk” Records, which may be another name for Igor Kruoi’s own label, Ars Records, as they have released a number of his discs; his name is actually listed first on their Mlle. Zhivago album blurb. In the enclosed booklet, the other credit goes to Lara’s own “9 Productions”. The point is that this is not a Universal Music production, not even Universal Russia (which still does not list it, although their website nominally carries Lara’s name under its artists registry). Apparently Lara and Igor are just making do with local record companies. ‘jonleee’ on the official site said that Universal had passed on the album – so in France it will be her own company’s release. That is pretty shabby treatment for what is an amazingly good album. With all this in mind, the cover makes more sense.
It would seem as if Universal feels that a vocalist album will not be a big seller in today’s market, but they may end up being very mistaken. Initial response from Lara’s fans is extremely positive, although they do recognize it is ‘old-fashioned’ in the sense that Universal probably viewed it. Ironically, it was Pascal Negre who convinced Lara to go back to being a powerful singer, and now, when that has once again come to fruition, Universal will not benefit from it. Instead, they are ‘stuck’ with the ‘best of’ release, and had to swallow the live TLFM DVD in the bargain. No wonder record companies are going under.
Fans have wondered why, if Lara is the one releasing the album, she does not release it in France now, rather than waiting ‘til next February. It seems foolish, since fans are already downloading it for free from the web [and it is pretty amazing that the download link for it was given in the official forum – perhaps Lara’s people have given up in the face of the inevitable!]. Some fans think that the French release may be in conjunction with the Mlle. Zhivago movie on DVD (remember that?). She may also need time to change the cover(!) – not only the picture, but replacing the Russian alphabet with a western language. Igor Krutoi’s prominence may also be diminished, though not necessarily. Another strong possibility is that she didn’t want to release it now in competition with Universal’s ‘best of’, competing against herself.
Six of the songs on the album are in English, two in French, two in Italian, one in Spanish and one in Russian (plus the one with mainly vocalization, although the few words spoken there are in Italian). Hence this is much more of an English album than we realized, and that brings up the possibility of a North American/worldwide release. Since it is not a Universal album, one wonders if the rumors we’ve been hearing about Lara being approached by Sony/Columbia may have to do with their interest in it (or her interest in them). This may be wishful thinking, given the musical tastes found around the world currently, but Lara (and Igor) would appear to have freedom in choosing local distributors.
In other news, ramifications of Lara’s trips to Canada and the US continue. Early this past week it was reported that Michael Bolton had posted some amazingly positive words about Lara on his website, and they are now all over the web (see larafabianweb.com and Christina’s websites). Actually, Lara has been getting almost as much positive commentary for her epic trip from Europe/Asia to Las Vegas, arriving at the last moment, as she has for her singing. ‘jonlee’ reported that Lara was supposed to have sung ‘Adagio’ at the show with the orchestra, but without rehearsal it was deemed too complicated to pull off. In Canada, TLFM ranks 54th overall, 11th in Quebec and 13th in Montreal, all down somewhat from last week, with the slippage of course related to Lara’s no longer being there. One can’t be everywhere, though with Lara’s various releases in different countries, the necessity arises to try and do so (Lara’s frequent flyer miles are presumably piling up!).
With respect to the ‘Best of’ release for France, the official site has now corrected the release date to be November 15th, and pre-orders are already being made on the on-line sites (surprisingly, for the CD alone as well as the version with the DVD). On amazon.com, three weeks before its release, it is already ranked 35th. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction continues among the fans concerning the cover (although in comparison to the Mlle. Zhivago cover, it is a masterpiece!). “valou712” came up with his own suggestion, which can be seen at:
farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5110398046_6ef2b1b7a8_o.jpg
The unhappiness with this project extends far beyond the cover, to include Lara’s apparent lack of choice in the songs, a new song (on her best of CD) that she hadn’t even written and was chosen for her, the lack of publicity, especially for the DVD, and in general Universal’s treatment of Lara. This has all the makings of a slipshod project – except of course for the artistic content that Lara has provided, which we know is always first rate. [As an aside, I’ve seen some other recent products from Universal Records, and they are also very poorly put together – when one says the record companies are slipping, it isn’t only financially…]. As far as the promo for it goes, the program ‘Dans l’universe de…Lara Fabian’ has been pushed back to the November 17th date previously announced on Lara’s website, while the program “Chabada” is schedueled to be shown November 9th on France 3. Lara already recorded the Bel RTL Emission Beau-Fixe radio show, and other media events are expected to be broadcast in conjunction with the actual release date. What remains to be seen is how much mention the Live DVD gets in all this.
Lara has regularly been the sarcastic target of Yann Barthès in his “Petit Journal” on Canal + (Be TV), the latest one being for her québécois accent when in Montreal. Lara actually responded to this, on radio “Nostalgie Belgique” by saying (in translation), “If I were as dumb as he wants to believe, I would not be in his ‘Petit Journal’. If he is not smart enough to understand the subtleties of what can be done to adapt [to local cultures] and also find the colors that belong to us, if he finds that laughable, he has the right, but it is no more than his opinion! He has the right to laugh if he wants, like he laughs at Sarka, at Carla, at Celine Dion, a lot of things are laughable only to a band of disillusioned cynics who are tired of everything, and who find in life pleasure only in demolishing others. If we were not there to feed his ‘Petit Journal’, it would not exist! There is nothing else to back it up! It is the case that there is not anyone who can express intrinsically what I can be. He has not understood who I am but it does not matter; I do not do this job for him.”
It’s doubtful that Barthes will feel all that chastened (though who knows), and keeping the controversy alive will probably not hurt the ‘Petit Journal’ ratings, but, on the other hand, keeping Lara’s name in the news will not hurt sales of her ‘best of’, either. The video of Lara’s response can be seen on youtube at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwywxmX4vLo
Far removed from all this activity, both conceptually and in time, larafabianweb has posted some story boards for the movie Charlie from their film site. Lara’s character is not really shown in them, nor is she listed in the cast (which so far has just one member noted), but unless something else intervenes, she is apparently still to be in it, with filming next year.
In the meantime, there should be more promotional activities, and more comments on her recent and upcoming releases.
David