Post by davidhr on Nov 30, 2010 11:29:19 GMT -5
The big news this past week was the airing on Friday night of Lara’s Moscow concert(s) on TV in Russia. Those of you who have seen the show, which is all over the web, know that it was a magnificent program, with Lara comfortable and at times emotional, having Lou and her parents both on hand. The filming was first rate, Lara looked sensational, and the sound was excellent. The version of ‘Broken Vow’ was particularly full of feeling, as well as was ‘Je suis malade’. The new songs sounded great. Offhand, at face value, it would seem to be one of Lara’s best recorded shows, of a similar quality to ‘From Lara with Love’ and the ‘Molsen Center concert’, both filmed for TV audiences.
An important difference, however, is that since we now that we have high quality versions available, we can tell that some 7 of the new songs were lip-synched: "Toccami", "Llora", "Mr President", "Mama", "Lou", "Desperate Housewives" and ‘the Russian song’. Lara has gotten very good at it – it’s hard to know if much of the live audience, much less the TV audience was aware of it. She certainly seems to be singing the words that we’re hearing, and there’s not much visual difference between what one sees for the ‘old songs’ which she is certainly singing, and these new ones. At the same time, if one listens to the songs as presented on the TV show in comparison to the ones on the album, these 7 are VERY similar, so much so that it defies belief. Lara always improvises, hence this seems unreal.
Fans suggested that the substitution was necessitated by the acoustics in the room, or that Lara was sick. Several of those songs are very difficult to sing. These all may have played a part. But the primary reason is perhaps what Lara has explained previously. When ‘Neuf’ came out, Lara lip-synched ‘La Lettre’ on her first TV shows. In the face of criticism from French fans, Lara said that she wanted the first televised impression of the song to be the best it could be. This show was obviously the first televised appearance of the songs for the Russian public, so would fit Lara’s description. And it certainly did make for a great program.
The televised concert is supposed to come out as a DVD next year, perhaps with some more aspects (bonus, etc.). If there really are 7 songs that were lip-synched, one wonders how Lara feels about that on a commercial DVD release (it is widely thought that ‘Parce que tu pars’ was a lip-synch version on the ‘Lara Fabian Live’ DVD, but that was just one song). Fans on the official forum said they would have felt cheated to go to a concert and hear the recorded version of that many songs. If she performs them in France, perhaps we’ll find out if she can really sing the cuts from the Mlle. Zhivago album in a live setting. (Despite rumors that she will give a concert on the album in Paris next March apparently nothing is certain, though Lara has indicated that a significant part of her earnings come from her concert tours).
The Russian TV program should certainly help sales of that album, which already seems to be going exceedingly well. Although the information is somewhat garbled, the claim (which I cannot confirm) is that it is currently #1 in both Russia and the Ukraine (despite the fact that fans say it is still not available in stores, the sales being from the web). In addition, apparently both ‘A Wonderful Life” and ‘En toute intimite’ have now appeared on the best sellers list in Russia as well.
As far as the film goes, in the latest Farfallina Lara indicated that the DVD of the movie clips would be released in Russia around the time of the holidays, although the timing may have changed since that was written. It was also reported that Lara just indicated that the DVD of the movie clips will be released in France in April, which at least suggests they will be available in the Ukraine and Russia (and hence for us!) before that. Of course we've learned not to take any such timelines all that seriously.
While on these subjects, Lara devotes a large part of the latest Farfallina issue to celebrating the fan meeting in Brussels that took place earlier this year, where Lara made a surprise appearance. She also discusses what she likes about Belgium. And in her most candid discussion yet of the Mlle. Zhivago project, Lara indicated that the filming was extremely hard on her, physically and emotionally, and she caught herself wondering at times why she was doing it. But in retrospect she notes that it really forced her to expand her boundaries. A scan of the Farfallina pages is available on larafabiannews.com.
Otherwise, Lara is continuing with her promo for ‘the Best of’. She was on the Belgian station RTL on the 27th; she recorded “Et si c'était ça le bonheur ?” for Europe 1 yesterday (no date yet for its broadcast). And she was on station Mona FM (via telephone) today for the program “avec ou sans sucre”. It was noted that her album is #1 in Belgium, and #1 France on the list of compilations (and those listings I can confirm; I wonder how much the DVD is figuring in that…), with 8400 albums sold.
She’s also been interviewed by several publications. In ‘Femmebs d’aujourd’hui” Lara indicated she is in the process of moving again (presumably in Brussels, but it might also refer to the apartment she has mentioned buying in Kiev or Moscow). She also noted that to get the rights to sing ‘Ensemble’ in her virtual duet with Ray Charles, she had to pass muster with his heirs. Apparently she sent them some work, and they approved her the same day. And in an article in ‘telemoustique’ Lara indicated that she would be in financial difficulty if she had to depend for her living on what she sold in France, that fortunately she ‘works in the world’. Nothing like this last week to underline that point.
However, the promo performance that elicited the most interest was Lara’s recording of the program “Les 500 choristes” on the 29th. It was reported that she (and they) sang ‘Je t’aime’. If this sounds like an odd choice, remember it’s for the promo of the ‘best of’ album, where that song appears twice. Nevertheless, it elicited critical responses on her website, with the majority opinion being that it was a poor choice, that it was how she is characterized (and ridiculed) and this implies she’s done nothing since the time it came out. Others argued that it is a great song, it is her biggest hit, and apparently on the show with the chorus it was done exceedingly well. To get people to remember and appreciate it (and her) should not hurt sales. And there is the feeling that Lara perhaps also chose it to say ‘mort aux cons’ in the words of Edith Piaf – that she won’t be cowered, and if the idiots don’t like it, too bad! If that was her motive, more power to her!
The official site does not list when the show is to be broadcast. Of course it didn’t list that she was recording the show, either. Whether this was intentional or not is hard to say, but there was certainly intrigue going on about it. The few fans of Lara’s who attended the show had to sign a contract saying they would not inform anyone else, and the date Lara was to appear was changed at the last moment. Perhaps they were trying to prevent the audience from being overwhelmed by Lara’s enthusiastic ‘angels’.
Lara was busy on other things as well. On the 28th she was at the photo exhibit of Daniel Collin for AMTM. Larafabianweb.com will apparently have some pictures on their site shortly. They just posted an article from July of 2009 in “Zen Health Review” about Lara’s work with the charity, which hasn’t gotten much public attention this year. But the website claims Lara will be more active for them this coming year.
Coming up, the duet with Michael Bolton of “The Prayer” should become available very soon, if it isn’t already. And Lara will return to the ‘countries to the east’ to be present on the broadcast of "Song of year 2010”, December 4th in Russia.
David
An important difference, however, is that since we now that we have high quality versions available, we can tell that some 7 of the new songs were lip-synched: "Toccami", "Llora", "Mr President", "Mama", "Lou", "Desperate Housewives" and ‘the Russian song’. Lara has gotten very good at it – it’s hard to know if much of the live audience, much less the TV audience was aware of it. She certainly seems to be singing the words that we’re hearing, and there’s not much visual difference between what one sees for the ‘old songs’ which she is certainly singing, and these new ones. At the same time, if one listens to the songs as presented on the TV show in comparison to the ones on the album, these 7 are VERY similar, so much so that it defies belief. Lara always improvises, hence this seems unreal.
Fans suggested that the substitution was necessitated by the acoustics in the room, or that Lara was sick. Several of those songs are very difficult to sing. These all may have played a part. But the primary reason is perhaps what Lara has explained previously. When ‘Neuf’ came out, Lara lip-synched ‘La Lettre’ on her first TV shows. In the face of criticism from French fans, Lara said that she wanted the first televised impression of the song to be the best it could be. This show was obviously the first televised appearance of the songs for the Russian public, so would fit Lara’s description. And it certainly did make for a great program.
The televised concert is supposed to come out as a DVD next year, perhaps with some more aspects (bonus, etc.). If there really are 7 songs that were lip-synched, one wonders how Lara feels about that on a commercial DVD release (it is widely thought that ‘Parce que tu pars’ was a lip-synch version on the ‘Lara Fabian Live’ DVD, but that was just one song). Fans on the official forum said they would have felt cheated to go to a concert and hear the recorded version of that many songs. If she performs them in France, perhaps we’ll find out if she can really sing the cuts from the Mlle. Zhivago album in a live setting. (Despite rumors that she will give a concert on the album in Paris next March apparently nothing is certain, though Lara has indicated that a significant part of her earnings come from her concert tours).
The Russian TV program should certainly help sales of that album, which already seems to be going exceedingly well. Although the information is somewhat garbled, the claim (which I cannot confirm) is that it is currently #1 in both Russia and the Ukraine (despite the fact that fans say it is still not available in stores, the sales being from the web). In addition, apparently both ‘A Wonderful Life” and ‘En toute intimite’ have now appeared on the best sellers list in Russia as well.
As far as the film goes, in the latest Farfallina Lara indicated that the DVD of the movie clips would be released in Russia around the time of the holidays, although the timing may have changed since that was written. It was also reported that Lara just indicated that the DVD of the movie clips will be released in France in April, which at least suggests they will be available in the Ukraine and Russia (and hence for us!) before that. Of course we've learned not to take any such timelines all that seriously.
While on these subjects, Lara devotes a large part of the latest Farfallina issue to celebrating the fan meeting in Brussels that took place earlier this year, where Lara made a surprise appearance. She also discusses what she likes about Belgium. And in her most candid discussion yet of the Mlle. Zhivago project, Lara indicated that the filming was extremely hard on her, physically and emotionally, and she caught herself wondering at times why she was doing it. But in retrospect she notes that it really forced her to expand her boundaries. A scan of the Farfallina pages is available on larafabiannews.com.
Otherwise, Lara is continuing with her promo for ‘the Best of’. She was on the Belgian station RTL on the 27th; she recorded “Et si c'était ça le bonheur ?” for Europe 1 yesterday (no date yet for its broadcast). And she was on station Mona FM (via telephone) today for the program “avec ou sans sucre”. It was noted that her album is #1 in Belgium, and #1 France on the list of compilations (and those listings I can confirm; I wonder how much the DVD is figuring in that…), with 8400 albums sold.
She’s also been interviewed by several publications. In ‘Femmebs d’aujourd’hui” Lara indicated she is in the process of moving again (presumably in Brussels, but it might also refer to the apartment she has mentioned buying in Kiev or Moscow). She also noted that to get the rights to sing ‘Ensemble’ in her virtual duet with Ray Charles, she had to pass muster with his heirs. Apparently she sent them some work, and they approved her the same day. And in an article in ‘telemoustique’ Lara indicated that she would be in financial difficulty if she had to depend for her living on what she sold in France, that fortunately she ‘works in the world’. Nothing like this last week to underline that point.
However, the promo performance that elicited the most interest was Lara’s recording of the program “Les 500 choristes” on the 29th. It was reported that she (and they) sang ‘Je t’aime’. If this sounds like an odd choice, remember it’s for the promo of the ‘best of’ album, where that song appears twice. Nevertheless, it elicited critical responses on her website, with the majority opinion being that it was a poor choice, that it was how she is characterized (and ridiculed) and this implies she’s done nothing since the time it came out. Others argued that it is a great song, it is her biggest hit, and apparently on the show with the chorus it was done exceedingly well. To get people to remember and appreciate it (and her) should not hurt sales. And there is the feeling that Lara perhaps also chose it to say ‘mort aux cons’ in the words of Edith Piaf – that she won’t be cowered, and if the idiots don’t like it, too bad! If that was her motive, more power to her!
The official site does not list when the show is to be broadcast. Of course it didn’t list that she was recording the show, either. Whether this was intentional or not is hard to say, but there was certainly intrigue going on about it. The few fans of Lara’s who attended the show had to sign a contract saying they would not inform anyone else, and the date Lara was to appear was changed at the last moment. Perhaps they were trying to prevent the audience from being overwhelmed by Lara’s enthusiastic ‘angels’.
Lara was busy on other things as well. On the 28th she was at the photo exhibit of Daniel Collin for AMTM. Larafabianweb.com will apparently have some pictures on their site shortly. They just posted an article from July of 2009 in “Zen Health Review” about Lara’s work with the charity, which hasn’t gotten much public attention this year. But the website claims Lara will be more active for them this coming year.
Coming up, the duet with Michael Bolton of “The Prayer” should become available very soon, if it isn’t already. And Lara will return to the ‘countries to the east’ to be present on the broadcast of "Song of year 2010”, December 4th in Russia.
David
