Post by davidhr on May 24, 2011 10:22:27 GMT -5
Another quiet week for Lara publicly, and too bad that it was. The Cannes film festival is now over, and nothing has been mentioned concerning the Mlle. Zhivago film. Of course we are not privy to what went on behind closed doors – but it would have been a perfect event, for Lara, in France, to make an appearance in front of a huge audience to hawk the film. We obviously don’t know why that didn’t happen despite Alan Badoev's suggesting it… did they not even try, or did they, and it wasn’t deemed good enough? Either way, it doesn’t bode well for this film as a substantive release, and makes its appearance in France seem even less likely.
However, in other respects it was a good week for Lara’s Francophile fans. They were overjoyed to hear that she has agreed to give a concert in Belgium for a new foundation “Papillon”, which aims to build houses for children in difficulty (orphans) in Charleroi (where the concert will be held). It is scheduled to take place September 22, 2011. The reason for the fan’s happiness was not, primarily, that Lara was engaged in another charitable project, but that it was evidence she had not given up on them in her quest to conquer the ‘countries to the east’.
It’s apparently a big room – some 6300 seats – so it has raised the question of what, exactly, will Lara sing, and with what accompaniment. Offhand it seems to be a large venue for her to present the usual acoustic show she normally gives at such private events…And yet it’s far from clear that Mlle. Zhivago will be available in Belgium, in any form, at that time. The best guess would be (still) an acoustic concert of old multi-lingual standards.
A poster for this concert can be seen at:
www.pure-lara.fr/index.php/actualites/169-concert-caritatif
And for another ‘Francophile’ event, there’s some more information on ‘1939’, the AICOM production that Lara will appear in during two days in late June. It will have 50 actors on stage and six musicians; there will be three performances; seats range in price from 22-44 euros; the website is http://www.1939musical.com; the benefits will be donated to “Toit du monde”, the medical association helping treat children in Tibet that Lara sponsors; and all the benefits that are taken in for that purpose will be matched by AICOM. It’s still not clear how much time Lara will actually be on stage during the show. It is said that her character dies in the play
.
In other news, concerning sales of her current albums, the ‘best of’ in Canada is in 9th place for French language albums, 85th overall. In Belgium, after all this time, it is 72nd. In Russia, ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ has dropped two places, and is now 17th.
The replay of Lara’s Moscow concert took place on Russian TV this past week, and it reminded the fans of the beauty of the songs and of the singer…It also set off a renewed debate about the lip-synching. Whatever the reasons(s) for her doing it last fall, it is clear from the fans’ comments that Lara better not lip-synch those songs on the upcoming Russian tour or they plan to react quite negatively.
Fans have noted that it is no longer possible to renew subscriptions for the official fan club. Nathalie (yes, she still exists) responded by saying that “the fan club is undergoing restructuring, and fan club memberships are therefore currently suspended. Subscriptions will be extended for the number of months this process takes” (no indication of what that will be). Since fans thought they were getting (at least) 4 issues of ‘Farfallina’ for 2011, none of which will now be delivered, they are wondering what this re-structuring will provide in its place. We’ve been told there will be a ‘virtual’ component, but the particulars have not yet been revealed. Stay tuned…
Now for the next section of the biography of Lara, pp. 122-126:
**Because of what Lara thought was ‘bad managing by her American managers, but also by the generally bad tempo of the operation’, she decided that her second English album (i.e., “A Wonderful Life”) would be recorded in England .
**As we know, while Rick Allison was still somewhat involved, it was primarily Gary Barlow and Eliott Kennedy with whom Lara worked.
**The album’s goal was to be more nuanced with less vocal gymnastics, to make a cohesive album rather than a disparate collection of potential hits.
**Sony announced the album for the beginning of the summer 2004, with a world promotion in mind. It was to appear simultaneously in Europe, Asia, Brazil and Canada. [And as we also know, ‘The Last Goodbye’ was released as a single in the U.S. at that time…]
**Due to what the book calls “artistic and logistical discords” the world release never happened, it was in fact only released in three French-speaking countries [and we know that was only because Lara was good friends with the Sony representative in France].
**It ended up selling around 100,000 copies in France (with almost no publicity), and 150,000 around the world. [Lara has said that it cost one million dollars to make, so Sony's treatment of it made little sense, even economically).
This section represents by far the worst (or at least most obvious) limitation of the book to date. There is no discussion of what really happened behind the scenes to kill the album, because the author has done no work in digging for it. In fact, Lara has said more about this than the author has included, and even she is very tight-lipped about it. Hopefully some day the real story will come out, if there is ever a real biography written with Lara's participation
Many fans now feel that “A Wonderful Life” was a wonderful album. Lara has said that she even had people offering years later to re-release it, but she felt it’s time had passed. Unfortunately, “Mlle. Zhivago” is starting to give off the same emanations: only released in two countries, and Lara already talking about her next album. Let’s hope the analogy is a false one…
David
However, in other respects it was a good week for Lara’s Francophile fans. They were overjoyed to hear that she has agreed to give a concert in Belgium for a new foundation “Papillon”, which aims to build houses for children in difficulty (orphans) in Charleroi (where the concert will be held). It is scheduled to take place September 22, 2011. The reason for the fan’s happiness was not, primarily, that Lara was engaged in another charitable project, but that it was evidence she had not given up on them in her quest to conquer the ‘countries to the east’.
It’s apparently a big room – some 6300 seats – so it has raised the question of what, exactly, will Lara sing, and with what accompaniment. Offhand it seems to be a large venue for her to present the usual acoustic show she normally gives at such private events…And yet it’s far from clear that Mlle. Zhivago will be available in Belgium, in any form, at that time. The best guess would be (still) an acoustic concert of old multi-lingual standards.
A poster for this concert can be seen at:
www.pure-lara.fr/index.php/actualites/169-concert-caritatif
And for another ‘Francophile’ event, there’s some more information on ‘1939’, the AICOM production that Lara will appear in during two days in late June. It will have 50 actors on stage and six musicians; there will be three performances; seats range in price from 22-44 euros; the website is http://www.1939musical.com; the benefits will be donated to “Toit du monde”, the medical association helping treat children in Tibet that Lara sponsors; and all the benefits that are taken in for that purpose will be matched by AICOM. It’s still not clear how much time Lara will actually be on stage during the show. It is said that her character dies in the play
. In other news, concerning sales of her current albums, the ‘best of’ in Canada is in 9th place for French language albums, 85th overall. In Belgium, after all this time, it is 72nd. In Russia, ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ has dropped two places, and is now 17th.
The replay of Lara’s Moscow concert took place on Russian TV this past week, and it reminded the fans of the beauty of the songs and of the singer…It also set off a renewed debate about the lip-synching. Whatever the reasons(s) for her doing it last fall, it is clear from the fans’ comments that Lara better not lip-synch those songs on the upcoming Russian tour or they plan to react quite negatively.
Fans have noted that it is no longer possible to renew subscriptions for the official fan club. Nathalie (yes, she still exists) responded by saying that “the fan club is undergoing restructuring, and fan club memberships are therefore currently suspended. Subscriptions will be extended for the number of months this process takes” (no indication of what that will be). Since fans thought they were getting (at least) 4 issues of ‘Farfallina’ for 2011, none of which will now be delivered, they are wondering what this re-structuring will provide in its place. We’ve been told there will be a ‘virtual’ component, but the particulars have not yet been revealed. Stay tuned…
Now for the next section of the biography of Lara, pp. 122-126:
**Because of what Lara thought was ‘bad managing by her American managers, but also by the generally bad tempo of the operation’, she decided that her second English album (i.e., “A Wonderful Life”) would be recorded in England .
**As we know, while Rick Allison was still somewhat involved, it was primarily Gary Barlow and Eliott Kennedy with whom Lara worked.
**The album’s goal was to be more nuanced with less vocal gymnastics, to make a cohesive album rather than a disparate collection of potential hits.
**Sony announced the album for the beginning of the summer 2004, with a world promotion in mind. It was to appear simultaneously in Europe, Asia, Brazil and Canada. [And as we also know, ‘The Last Goodbye’ was released as a single in the U.S. at that time…]
**Due to what the book calls “artistic and logistical discords” the world release never happened, it was in fact only released in three French-speaking countries [and we know that was only because Lara was good friends with the Sony representative in France].
**It ended up selling around 100,000 copies in France (with almost no publicity), and 150,000 around the world. [Lara has said that it cost one million dollars to make, so Sony's treatment of it made little sense, even economically).
This section represents by far the worst (or at least most obvious) limitation of the book to date. There is no discussion of what really happened behind the scenes to kill the album, because the author has done no work in digging for it. In fact, Lara has said more about this than the author has included, and even she is very tight-lipped about it. Hopefully some day the real story will come out, if there is ever a real biography written with Lara's participation
Many fans now feel that “A Wonderful Life” was a wonderful album. Lara has said that she even had people offering years later to re-release it, but she felt it’s time had passed. Unfortunately, “Mlle. Zhivago” is starting to give off the same emanations: only released in two countries, and Lara already talking about her next album. Let’s hope the analogy is a false one…
David
