Post by davidhr on Jun 21, 2011 11:09:48 GMT -5
Happy first day of summer!
After some weeks of reduced activity, Lara sprang back into the news this last week for activities past, present and future.
Her past was on display in the form of the duo she sang with Michael Bolton, which is part of his new CD of duets called "Gems", available starting today. Their rendition of "The Prayer" has been made available by larafabiannews.com, and to my ears it sounds excellent [the live version done for the David Foster special "The Hit Man Returns" was also beautifully sung, even if their (his) body language was a bit off-putting]. It will be interesting to see how it will be received by his fans; the early reception on Lara's site has been ecstatic! It goes without saying that it has the possibility of greatly expanding Lara's visibility to an English-speaking/American audience.
On the other side of the globe, the "Mlle. Zhivago" album has jumped 6 places and so is back up to #13 on the Russian charts. It will likely get a boost from the Russian concert tour in the fall, so it may well end up being one of the best-selling albums of the year in that country. Perhaps that will give Lara confidence to release it - and the "Mme. Zhivago" film- elsewhere.
The "present" activity is that Lara was a guest last Thursday at the event in Brussels "Nuit des Maguen David d'Or", organized by Radio Judaica Brussels. She attended with Gerard, was honored with an award, and sang three songs. The website pure-lara.fr made available Lara's presentation of "Hurshat Ha Eucalyptus" (it is also available from larafabiannews.com) - and it sounds very well done, as always (even with the brief drop-out recorded from the radio). She also sang what the website described as a "masterly" duet with Laurent Gerra on "Requiem pour un fou" and, with the further addition of Enrico Macis to the singing group, a version of "Donner donner donner".
Exactly what Lara received her award for was not explained, although of course she did give several concerts in Israel last year. Gerard also received an award, much to his surprise, and "he demonstrated his generosity by auctioning the award off for the radio station then and there". With him leading the way, it went for 2000 euros, much to Lara's amusement.
Lara's appearances in the play "1939" are coming up in the next two weeks, and in an interview, Pierre-Yves Duchesne noted that Lara will be on stage three or four times during the 2 and ½ hour show. She reportedly wrote the songs that she'll be singing. It would be great if someone were there to record them
(or maybe there will eventually be a cast album, if there are enough titles).
As for the "future" activity, as noted in a separate post, Lara's Facebook website
www.facebook.com/pages/Lara-Fabian-Page-Officielle/201065806601591
officially opened this past week. It is mostly a future event since there is very little currently on it, just three pictures. Actually, it was first put in place May 12th, but with the caveat that it was still under construction. That's really still the case, but traffic on the site has now begun. It would seem to be Lara's attempt to communicate more closely with fans given that the quarterly "Farfallina" publication has been ended, although how that would feed into any fan club activity is unclear - will there be special promotions available only to fan club members? Hopefully in the coming weeks it will provide material in ways that the official website (which still continues to operate) has not, but there's no guarantee of that - Nathalie indicated that it is managed by the same people who run the website. [Not a good sign! - it was noted that the fans themselves had to announce the facebook page, after which Nathalie responded.] We've had numerous instances of Lara's people starting things with great fanfare, only for them to lose interest as time goes on - so "seeing is believing" would seem to be applicable (as always with Lara). The early fan response as judged by comments on the facebook site are optimistic, tinged with the caution (in the official site forum) that Lara has never shown herself interested in keeping in touch regularly. [For those who want to see someone who is, take a look at Michael Bolton's website, www.michaelbolton.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2u3njhjl3gok3&page=1].
It's also been noted (on another thread) that while Lara is currently promoting herself to an international audience, the facebook site appears as if it will be only in French.
As reported by larafabianweb.com, the CD by Thierry Gali "Il etait une fois" with "15 news songs" written by him, and with Lara and others participating reading Fairy Tales (Lara reads "Blanche-Neige" - Snow White), is scheduled to be released at the end of 2011. The release has been postponed several times, so we'll see if it really happens. The claim is that it will also be made available on-line on the site of AKA music, and that Lara will participate in the tour promoting it (profits go to UNICEF).
Now for the next installment from the biography of Lara, pp. 145-149. This section concerns Lara's interactions with Maurane.
**They were introduced by their joint friend Nathalie. We know from other sources that Lara had laryngitis and could barely speak. When Lara was introduced to Maurane as a singer, Maurane said, "I hope you sing better than you speak". The book does note that Lara was distraught over her inability to communicate, which, according to Maurane, made her "very vulnerable, like a little girl... it was very moving!" Actually Lara had been a fan of hers for some years.
**They spoke occasionally over the years, then Lara called Maurane and told her that she had written a song and "I hear your voice". Maurane instantly loved it - it was, of course, "Tu es mon autre".
**Neither of them expected the reaction their duet would cause. On Lara's side, her fans wanted someone else, Whitney Houston or Helen Segara. However, the bigger problem was on Maurane's side. Her fans thought it was a very big mistake for her to sing with Lara, who was in disfavor in France and Belgium by that time. On Maurane's website, there were many angry comments. On the "somewhat lighter" side were the posts that said they always knew she was a lesbian, and it was good that she finally came out! The worse of them were, in Maurane's word, "violent", of the nature of Maurane having aligned herself with the devil. [It's hard for us to understand the depth of antipathy that exists towards Lara in some circles.]
**Maurane felt obligated to put an open letter on her website defending her decision, and Lara. She acknowledged that she felt Lara's singing was sometimes over the top, and the Lara that she saw on some TV shows was not the Lara that she knew. 'Her' Lara was alive and passionate, someone you could have a very good time with, concerned about family. That her excesses (including her "American dream") were caused by lack of confidence, but that didn't override her incredible talent, her accuracy and aptitude for nuance, and her ability to sing just about anything. And "who says that two singers coming from different universes cannot live a friendship with a reciprocal homogeneous respect?"
**As for the song itself, Maurane said "It is a song of friends on her new album, which expresses the complimentarity. It is round, simple, a small moment in time,... happy, without pretension, nothing more." They didn't believe it would be a single, but it got such a good reception that it became a very big hit, and is now sung all over the world.
**However, as we know, even Maurane had her period of dissatisfaction with Lara. Maurane's manager, Sophie Arvengt, started working with Lara in her spare time, and then gradually went to work for her full time. Her reasons had to do with what Maurane calls "artistic differences" – Maurane wanted to spend more time in "dinner theatre" performances, while Sophie, not a fan of Maurane's latest album (Toi du monde) was more attracted to the "bright lights", which Lara offered. This was especially hurtful to Maurane because she thought of Sophie as her "little sister". Furthermore, Maurane was not touring at the time, and all of her team also went to work for Lara - her real sister Fabienne, her niece Virginie, her bassist and her lighting people... As Maurane said, she had no monopoly on their time, and it wasn't as if they knowingly turned on her, but it made her feel all alone. From Lara's side, she saw Maurane joining her list of enemies, in particular by having Zoe (with whom Lara was feuding) join Maurane on stage.
**They finally worked it out in the frame of the Enfoires "Restos du Coeur" show, where they were both present. Maurane then came to Lara's birthday party, on a barge in Paris, and they renewed their friendship by singing together all night. As Maurane said, all is now repaired – her sister returned to her show, as did her bassist...Zoe fell in love with Rick Allison. At the birthday party Maurane also saw Sophie again, as well as Lara's parents whom she hadn't had contact with since the feud began.
**Today, "all is at ease", especially with Lara having moved back to Brussels, and having the equilibrium of her own family. Their daughters even have the same name [though we know that wasn't Lara's choice...].
One expects Lara will be rehearsing for the show "1939" in Paris this coming week. Perhaps her new facebook site will report on it...
David
ps - to advertise this site and the updates, I've created a facebook page with a link for the news update; it can be found at:
www.facebook.com/pages/Lara-Fabian-News-Updates/179306668793862?v=wall
After some weeks of reduced activity, Lara sprang back into the news this last week for activities past, present and future.
Her past was on display in the form of the duo she sang with Michael Bolton, which is part of his new CD of duets called "Gems", available starting today. Their rendition of "The Prayer" has been made available by larafabiannews.com, and to my ears it sounds excellent [the live version done for the David Foster special "The Hit Man Returns" was also beautifully sung, even if their (his) body language was a bit off-putting]. It will be interesting to see how it will be received by his fans; the early reception on Lara's site has been ecstatic! It goes without saying that it has the possibility of greatly expanding Lara's visibility to an English-speaking/American audience.
On the other side of the globe, the "Mlle. Zhivago" album has jumped 6 places and so is back up to #13 on the Russian charts. It will likely get a boost from the Russian concert tour in the fall, so it may well end up being one of the best-selling albums of the year in that country. Perhaps that will give Lara confidence to release it - and the "Mme. Zhivago" film- elsewhere.
The "present" activity is that Lara was a guest last Thursday at the event in Brussels "Nuit des Maguen David d'Or", organized by Radio Judaica Brussels. She attended with Gerard, was honored with an award, and sang three songs. The website pure-lara.fr made available Lara's presentation of "Hurshat Ha Eucalyptus" (it is also available from larafabiannews.com) - and it sounds very well done, as always (even with the brief drop-out recorded from the radio). She also sang what the website described as a "masterly" duet with Laurent Gerra on "Requiem pour un fou" and, with the further addition of Enrico Macis to the singing group, a version of "Donner donner donner".
Exactly what Lara received her award for was not explained, although of course she did give several concerts in Israel last year. Gerard also received an award, much to his surprise, and "he demonstrated his generosity by auctioning the award off for the radio station then and there". With him leading the way, it went for 2000 euros, much to Lara's amusement.
Lara's appearances in the play "1939" are coming up in the next two weeks, and in an interview, Pierre-Yves Duchesne noted that Lara will be on stage three or four times during the 2 and ½ hour show. She reportedly wrote the songs that she'll be singing. It would be great if someone were there to record them
(or maybe there will eventually be a cast album, if there are enough titles). As for the "future" activity, as noted in a separate post, Lara's Facebook website
www.facebook.com/pages/Lara-Fabian-Page-Officielle/201065806601591
officially opened this past week. It is mostly a future event since there is very little currently on it, just three pictures. Actually, it was first put in place May 12th, but with the caveat that it was still under construction. That's really still the case, but traffic on the site has now begun. It would seem to be Lara's attempt to communicate more closely with fans given that the quarterly "Farfallina" publication has been ended, although how that would feed into any fan club activity is unclear - will there be special promotions available only to fan club members? Hopefully in the coming weeks it will provide material in ways that the official website (which still continues to operate) has not, but there's no guarantee of that - Nathalie indicated that it is managed by the same people who run the website. [Not a good sign! - it was noted that the fans themselves had to announce the facebook page, after which Nathalie responded.] We've had numerous instances of Lara's people starting things with great fanfare, only for them to lose interest as time goes on - so "seeing is believing" would seem to be applicable (as always with Lara). The early fan response as judged by comments on the facebook site are optimistic, tinged with the caution (in the official site forum) that Lara has never shown herself interested in keeping in touch regularly. [For those who want to see someone who is, take a look at Michael Bolton's website, www.michaelbolton.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2u3njhjl3gok3&page=1].
It's also been noted (on another thread) that while Lara is currently promoting herself to an international audience, the facebook site appears as if it will be only in French.
As reported by larafabianweb.com, the CD by Thierry Gali "Il etait une fois" with "15 news songs" written by him, and with Lara and others participating reading Fairy Tales (Lara reads "Blanche-Neige" - Snow White), is scheduled to be released at the end of 2011. The release has been postponed several times, so we'll see if it really happens. The claim is that it will also be made available on-line on the site of AKA music, and that Lara will participate in the tour promoting it (profits go to UNICEF).
Now for the next installment from the biography of Lara, pp. 145-149. This section concerns Lara's interactions with Maurane.
**They were introduced by their joint friend Nathalie. We know from other sources that Lara had laryngitis and could barely speak. When Lara was introduced to Maurane as a singer, Maurane said, "I hope you sing better than you speak". The book does note that Lara was distraught over her inability to communicate, which, according to Maurane, made her "very vulnerable, like a little girl... it was very moving!" Actually Lara had been a fan of hers for some years.
**They spoke occasionally over the years, then Lara called Maurane and told her that she had written a song and "I hear your voice". Maurane instantly loved it - it was, of course, "Tu es mon autre".
**Neither of them expected the reaction their duet would cause. On Lara's side, her fans wanted someone else, Whitney Houston or Helen Segara. However, the bigger problem was on Maurane's side. Her fans thought it was a very big mistake for her to sing with Lara, who was in disfavor in France and Belgium by that time. On Maurane's website, there were many angry comments. On the "somewhat lighter" side were the posts that said they always knew she was a lesbian, and it was good that she finally came out! The worse of them were, in Maurane's word, "violent", of the nature of Maurane having aligned herself with the devil. [It's hard for us to understand the depth of antipathy that exists towards Lara in some circles.]
**Maurane felt obligated to put an open letter on her website defending her decision, and Lara. She acknowledged that she felt Lara's singing was sometimes over the top, and the Lara that she saw on some TV shows was not the Lara that she knew. 'Her' Lara was alive and passionate, someone you could have a very good time with, concerned about family. That her excesses (including her "American dream") were caused by lack of confidence, but that didn't override her incredible talent, her accuracy and aptitude for nuance, and her ability to sing just about anything. And "who says that two singers coming from different universes cannot live a friendship with a reciprocal homogeneous respect?"
**As for the song itself, Maurane said "It is a song of friends on her new album, which expresses the complimentarity. It is round, simple, a small moment in time,... happy, without pretension, nothing more." They didn't believe it would be a single, but it got such a good reception that it became a very big hit, and is now sung all over the world.
**However, as we know, even Maurane had her period of dissatisfaction with Lara. Maurane's manager, Sophie Arvengt, started working with Lara in her spare time, and then gradually went to work for her full time. Her reasons had to do with what Maurane calls "artistic differences" – Maurane wanted to spend more time in "dinner theatre" performances, while Sophie, not a fan of Maurane's latest album (Toi du monde) was more attracted to the "bright lights", which Lara offered. This was especially hurtful to Maurane because she thought of Sophie as her "little sister". Furthermore, Maurane was not touring at the time, and all of her team also went to work for Lara - her real sister Fabienne, her niece Virginie, her bassist and her lighting people... As Maurane said, she had no monopoly on their time, and it wasn't as if they knowingly turned on her, but it made her feel all alone. From Lara's side, she saw Maurane joining her list of enemies, in particular by having Zoe (with whom Lara was feuding) join Maurane on stage.
**They finally worked it out in the frame of the Enfoires "Restos du Coeur" show, where they were both present. Maurane then came to Lara's birthday party, on a barge in Paris, and they renewed their friendship by singing together all night. As Maurane said, all is now repaired – her sister returned to her show, as did her bassist...Zoe fell in love with Rick Allison. At the birthday party Maurane also saw Sophie again, as well as Lara's parents whom she hadn't had contact with since the feud began.
**Today, "all is at ease", especially with Lara having moved back to Brussels, and having the equilibrium of her own family. Their daughters even have the same name [though we know that wasn't Lara's choice...].
One expects Lara will be rehearsing for the show "1939" in Paris this coming week. Perhaps her new facebook site will report on it...
David
ps - to advertise this site and the updates, I've created a facebook page with a link for the news update; it can be found at:
www.facebook.com/pages/Lara-Fabian-News-Updates/179306668793862?v=wall
The fact that everyone involved are still alive doesn't make much of a difference, in my opinion, if the people choose to keep quiet. I think that one day in the future we may find out who the REALLY good biographer is - meaning, the one who hopefully succeeds to get the co-operation of the people involved. As we see, that's not the case for this book. And again - I want to repeat that I consider it unfair to judge/blame this biographer, because he probably did the best he could. Yes, I would have preferred him not to write an imcomplete bio, without the participation of the subject of the bio. But on the other hand - we don't know the reasons why he decided to do that...