Post by davidhr on Jul 12, 2011 7:14:04 GMT -5
A week where the uncertainty of future plans that has been characteristic of Lara’s career has apparently risen up once again.
First, some more information has come in concerning Lara’s concert in Astana, Kazakhstan last week. Fans reported that as in the Moscow concerts, it was a mixture of live songs and lip-synching, presumably on many of the same Mlle. Zhivago songs as was done previously. And the reason for this continues to befuddle the fans, because on other songs, particularly the segment of ‘Je t”aime’ that was put on youtube, Lara’s voice is as powerful as ever.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z1dIjDWdWQ&feature=channel_video_title
A particular case in point is the ‘Russian song’, which the fans asked Lara to sing again at the end, and she did (at least part of it), clearly performing it live - whereas the full version, done just previously, was not.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDItIzCZgqQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnWQ8XrQtEU&feature=related
Whatever the reason, it will presumably not happen that way in her acoustic concerts, starting in Belgium in September, although there’s no guarantee that all the Mlle. Zhivago songs will be presented.
Another puzzling aspect of this show was that it was apparently broadcast on TV in many of the ‘countries to the east’, as it was reportedly seen in Armenia and Russia. If this is true, the scarcity of such videos is hard to understand; indeed, one would have expected the whole show to be recorded by (at least) some of the Russian fans. Perhaps we’ll find out more, or see more, as time goes by.
With respect to the ‘acoustic concert’ tour: it was supposed to have some 23 shows in Russia, followed by 6 in the Ukraine. However, Maria on the FB site reported that Lara has cancelled the tour until the spring of 2012, and other fans indicated that at least the shows in the center of the country will no longer take place. (The whole tour has been removed from Lara’s official site concert schedule). It was presumed to be in support of the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ movie, whose appearance also looks somewhat uncertain. The director Alan Badoev was asked (persistently) about the continual change in release date for the film, and he responded in a crude/angry fashion, essentially saying the creative process can’t be rushed. Some Russian fans think he has too much on his plate. It was also reported that Lara was supposed to go to the Ukraine this past week to see the finished version of the movie, but had to cancel due to health issues (remember, she was reportedly ill in Paris during the '1939’ performances). That raises its own concerns, but, to the fans, at least it suggested the film really was finished.
In the past Lara has cancelled shows due to poor advance sales (as in some of the venues for the TLFM tour) or due to health problems (the whole summer 2004 tour in France). Given that the Belgian performance, which was to lead off the tour, has not been cancelled, we can assume health is not the predominant issue (and since this concert is for charity, it would be harder to annul without good reason). If the film isn’t ready, or the release in Russia is simply delayed while they decide what to do with it, postponing the tour until 2012 makes sense commercially. However, even the rumor of it has irritated Russian fans. Maria also noted that the original plan had the show moving on to Spain, Italy, Germany, France and USA, in the fall of 2012, and that would probably be uncertain as well.
Those who follow Lara know that her plans continually change, and depending on them is risky, though it used to be that if it appeared on the official site schedule, it was more likely to happen. A further caution: until Lara or Lara’s people say the tour is cancelled, we should not necessarily assume that is true, either. In fact, Nicolas Boucaud (who is probably ‘jonlee’ from the official site forum) says he has been told the tour has not been cancelled. We await word, one way or another.
Adding one more level to the complexity, Lara had intimated that there might be a new French album in 2012, with a corresponding tour in that country. This too looks less likely if the Mlle. Zhivago tour is postponed, unless the Mlle. Zhivago project is abandoned entirely and replaced by a French venture. Needless to say, that would be a great shame and a missed opportunity for her international career. After 35 weeks on the charts in Russia, the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ album is still in the top 15, now #13.
If Lara is truly ill, it might impact her upcoming duet with the Russian baritone Dmitri Khvorostovski, just a few weeks away, at the end of July in Latvia. For what it’s worth, at least Lara’s appearance at the “New Wave” festival there is still listed on the official site schedule.
Some more positive reviews have come in for the ‘1939’ production in Paris at the end of June, and additional photos of the show in general are available (thanks to Nicolas Boucaud from Lara’s FB site) at
www.musicalavenue.fr/Dossiers/Compte-rendu/En-photos-1939-au-Theatre-du-Gymnase
Lara’s FB site continues to engender lively conversation, but one aspect remains bizarre (though understandable): Russian and Italian participants continue to have conversations with their fellow countrymen in languages they don’t understand well (either French or English). Indeed, many of them have commented on how strange that is. It does allow the world-wide audience to appreciate what they have to say, but the humor of it is apparent (to the rest of us).
Michael Bolton’s album of duets apparently didn’t start out that way. According to the interview he gave for ‘Billboard’ magazine:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Michael Bolton says his latest album, "Gems -- The Duets Collection," was "like giving birth 21 times or something."
And it wasn't initially planned as a duets album, either.
Bolton tells Billboard.com that he was thinking duets would comprise "maybe half" of the album until he took part in one of producer/songwriter David Foster's Foster & Friends concerts, where he teamed with Seal for Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" and Laura (sic) Fabian on Foster and Carole Bayer Sager's "The Prayer." "That led to two duets in one evening," Bolton recalls, "so (the album) started looking like it was going to be 12 duets or 12 songs with guests joining us. The duets started revealing themselves as the artists started stepping forward…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although it has yet to register on Billboard’s top 200 albums, it has reached #8 on the amazon.com vocal pop chart.
Now for the next segment from the biography of Lara, pp. 162-166. It is concerned with the ‘Un Regard Neuf’ tour.
**As you may remember, Lara had dismissed the team that normally prepared her tours, so she (and her people) were fully in charge of this one – thought it all through, booked it, arranged for the production (sounds, lights,) etc. She said she felt more responsible than ever previously, for she had 57 people to take care of, with 5 semis on the road. [You may also remember that there were numerous technical glitches that arose throughout the tour…]. All told, there were some 80 dates in Europe, spanning a year and a half.
**The author believes that Lara’s opening of the show with an ‘a capella’ version of ‘Je t’aime’ is meant to signify to the audience that she has changed, and will now be singing with a ‘more mature’ intensity. [One could say she had already displayed that in the ETI tour, and on numerous TV shows in the interim…]
**But the essence of the show, besides reprising the songs of ‘Neuf’, was to provide a ‘new look’ for her older songs, including ‘J’y crois encore’ as a gospel, but particularly ‘Tout’ as a Bossa Nova. And some of the songs from ‘Neuf’ got a new coating as well, including Lara playing the piano through most of ‘La Lettre’.
**The DVD almost did not get recorded. Lara was actually against it, but she was faced “with an outcry from fans who demanded it”. Therefore, 10 days before her performance at the Zenith in Paris, she changed her mind, and it was captured, thanks to “the best of directors” (i.e., Gerard). As we know, it was a wonderful recording, and was nominated in Canada as one of the best musical DVDs of the year.
**Its release did give her a chance to finally officially record the Barbra Streisand songs from Yentl (that we first heard from Lara in her amazing performances at the Molson Centre concert).
**The song ‘Aime’ was written as an inducement for fans to buy the DVD (Gerard made the clip of it), and was, according to Lara, dedicated to her fans. [Elsewhere, she said she wrote it flying across the Atlantic to Canada.]
**The bonus included the interesting “Journal of Lara” (directed by Gerard) as well as the duet with Gigi d’Alessio on “La donna chei vorrei (one of their several attempts to infiltrate each other’s market, with little obvious success so far…).
Hopefully Lara will take care of her health in the coming weeks, so that whatever she truly has in mind for ‘the countries to the east’ will not be hindered by that constraint.
David
First, some more information has come in concerning Lara’s concert in Astana, Kazakhstan last week. Fans reported that as in the Moscow concerts, it was a mixture of live songs and lip-synching, presumably on many of the same Mlle. Zhivago songs as was done previously. And the reason for this continues to befuddle the fans, because on other songs, particularly the segment of ‘Je t”aime’ that was put on youtube, Lara’s voice is as powerful as ever.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z1dIjDWdWQ&feature=channel_video_title
A particular case in point is the ‘Russian song’, which the fans asked Lara to sing again at the end, and she did (at least part of it), clearly performing it live - whereas the full version, done just previously, was not.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDItIzCZgqQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnWQ8XrQtEU&feature=related
Whatever the reason, it will presumably not happen that way in her acoustic concerts, starting in Belgium in September, although there’s no guarantee that all the Mlle. Zhivago songs will be presented.
Another puzzling aspect of this show was that it was apparently broadcast on TV in many of the ‘countries to the east’, as it was reportedly seen in Armenia and Russia. If this is true, the scarcity of such videos is hard to understand; indeed, one would have expected the whole show to be recorded by (at least) some of the Russian fans. Perhaps we’ll find out more, or see more, as time goes by.
With respect to the ‘acoustic concert’ tour: it was supposed to have some 23 shows in Russia, followed by 6 in the Ukraine. However, Maria on the FB site reported that Lara has cancelled the tour until the spring of 2012, and other fans indicated that at least the shows in the center of the country will no longer take place. (The whole tour has been removed from Lara’s official site concert schedule). It was presumed to be in support of the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ movie, whose appearance also looks somewhat uncertain. The director Alan Badoev was asked (persistently) about the continual change in release date for the film, and he responded in a crude/angry fashion, essentially saying the creative process can’t be rushed. Some Russian fans think he has too much on his plate. It was also reported that Lara was supposed to go to the Ukraine this past week to see the finished version of the movie, but had to cancel due to health issues (remember, she was reportedly ill in Paris during the '1939’ performances). That raises its own concerns, but, to the fans, at least it suggested the film really was finished.
In the past Lara has cancelled shows due to poor advance sales (as in some of the venues for the TLFM tour) or due to health problems (the whole summer 2004 tour in France). Given that the Belgian performance, which was to lead off the tour, has not been cancelled, we can assume health is not the predominant issue (and since this concert is for charity, it would be harder to annul without good reason). If the film isn’t ready, or the release in Russia is simply delayed while they decide what to do with it, postponing the tour until 2012 makes sense commercially. However, even the rumor of it has irritated Russian fans. Maria also noted that the original plan had the show moving on to Spain, Italy, Germany, France and USA, in the fall of 2012, and that would probably be uncertain as well.
Those who follow Lara know that her plans continually change, and depending on them is risky, though it used to be that if it appeared on the official site schedule, it was more likely to happen. A further caution: until Lara or Lara’s people say the tour is cancelled, we should not necessarily assume that is true, either. In fact, Nicolas Boucaud (who is probably ‘jonlee’ from the official site forum) says he has been told the tour has not been cancelled. We await word, one way or another.
Adding one more level to the complexity, Lara had intimated that there might be a new French album in 2012, with a corresponding tour in that country. This too looks less likely if the Mlle. Zhivago tour is postponed, unless the Mlle. Zhivago project is abandoned entirely and replaced by a French venture. Needless to say, that would be a great shame and a missed opportunity for her international career. After 35 weeks on the charts in Russia, the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ album is still in the top 15, now #13.
If Lara is truly ill, it might impact her upcoming duet with the Russian baritone Dmitri Khvorostovski, just a few weeks away, at the end of July in Latvia. For what it’s worth, at least Lara’s appearance at the “New Wave” festival there is still listed on the official site schedule.
Some more positive reviews have come in for the ‘1939’ production in Paris at the end of June, and additional photos of the show in general are available (thanks to Nicolas Boucaud from Lara’s FB site) at
www.musicalavenue.fr/Dossiers/Compte-rendu/En-photos-1939-au-Theatre-du-Gymnase
Lara’s FB site continues to engender lively conversation, but one aspect remains bizarre (though understandable): Russian and Italian participants continue to have conversations with their fellow countrymen in languages they don’t understand well (either French or English). Indeed, many of them have commented on how strange that is. It does allow the world-wide audience to appreciate what they have to say, but the humor of it is apparent (to the rest of us).
Michael Bolton’s album of duets apparently didn’t start out that way. According to the interview he gave for ‘Billboard’ magazine:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Michael Bolton says his latest album, "Gems -- The Duets Collection," was "like giving birth 21 times or something."
And it wasn't initially planned as a duets album, either.
Bolton tells Billboard.com that he was thinking duets would comprise "maybe half" of the album until he took part in one of producer/songwriter David Foster's Foster & Friends concerts, where he teamed with Seal for Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" and Laura (sic) Fabian on Foster and Carole Bayer Sager's "The Prayer." "That led to two duets in one evening," Bolton recalls, "so (the album) started looking like it was going to be 12 duets or 12 songs with guests joining us. The duets started revealing themselves as the artists started stepping forward…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although it has yet to register on Billboard’s top 200 albums, it has reached #8 on the amazon.com vocal pop chart.
Now for the next segment from the biography of Lara, pp. 162-166. It is concerned with the ‘Un Regard Neuf’ tour.
**As you may remember, Lara had dismissed the team that normally prepared her tours, so she (and her people) were fully in charge of this one – thought it all through, booked it, arranged for the production (sounds, lights,) etc. She said she felt more responsible than ever previously, for she had 57 people to take care of, with 5 semis on the road. [You may also remember that there were numerous technical glitches that arose throughout the tour…]. All told, there were some 80 dates in Europe, spanning a year and a half.
**The author believes that Lara’s opening of the show with an ‘a capella’ version of ‘Je t’aime’ is meant to signify to the audience that she has changed, and will now be singing with a ‘more mature’ intensity. [One could say she had already displayed that in the ETI tour, and on numerous TV shows in the interim…]
**But the essence of the show, besides reprising the songs of ‘Neuf’, was to provide a ‘new look’ for her older songs, including ‘J’y crois encore’ as a gospel, but particularly ‘Tout’ as a Bossa Nova. And some of the songs from ‘Neuf’ got a new coating as well, including Lara playing the piano through most of ‘La Lettre’.
**The DVD almost did not get recorded. Lara was actually against it, but she was faced “with an outcry from fans who demanded it”. Therefore, 10 days before her performance at the Zenith in Paris, she changed her mind, and it was captured, thanks to “the best of directors” (i.e., Gerard). As we know, it was a wonderful recording, and was nominated in Canada as one of the best musical DVDs of the year.
**Its release did give her a chance to finally officially record the Barbra Streisand songs from Yentl (that we first heard from Lara in her amazing performances at the Molson Centre concert).
**The song ‘Aime’ was written as an inducement for fans to buy the DVD (Gerard made the clip of it), and was, according to Lara, dedicated to her fans. [Elsewhere, she said she wrote it flying across the Atlantic to Canada.]
**The bonus included the interesting “Journal of Lara” (directed by Gerard) as well as the duet with Gigi d’Alessio on “La donna chei vorrei (one of their several attempts to infiltrate each other’s market, with little obvious success so far…).
Hopefully Lara will take care of her health in the coming weeks, so that whatever she truly has in mind for ‘the countries to the east’ will not be hindered by that constraint.
David