Post by davidhr on Aug 16, 2011 10:13:03 GMT -5
The fans party in Brussels went off as scheduled last Saturday night, and there were some nice surprises. First, Lara provided a short video, apologizing for not being able to come, but encouraging them to have fun. Videos of it are available, including one with English subtitles (on the Lara Fabian Romanian website). In her place, her father Pierre and her best friend Nathalie showed up – a video of them arriving is available on youtube as well. ‘Jenny’ filmed various artists who provided Lara with a video tribute [e.g., Dorian Sherwood, Pierre-Yves Duchesne, George Perris, and Rick Allison(!) among others]. Four singers who formed the chorus for “Un Regard Neuf” came by, and performed an a cappella version of ‘Humana’ (also available on youtube). Various pictures that fans sent were presented, along with other gifts to be delivered to Lara by her father. There was a meal, and karaoke, and all reports indicate it was a highly enjoyable party. Combined with Lara’s actual appearance there last year, this may well become ‘the event’ for Lara and her people to renew their association with her long-term European fans, now that her appearances there have gotten so scarce. My guess is that attendance will go even higher if it is held in the future. The videos described above, and additional pictures, are also available on the ‘pure-lara Facebook wall’ page.
www.facebook.com/pages/Pure-Lara/328265375525?sk=wall
Lara’s only scheduled public appearance in the foreseeable future remains the one concert that was not cancelled from the fall series, in Belgium on September 22 for a local charity. It was originally advertised as the ‘first’ of the Mlle. Zhivago concerts, but now, as it stands, it is the only one. It has raised the questions of how Lara can present a show that (presumably) will be predominantly concerned with songs from an album which has not yet been released in that country, and whether there are any plans to do so. Given her lack of comment, it doesn’t seem likely that the CD will be made available at the show, or on Lara’s website prior to the performance (although obviously it's available on the internet from the ‘countries to the east’). We’ve been told (numerous times) that Lara and Igor are working out licensing arrangements for countries other than the Ukraine/Russia, however ten months have passed since its initial release there. Nothing further has been heard about the Mlle. Zhivago movie, either, in the past several weeks. But then again, it is August, vacation time in these countries…(perhaps the reason why Lara was not around for the Brussel’s fan meeting…they might consider holding it at another time of year…).
Then there is the question of how Lara is going to spend the rest of 2011, the time that was intended to be focused on Russia. French fans would like to think it could be used to work on a new French album, and of course media appearances in France have long been a staple of Lara’s free time, but as of now, there is nothing to ‘sell’. Were the Mlle. Zhivago movie to actually appear, that could be a focus (but then the Russian concerts would have been its best selling point). Ironically, it looks like she would have been able to act in ‘Victor Victoria’ after all, at one time scheduled for this time-slot. Then again, if she were actually pregnant…
Given the scarcity of current news, we are fortunate to have the next two chapters (#s 16 and 17) of the biography of Lara to review. These covered Lara’s relationship with Gerard, and her becoming a mother (pp. 191-196).
**Lara had publicly stated since her mid-20s that she wanted to become a mother, and had even picked out names for the children – the first girl would be Emma, or if a boy, Sevan. When asked (repeatedly) how come that had not yet happened, Lara’s reply was that there was no sense having children with a man who would be gone in 5 or 6 months, referring to her lack of confidence in the long term stability of her relationships. She has always had in mind her parent’s marriage, 40 years so far and still counting…(Lara said that in her mind, that ‘set the bar very high’.)
**Her comment about these previous relationships is worth repeating (in translation): “In my case, ‘love’ never rhymed with ‘always’. It rather rhymed with ‘compositions’, since with each story in my life, at each failure, I found the strength to explain my idealism and the utopia which characterizes me”.
**She originally met Gerard Pullicino when he shot the video for her first song, “Croire” back in 1988 (elsewhere she said she was attracted to him at that time, but was too shy to pursue it – in that year she was 18, Gerard was 30). It would be 17 more years before they rediscovered one another.
**As we know, “Gégé” as he is known in the audio-visual world is a highly thought of director of music and image in France. His first major show was a production of ‘Starmania’ in 1989. He’s since become very accomplished in television productions (e.g., the musical program ‘Taratata’ – on which Lara has never appeared, despite her desire to do so!). He is also the co-director of the Olympia Theatre in Montreal.
**For Lara he has directed the videos of “Il ne manquait que toi”, “Aime” and “Soleil soleil”, the DVD “9”, the DVD “Chante avec Lara”, as well as the holograms and DVD of “Toutes les femmes en moi font leur show”.
**He is of Italian background, which has immediate appeal for Lara. He also has two children from a previous marriage, and represents a person of experience/maturity whom Lara felt she could count on. They were together for some two years before the birth of her child.
**The book suggests that Lara’s desire for children stems partly from the fact that she herself is very child-like (one of the more subtle points in the whole biography). It is noted that many of her songs invoke children (e.g., ‘Il ne manquait que toi’, ‘Le tour du monde’, ‘Imagine’) and she even occasionally sings like a child (the little girl in ‘L’homme qui n’avait pas de maison’). Lara often acts like a child on stage (the ‘Dessin anime’ medley in her last tour; the Bambina skits in the previous tour). She puts a child at the beginning of the TLFM tour; she even included a song directly related to this concept on EWIM (‘The man with the child in his eyes’). She has had several TV shows with boys and girls singing her songs. Most recently, she participated in the Thierry Gali project of reading fairy tales. And of course there is all her charity work for children.
**In her private life she is known for imitating a small child who whispers and then gets mad (as in the Bambina skit), and often tells jokes in that voice. She has even said that before she goes on stage, she speaks to the little girl inside her, who tells her to go out and have fun – who gives her the nerve to face all the people waiting in the audience.
**So the actual birth of Lou, which apparently had to be forced a bit, was undoubtedly a high point in her life (however the name came about). This is epitomized in the song “Lou”, written in Italian to commemorate her parents’ origins.
**Although the book doesn’t go into much detail about it, you may remember that leading up to this event, Lara had been very explicit about her body and state of health on her website, and then was ridiculed for that. As the book does note, she was also the subject of derision when her website sent out an email suggesting people should send money to Lara as a possible gift for the baby (one site had the headline: “For her baby, send cash!”) (Ultimately this was blamed on the person running the website; perhaps true, but indicative of the fact that Lara paid little attention to her site and what was being released in her name). Since then, as we know, Lara has been very protective of Lou, even threatening to sue when her picture was taken, although that was relaxed a good deal during the last year in Russia.
**Finally, these sections also emphasize something else we know very well – how dedicated Lara is to the concept of ‘family’, starting from her own upbringing amongst the ‘Sicillian clan’, to her great love for her parents, and now to her own family. She said that if she had not had a child in this life, she would have considered it a failure. Fortunately, this is one success that she ended up being able to guarantee.
Hopefully Lara will have some more time to spend with her family in the next few weeks, before having to prepare for her show in Belgium.
David
www.facebook.com/pages/Pure-Lara/328265375525?sk=wall
Lara’s only scheduled public appearance in the foreseeable future remains the one concert that was not cancelled from the fall series, in Belgium on September 22 for a local charity. It was originally advertised as the ‘first’ of the Mlle. Zhivago concerts, but now, as it stands, it is the only one. It has raised the questions of how Lara can present a show that (presumably) will be predominantly concerned with songs from an album which has not yet been released in that country, and whether there are any plans to do so. Given her lack of comment, it doesn’t seem likely that the CD will be made available at the show, or on Lara’s website prior to the performance (although obviously it's available on the internet from the ‘countries to the east’). We’ve been told (numerous times) that Lara and Igor are working out licensing arrangements for countries other than the Ukraine/Russia, however ten months have passed since its initial release there. Nothing further has been heard about the Mlle. Zhivago movie, either, in the past several weeks. But then again, it is August, vacation time in these countries…(perhaps the reason why Lara was not around for the Brussel’s fan meeting…they might consider holding it at another time of year…).
Then there is the question of how Lara is going to spend the rest of 2011, the time that was intended to be focused on Russia. French fans would like to think it could be used to work on a new French album, and of course media appearances in France have long been a staple of Lara’s free time, but as of now, there is nothing to ‘sell’. Were the Mlle. Zhivago movie to actually appear, that could be a focus (but then the Russian concerts would have been its best selling point). Ironically, it looks like she would have been able to act in ‘Victor Victoria’ after all, at one time scheduled for this time-slot. Then again, if she were actually pregnant…
Given the scarcity of current news, we are fortunate to have the next two chapters (#s 16 and 17) of the biography of Lara to review. These covered Lara’s relationship with Gerard, and her becoming a mother (pp. 191-196).
**Lara had publicly stated since her mid-20s that she wanted to become a mother, and had even picked out names for the children – the first girl would be Emma, or if a boy, Sevan. When asked (repeatedly) how come that had not yet happened, Lara’s reply was that there was no sense having children with a man who would be gone in 5 or 6 months, referring to her lack of confidence in the long term stability of her relationships. She has always had in mind her parent’s marriage, 40 years so far and still counting…(Lara said that in her mind, that ‘set the bar very high’.)
**Her comment about these previous relationships is worth repeating (in translation): “In my case, ‘love’ never rhymed with ‘always’. It rather rhymed with ‘compositions’, since with each story in my life, at each failure, I found the strength to explain my idealism and the utopia which characterizes me”.
**She originally met Gerard Pullicino when he shot the video for her first song, “Croire” back in 1988 (elsewhere she said she was attracted to him at that time, but was too shy to pursue it – in that year she was 18, Gerard was 30). It would be 17 more years before they rediscovered one another.
**As we know, “Gégé” as he is known in the audio-visual world is a highly thought of director of music and image in France. His first major show was a production of ‘Starmania’ in 1989. He’s since become very accomplished in television productions (e.g., the musical program ‘Taratata’ – on which Lara has never appeared, despite her desire to do so!). He is also the co-director of the Olympia Theatre in Montreal.
**For Lara he has directed the videos of “Il ne manquait que toi”, “Aime” and “Soleil soleil”, the DVD “9”, the DVD “Chante avec Lara”, as well as the holograms and DVD of “Toutes les femmes en moi font leur show”.
**He is of Italian background, which has immediate appeal for Lara. He also has two children from a previous marriage, and represents a person of experience/maturity whom Lara felt she could count on. They were together for some two years before the birth of her child.
**The book suggests that Lara’s desire for children stems partly from the fact that she herself is very child-like (one of the more subtle points in the whole biography). It is noted that many of her songs invoke children (e.g., ‘Il ne manquait que toi’, ‘Le tour du monde’, ‘Imagine’) and she even occasionally sings like a child (the little girl in ‘L’homme qui n’avait pas de maison’). Lara often acts like a child on stage (the ‘Dessin anime’ medley in her last tour; the Bambina skits in the previous tour). She puts a child at the beginning of the TLFM tour; she even included a song directly related to this concept on EWIM (‘The man with the child in his eyes’). She has had several TV shows with boys and girls singing her songs. Most recently, she participated in the Thierry Gali project of reading fairy tales. And of course there is all her charity work for children.
**In her private life she is known for imitating a small child who whispers and then gets mad (as in the Bambina skit), and often tells jokes in that voice. She has even said that before she goes on stage, she speaks to the little girl inside her, who tells her to go out and have fun – who gives her the nerve to face all the people waiting in the audience.
**So the actual birth of Lou, which apparently had to be forced a bit, was undoubtedly a high point in her life (however the name came about). This is epitomized in the song “Lou”, written in Italian to commemorate her parents’ origins.
**Although the book doesn’t go into much detail about it, you may remember that leading up to this event, Lara had been very explicit about her body and state of health on her website, and then was ridiculed for that. As the book does note, she was also the subject of derision when her website sent out an email suggesting people should send money to Lara as a possible gift for the baby (one site had the headline: “For her baby, send cash!”) (Ultimately this was blamed on the person running the website; perhaps true, but indicative of the fact that Lara paid little attention to her site and what was being released in her name). Since then, as we know, Lara has been very protective of Lou, even threatening to sue when her picture was taken, although that was relaxed a good deal during the last year in Russia.
**Finally, these sections also emphasize something else we know very well – how dedicated Lara is to the concept of ‘family’, starting from her own upbringing amongst the ‘Sicillian clan’, to her great love for her parents, and now to her own family. She said that if she had not had a child in this life, she would have considered it a failure. Fortunately, this is one success that she ended up being able to guarantee.
Hopefully Lara will have some more time to spend with her family in the next few weeks, before having to prepare for her show in Belgium.
David