Post by davidhr on Sept 6, 2011 14:20:09 GMT -5
The ‘post-mortem’ on Lara’s recent TV appearance, and news of the various websites…
Lara’s appearance on the show "Les Grosses Têtes" was broadcast this past week. While Lara looked great, the fans were mixed in their response about the show in general. The host (Philippe Bouvard) didn’t seem well informed about Lara, and the topics she was asked to address were somewhat simplistic (e.g., about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and relationships with other musicians). Given Lara’s stance on women’s issues, and her history with romantic affairs, the questions were not out of line – but the lack of other topics made it seem as if the prime thing that Lara was fit to comment on were male-female issues. The show had a light-hearted air about it, again as if this was not a ‘serious’ program – just a celebrity appearance - although it was nice to hear Lara’s laugh (that too was the subject of debate – was Lara really completely at ease, or was the laughter forced, to mirror the mood of the panelists). Lara herself seemed somewhat disappointed, noting that she was expecting somewhat more critical questions, and that she was up for them. All in all, it was a waste of a very intelligent, philosophical guest, although the host and panelists didn’t seem to realize that (‘blond’ jokes are quite the thing in these countries, and probably even more so where performers are involved). She was given nice compliments at the end, especially as to how important she has been to the 20 years of Bel RTL. That apparently was the prime reason for her appearance. Needless to say, we didn’t learn anything substantive about her current and future plans. The video is available at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=plKmRMegwkA
The Belgian channel RTBF has a new program, called ‘The Voice’, which features a competition among new singers. They audition by taping their performance and sending it in on the web. (The program already exists in some other countries). It has been reported that the producers are trying to convince Lara to be one of the judges; it's rumored that Lara had already refused to be a coach for the singers. Among other issues, there are some 17 programs to be broadcast, and it’s not clear she would want to be tied down for that amount of time.
In other news, various items of interest surfaced on the official and fan websites this past week. On her facebook page, Lara’s people have stated that when they reach 10,000 fans on their site, they will offer to two fans a signed copy of the CD EWIM. It appears that they’re currently at 4160, so there’s a way to go. What’s most interesting about this is their choice of CD…
For those interested in older videos of Lara, the site pure-lara has been systematically making available some fairly decent versions of them. They now have videos from 1988 and 1991-1998, with links to them given on Lara’s FB site, at:
ttp://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=201065806601591&topic=342
They’ve also made available photos of a number of diverse objects associated with Lara, magazines and other collectibles, with the links available here:
www.pure-lara.fr/index.php/actualites/205-petites-annonces-
The site ‘Lara Fabian es ton autre’ has been adding various photos of Lara; they are available at:
www.facebook.com/pages/Lara-Fabian-est-ton-autre/166959643357708?sk=photos
And the Lara Fabian Romanian site is starting a new series of English translations, this time for the 1998 show “Pendant la pub”. It promises to be very informative (unlike the ‘Grosses tetes” program).
On the other side of the coin: it is with great sadness that we learned this past week that the really wonderful site larafabiannews.com is closing. Without doubt one of the leading presenters of Lara’s material and up-to-date information in three languages, Tarcisio did a great job – as he said in his ‘au revoir’ message, he just doesn’t have the time anymore. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him for what has been one of the best of all fan sites, and to note it will be sorely missed. Hopefully he will still be involved in this community one way or another…
In a similar vein, if not as definitely, the (now Facebook site) LFIAG has had no new entries for over a month, not a good sign. And on Lara’s FB site discussion section, fans are still mourning the closing of her official site forum. We’ve heard rumors of a new official site – and presumably a forum – but nothing has yet materialized. FB may be their only venue, as limited as it is – hence the drive for 10,000 fans on it.
Obviously nothing lasts forever…but as Tarcisio noted, the ‘new’ arises as well.
And now – back to the old – from the biography of Lara, pp. 204-210, still in the TLFM phase…
**The first single as we know was ‘Soleil soleil’, chronologically the first song that touched Lara (and was the occasion of her first stage appearance…when little Lara interrupted Nana Mouskouri on stage to give her flowers). Nana Mouskouri flew in from Geneva to appear in the last 10 seconds of the clip for the song. She also said she considered Lara ‘even better than herself’.
**In conjunction with the album’s release, the show “Quelque chose de nous…de Lara Fabian” was aired by RTBF in Belgium. The producers went to extraordinary lengths to assure that their ‘surprises’ were real surprises – Lara rehearsed 24 hours before the other invitees, the studio was emptied for their rehearsal, during pauses for scenery changes the audience was asked to leave, and Lara even had to walk a torturous path to get to the stage the night of the show, Gerard having to lead her through the hallways.
**It worked – Lara was very emotional at seeing the choice of guests. Of greatest impact was Nana Mouskouri slipping behind Lara during her performance of ‘Soleil soleil’ and Lara’s look of astonishment when she turned around.
**Also included: the appearance of Lara’s old classmates coming to sing their version of ‘Tout’, testimonials from many famous French singers for Lara (including Serge Lama who said “Lara is a singer who moves you to sex!”), a video trip to Quebec revisiting Lara’s old haunts…If there is any show that the Lara Fabian Romanian channel should put subtitles to, this is it - definitely one of the best ever done about her.
**As for the album TLFM itself: as we also know, it was subject to some scathing reviews, by people who thought the arrangements were simplistic (karaoke, several said), that 'modernizing' destroyed the integrity of the originals, and even that her re-doing these songs was pretentious. Lara’s take on the reviews was that any changes to the ‘classics’ would not be well-accepted, and that it was the first few reviews that set the tone for the others. As far as the arrangements went, she said one wouldn’t wear the same clothes one wore in the ‘70s (when many of the songs came out), so the music had to change as well.
**Lara also took some comfort in how the album did – it spent 46 weeks on the charts in France, topping off at #3, and was a gold record in that country as well as in Belgium and (the book claims) Russia. It also did allow her to make her feelings about these various singers known, to us and to them.
My personal experience with this album was that people who were quite familiar with the original songs did not like it – whereas those who did not know them, loved it. Expectations have a lot to do with what we actually hear when we listen…
There has already been considerable expectation concerning Lara’s set list for her upcoming concert in Belgium, and obviously we didn’t learn anything new about that from the recent program. But the hope is that the ‘Mlle Zhivago’ songs will be presented for the first time outside of the ‘countries to the east’ (and furthermore, sung live). We still have a few more weeks to go before we find out.
David
Lara’s appearance on the show "Les Grosses Têtes" was broadcast this past week. While Lara looked great, the fans were mixed in their response about the show in general. The host (Philippe Bouvard) didn’t seem well informed about Lara, and the topics she was asked to address were somewhat simplistic (e.g., about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and relationships with other musicians). Given Lara’s stance on women’s issues, and her history with romantic affairs, the questions were not out of line – but the lack of other topics made it seem as if the prime thing that Lara was fit to comment on were male-female issues. The show had a light-hearted air about it, again as if this was not a ‘serious’ program – just a celebrity appearance - although it was nice to hear Lara’s laugh (that too was the subject of debate – was Lara really completely at ease, or was the laughter forced, to mirror the mood of the panelists). Lara herself seemed somewhat disappointed, noting that she was expecting somewhat more critical questions, and that she was up for them. All in all, it was a waste of a very intelligent, philosophical guest, although the host and panelists didn’t seem to realize that (‘blond’ jokes are quite the thing in these countries, and probably even more so where performers are involved). She was given nice compliments at the end, especially as to how important she has been to the 20 years of Bel RTL. That apparently was the prime reason for her appearance. Needless to say, we didn’t learn anything substantive about her current and future plans. The video is available at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=plKmRMegwkA
The Belgian channel RTBF has a new program, called ‘The Voice’, which features a competition among new singers. They audition by taping their performance and sending it in on the web. (The program already exists in some other countries). It has been reported that the producers are trying to convince Lara to be one of the judges; it's rumored that Lara had already refused to be a coach for the singers. Among other issues, there are some 17 programs to be broadcast, and it’s not clear she would want to be tied down for that amount of time.
In other news, various items of interest surfaced on the official and fan websites this past week. On her facebook page, Lara’s people have stated that when they reach 10,000 fans on their site, they will offer to two fans a signed copy of the CD EWIM. It appears that they’re currently at 4160, so there’s a way to go. What’s most interesting about this is their choice of CD…
For those interested in older videos of Lara, the site pure-lara has been systematically making available some fairly decent versions of them. They now have videos from 1988 and 1991-1998, with links to them given on Lara’s FB site, at:
ttp://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=201065806601591&topic=342
They’ve also made available photos of a number of diverse objects associated with Lara, magazines and other collectibles, with the links available here:
www.pure-lara.fr/index.php/actualites/205-petites-annonces-
The site ‘Lara Fabian es ton autre’ has been adding various photos of Lara; they are available at:
www.facebook.com/pages/Lara-Fabian-est-ton-autre/166959643357708?sk=photos
And the Lara Fabian Romanian site is starting a new series of English translations, this time for the 1998 show “Pendant la pub”. It promises to be very informative (unlike the ‘Grosses tetes” program).
On the other side of the coin: it is with great sadness that we learned this past week that the really wonderful site larafabiannews.com is closing. Without doubt one of the leading presenters of Lara’s material and up-to-date information in three languages, Tarcisio did a great job – as he said in his ‘au revoir’ message, he just doesn’t have the time anymore. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him for what has been one of the best of all fan sites, and to note it will be sorely missed. Hopefully he will still be involved in this community one way or another…
In a similar vein, if not as definitely, the (now Facebook site) LFIAG has had no new entries for over a month, not a good sign. And on Lara’s FB site discussion section, fans are still mourning the closing of her official site forum. We’ve heard rumors of a new official site – and presumably a forum – but nothing has yet materialized. FB may be their only venue, as limited as it is – hence the drive for 10,000 fans on it.
Obviously nothing lasts forever…but as Tarcisio noted, the ‘new’ arises as well.
And now – back to the old – from the biography of Lara, pp. 204-210, still in the TLFM phase…
**The first single as we know was ‘Soleil soleil’, chronologically the first song that touched Lara (and was the occasion of her first stage appearance…when little Lara interrupted Nana Mouskouri on stage to give her flowers). Nana Mouskouri flew in from Geneva to appear in the last 10 seconds of the clip for the song. She also said she considered Lara ‘even better than herself’.
**In conjunction with the album’s release, the show “Quelque chose de nous…de Lara Fabian” was aired by RTBF in Belgium. The producers went to extraordinary lengths to assure that their ‘surprises’ were real surprises – Lara rehearsed 24 hours before the other invitees, the studio was emptied for their rehearsal, during pauses for scenery changes the audience was asked to leave, and Lara even had to walk a torturous path to get to the stage the night of the show, Gerard having to lead her through the hallways.
**It worked – Lara was very emotional at seeing the choice of guests. Of greatest impact was Nana Mouskouri slipping behind Lara during her performance of ‘Soleil soleil’ and Lara’s look of astonishment when she turned around.
**Also included: the appearance of Lara’s old classmates coming to sing their version of ‘Tout’, testimonials from many famous French singers for Lara (including Serge Lama who said “Lara is a singer who moves you to sex!”), a video trip to Quebec revisiting Lara’s old haunts…If there is any show that the Lara Fabian Romanian channel should put subtitles to, this is it - definitely one of the best ever done about her.
**As for the album TLFM itself: as we also know, it was subject to some scathing reviews, by people who thought the arrangements were simplistic (karaoke, several said), that 'modernizing' destroyed the integrity of the originals, and even that her re-doing these songs was pretentious. Lara’s take on the reviews was that any changes to the ‘classics’ would not be well-accepted, and that it was the first few reviews that set the tone for the others. As far as the arrangements went, she said one wouldn’t wear the same clothes one wore in the ‘70s (when many of the songs came out), so the music had to change as well.
**Lara also took some comfort in how the album did – it spent 46 weeks on the charts in France, topping off at #3, and was a gold record in that country as well as in Belgium and (the book claims) Russia. It also did allow her to make her feelings about these various singers known, to us and to them.
My personal experience with this album was that people who were quite familiar with the original songs did not like it – whereas those who did not know them, loved it. Expectations have a lot to do with what we actually hear when we listen…
There has already been considerable expectation concerning Lara’s set list for her upcoming concert in Belgium, and obviously we didn’t learn anything new about that from the recent program. But the hope is that the ‘Mlle Zhivago’ songs will be presented for the first time outside of the ‘countries to the east’ (and furthermore, sung live). We still have a few more weeks to go before we find out.
David