Post by davidhr on Dec 6, 2011 10:12:24 GMT -5
Warning: this ‘news update’ is as much ‘opinion’ as it is ‘reporting’.
As you probably know by now, in preparation for Lara’s concert for her fan club members in January, she asked the fans to determine which songs she should sing. What was seemingly a straight-forward, and gracious, request was as usual handled in an ambiguous, confusing manner by her ‘people’. First fans were allowed to make whatever recommendation they wanted; presumably, Lara’s people then collected the suggestions and made this into a list for people to vote on. However, there wasn’t just one list, there appeared to be two, and they differed as to which songs were included and how many votes each song had gotten (one list had almost none of the Mlle. Zhivago songs on it while the other had most of them, although there were other song differences as well). Why two lists, and were people supposed to vote for each list? And how many titles were they supposed to choose? How many votes were they allowed? No explanation was offered to any of this (at least that I saw). Then after an unspecified time, the website presumably called a halt to the ‘voting’ without any warning, and some people have said that the list is now final. But what is it? No one knows.
Some fans have suggested that each day leading up to the concert another song title be released, while others have said they want to be surprised. Some cynical fans on the Russian website have even said they believe Lara will just end up singing what she wants to, and say that was the list. With all the confusion, anything is possible. And this prime example of the inability of Lara’s people to do anything coherently may be the real reason behind their lack of updating of her biography or discography to include the Mlle. Zhivago release, or their failure to provide information about Lara’s activities.
As to the songs themselves, there were some interesting suggestions (in addition to the Mlle. Zhivago songs), and at least some fans made an effort to be creative. However, unfortunately, the majority seemed to want Lara to sing the same songs she always does. Here, with a chance to ask Lara to perform titles from her catalog that she has never done live, the leading choices (again, as far as one could tell from one of the lists) were Adagio, Je t’aime, Je suis malade, etc. One could say that at least Lara knows her fans – they basically want an ‘oldies’ show, and that’s what she normally gives them (e.g., the recent set list for Charleroi). There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to please your audience, but doesn’t it distress Lara that her most requested songs are all 10-15 years old?
[As an aside, Joni Mitchell was notorious for not singing her previous work, regardless of what her audience wanted (the other extreme) if she was no longer in that mood. She addressed this directly on a track of her live album ‘Miles of Aisles’ (when fans were calling out for the older, well-known hits) by comparing the performing arts to the visual arts. She noted that nobody had ever yelled at Van Gogh, “Paint ‘Starry Night’ again, man!” She said, “He painted it once, that was it”, implying her fans already had the recorded versions and should want something new. ]
[As another aside, Ricky Nelson was also pestered with the request to sings his past hits, such as “Travellin’ Man”. You may remember that his response came in the song “Garden Party” whose last line was, “But if memories are all I sang, I’d rather drive a truck.”]
In France, the general view is that Lara’s best work is behind her (in one interview, she said she had even heard people say they thought she had retired - or should). We know that is not necessarily true, but Lara has failed to take advantage of each opportunity that comes along to disprove it. She had a big audience for the “500 Choristes” show last December on French TV, and what did she choose to sing? ‘Je t’aime’. At the time, fans said it would only perpetuate the stereotype people have of her. Similarly, for Gorbachev’s 80th birthday show, with a world-wide audience: again ‘Je t’aime’ (a little less egregious, perhaps, because at least non-francophiles in the audience were not overly familiar with it, but again implying she has done nothing worthwhile since). This is why some fans are upset at her failure to publicize the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ album; that work shows she is still as capable a singer as ever, with new material. The release of the Mlle. Zhivago film would have forever altered the opinion of her in the eyes of the French media, and elsewhere. But Lara time and again starts something new, then pulls back and stays with the familiar…as the ‘biography’ of Lara suggested in its last chapter, while she may seem verbose and aggressive for things she believes in, underneath she is really quite timid. “Faint heart ne’er won fickle public…”
So with this perspective, we can’t expect very much new from Lara’s concert in Paris (which she has already said will be an acoustic concert). Maybe she will surprise us, but the odds are not in its favor. One wonders if she would dare more if her fans demanded it…
In other news, when the people writing on the Russian website were still interested, they noted that Lara was advertised as being at an awards presentation in Moscow on December 8th. We’ve heard nothing further about it since, and we know that such announcements are often made without the agreement of the stars listed simply to drum up publicity. Nevertheless, we shall see if she goes, and if Igor Krutoi joins her. (There is very little activity currently on that site, or actually on any of the non-official fan sites).
More certain, also on that day (and continuing a week later) the program “Le plus grand fan” will be shown on French TF6, featuring ‘Aurelie’ (as Lara’s ‘greatest fan’) in competition with fans of other celebrities.
And Lara herself will be on the broadcast of Laurent Gerra’s show “ne s'interdit rien!” It’s been reported that she participates in two duets/medleys. This is scheduled for December 10th on TF1; videos will almost certainly be made available on the web.
David
As you probably know by now, in preparation for Lara’s concert for her fan club members in January, she asked the fans to determine which songs she should sing. What was seemingly a straight-forward, and gracious, request was as usual handled in an ambiguous, confusing manner by her ‘people’. First fans were allowed to make whatever recommendation they wanted; presumably, Lara’s people then collected the suggestions and made this into a list for people to vote on. However, there wasn’t just one list, there appeared to be two, and they differed as to which songs were included and how many votes each song had gotten (one list had almost none of the Mlle. Zhivago songs on it while the other had most of them, although there were other song differences as well). Why two lists, and were people supposed to vote for each list? And how many titles were they supposed to choose? How many votes were they allowed? No explanation was offered to any of this (at least that I saw). Then after an unspecified time, the website presumably called a halt to the ‘voting’ without any warning, and some people have said that the list is now final. But what is it? No one knows.
Some fans have suggested that each day leading up to the concert another song title be released, while others have said they want to be surprised. Some cynical fans on the Russian website have even said they believe Lara will just end up singing what she wants to, and say that was the list. With all the confusion, anything is possible. And this prime example of the inability of Lara’s people to do anything coherently may be the real reason behind their lack of updating of her biography or discography to include the Mlle. Zhivago release, or their failure to provide information about Lara’s activities.
As to the songs themselves, there were some interesting suggestions (in addition to the Mlle. Zhivago songs), and at least some fans made an effort to be creative. However, unfortunately, the majority seemed to want Lara to sing the same songs she always does. Here, with a chance to ask Lara to perform titles from her catalog that she has never done live, the leading choices (again, as far as one could tell from one of the lists) were Adagio, Je t’aime, Je suis malade, etc. One could say that at least Lara knows her fans – they basically want an ‘oldies’ show, and that’s what she normally gives them (e.g., the recent set list for Charleroi). There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to please your audience, but doesn’t it distress Lara that her most requested songs are all 10-15 years old?
[As an aside, Joni Mitchell was notorious for not singing her previous work, regardless of what her audience wanted (the other extreme) if she was no longer in that mood. She addressed this directly on a track of her live album ‘Miles of Aisles’ (when fans were calling out for the older, well-known hits) by comparing the performing arts to the visual arts. She noted that nobody had ever yelled at Van Gogh, “Paint ‘Starry Night’ again, man!” She said, “He painted it once, that was it”, implying her fans already had the recorded versions and should want something new. ]
[As another aside, Ricky Nelson was also pestered with the request to sings his past hits, such as “Travellin’ Man”. You may remember that his response came in the song “Garden Party” whose last line was, “But if memories are all I sang, I’d rather drive a truck.”]
In France, the general view is that Lara’s best work is behind her (in one interview, she said she had even heard people say they thought she had retired - or should). We know that is not necessarily true, but Lara has failed to take advantage of each opportunity that comes along to disprove it. She had a big audience for the “500 Choristes” show last December on French TV, and what did she choose to sing? ‘Je t’aime’. At the time, fans said it would only perpetuate the stereotype people have of her. Similarly, for Gorbachev’s 80th birthday show, with a world-wide audience: again ‘Je t’aime’ (a little less egregious, perhaps, because at least non-francophiles in the audience were not overly familiar with it, but again implying she has done nothing worthwhile since). This is why some fans are upset at her failure to publicize the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ album; that work shows she is still as capable a singer as ever, with new material. The release of the Mlle. Zhivago film would have forever altered the opinion of her in the eyes of the French media, and elsewhere. But Lara time and again starts something new, then pulls back and stays with the familiar…as the ‘biography’ of Lara suggested in its last chapter, while she may seem verbose and aggressive for things she believes in, underneath she is really quite timid. “Faint heart ne’er won fickle public…”
So with this perspective, we can’t expect very much new from Lara’s concert in Paris (which she has already said will be an acoustic concert). Maybe she will surprise us, but the odds are not in its favor. One wonders if she would dare more if her fans demanded it…
In other news, when the people writing on the Russian website were still interested, they noted that Lara was advertised as being at an awards presentation in Moscow on December 8th. We’ve heard nothing further about it since, and we know that such announcements are often made without the agreement of the stars listed simply to drum up publicity. Nevertheless, we shall see if she goes, and if Igor Krutoi joins her. (There is very little activity currently on that site, or actually on any of the non-official fan sites).
More certain, also on that day (and continuing a week later) the program “Le plus grand fan” will be shown on French TF6, featuring ‘Aurelie’ (as Lara’s ‘greatest fan’) in competition with fans of other celebrities.
And Lara herself will be on the broadcast of Laurent Gerra’s show “ne s'interdit rien!” It’s been reported that she participates in two duets/medleys. This is scheduled for December 10th on TF1; videos will almost certainly be made available on the web.
David