Post by davidhr on Dec 27, 2011 12:46:08 GMT -5
A quiet holiday week for Lara. Nothing was on her schedule publicly, and for the most part, all the websites took the week off as well. The ‘Lara Fabian International’ FB page reported that year-end totals from Belgium showed that her ‘best of’, released November 15, 2010, was the 25th best selling album of 2011 in that country, this after being the 30th best seller in 2010. The sales qualified it as a ‘platinum’ record. The DVD “TLFM font leur show” was the 34th best seller in its category in 2011.
There has been no ‘official’ Lara calendar for several years now, but pure-lara.fr has come up with their own version for 2012. It is available for downloading at:
www.pure-lara.fr/index.php/actualites/43-calendrier-2012-non-officiel
Also, the Mlle. Zhivago facebook site has some very nice ‘wallpaper’ available with Lara-montages; they can be found at:
www.facebook.com/groups/104543256256462/
Lara Fabian Brazil created a video of what in their opinion were Lara’s best moments of 2011; it is available at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcRogtgsDpc
Finally, for those who never got to see Lara’s complete performance on "Laurent Gerra ne s'interdit rien", it has been subtly reintroduced to youtube, at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcS1ILATjrw
In the coming week, we expect that Lara's performance for New Year's Eve in Russia will be shown Saturday night; hopefully there will be video available of it. Happy New Year to Lara and all of you...
As this is the last full week from the “News Update” perspective for 2011, given below is the customary “Year in Review” (IMHO). Comments welcome!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year in Review 2011
A year that started out with much promise gradually deteriorated into what appeared to be missed opportunities. But hope springs eternal, and there’s a chance that next year will be the one in which Lara’s projects garner the attention they deserve.
2010 closed with Lara still pursuing her career in the ‘countries to the east’, appearing on both Ukrainian and Russian TV on New Years’ Eve, in both venues ‘singing’ what we have chosen to call the ‘Russian Song’ from the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ album, [Singing being a bit of a euphemism, for as she did throughout much of her time in these countries, it was really lip-synched]. Lara continued her habit of appearing there in gorgeous gowns, appropriate for what fans called the ‘kitsch’ of these shows, but looking quite beautiful nonetheless. Indicative of how she had infiltrated herself into the Russian culture, a parody of Lara and Igor performing this song was shown on Russian TV from the point of view of the original singer, Alla Pugacheva (who was actually in the audience at the Ukraine show). The publicity helped push the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ CD near the top of the Russian charts, where it was to stay for many weeks, and it also lifted several of her past albums into prominence.
Back in France/Belgium, Lara was still dealing with her ‘best of’ release and it was performing respectively on the charts; ultimately it achieved its best results in Belgium, where it went platinum, and was the 25th best selling album in 2011 (after being 30th in 2010). The wonderful DVD of her live ‘TLFM Font Leur Show” had its solo release, after previously having been packaged with the ‘best of’ CD. However, this was the first ‘missed opportunity’ of the year, for it was rumored that a ‘making of’ bonus had been filmed for inclusion (to differentiate it from the previous version), showing the generation of the holograms for one thing, but was omitted at the last moment. Hence there was no incentive for the public to buy the stand-alone version. It ended up as the 34th best selling DVD in its category in Belgium. And while plans at this time were being made for the ‘best of’ release in Canada, no effort was made to produce the DVD (in NTSC format) for that country.
During the month of January, Lara celebrated her 41st birthday, and as part of her continued outreach ‘to the east’, recorded a new song with Igor Krutoi, “Always”, which was made available for download. According to the Russian fans, it was to be part of another upcoming (English) album with Krutoi. She then participated in the Spring Festival in Beijing with a live performance of ‘I Will Love Again’ (it had won a competition among Chinese fans), as well as a duet with a local popular singer. She also indicated on her website and on a radio program that the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ movie was to be released in April, while the album itself was being prepped for release in Asia Minor, Germany and Italy. Her momentum in this ‘international’ direction seemed in full swing.
Her French career was not completely dormant during this time. Rumors abounded that she was planning a new French album with the Israeli Giora Linenberg; while this proved to be somewhat premature, by the end of the year it got much firmer footing. Her ‘virtual duet’ with Ray Charles. ‘Ensemble’, from the ‘best-of’ release became the second single, and received some airplay. However, by the end of the month, the album was dropping on the French charts, as Lara did not have as much time to promote it.
In February, Lara hit the jackpot in terms of appearing before large audiences. Not only did the TV show of the Spring Festival in Beijing air to over a hundred million viewers, Lara opened the Asian winter games with a performance of “Always” in Kazakhstan, this time to an immense live crowd (50,000 people) as well as an extended TV audience (of some 570,000). She received quite a bit of positive press for these shows throughout eastern Europe and Asia, and spent some additional time in Moscow recording for future broadcasts. This elicited some rumors about her ‘relationship’ with Igor Krutoi, which Lara greeted with hearty laughter, helping to dispel them. Additional rumors arose concerning a Russian/Ukrainian tour in the fall; this too was to become somewhat more solid, before falling apart entirely. France was not entirely ignored, with an occasional radio show for the ‘best of’ promotion, and news that Lara would be acting in a show put on by AICOM (for whom she is the ‘Godmother’) later in the year, one thing that did actually happen.
March was a busy month for Lara and her fans throughout the world. It began with her presiding over the AICOM 2nd Musical Comedy Competition in Paris, and continued with further verification of her up-coming role in their show ‘1939’ to take place in Paris in June. But her main visibility was elsewhere. Her appearance in the U.S. PBS show “The Hitman Returns: David Foster and Friends” (recorded the previous year) hit the airways, and was released as a CD/DVD, with high quality performances by Lara of a duet with Michael Bolton (‘The Prayer”) and her solo of ‘Caruso’. She had performances in Azerbaijan with Igor Krutoi; in Moscow at the Russian ‘Star Academy’ and also for their version of ‘American Idol’; in Grozny (the Chechen Republic) for International Women’s Day; and in Armenia for ‘French Day’. Alan Badoev, the director of the “Mlle. Zhivago” film indicated it was now finished and would be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. In an interview, Lara repeated her plans for an upcoming Russian tour, presumably in conjunction with the film’s commercial release, and indicated other countries in Europe that she might be visiting as well. And not to be left out, Lara’s Canadian ‘best of’ (one CD instead of two) got its first promotion with the release of ‘Je me souviens’ as the initial single (also the official name of the album).
April brought further extensive appearances for Lara, both ‘at home’ and abroad. Continuing the theme of ‘large audiences’, she performed in London for Michael Gorbachev’s 80th birthday, and a world-wide TV audience got to see her provide a wonderful rendition of ‘Je t’aime’. She also performed for the French ‘Sidaction’ program, raising money for the fight against AIDS, was at a musical awards show in Armenia, and her had ‘best of’ Canadian CD hit the shelves, with a set list more oriented toward her Canadian career. There was some publicity associated with its release, with Lara giving an interview to a Montreal paper, but Lara did not go there in person. Instead, she continued her concentration in eastern Europe/Asia, including a big TV interview in the Ukraine. That country also showed her Russian TV concert from the previous December, in effect playing up her importance as an international singer. One discordant note: the list of movies to be presented at Cannes as made available, and ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ was not on it.
Lara said in interviews that she was now quite tired, and May found her primarily out of the spotlight. While the ‘best of’ release continued to do quite well in Belgium, the Canadian version dropped out of sight after Lara’s quick promotion of it ended. Lara did provide some interviews concerned with the upcoming AICOM play, noting how its director is also her voice coach, and that the story (‘1939’) is set against the backdrop of the second World War in a little French village. It was written and composed by teachers from AICOM. Her French focus took on an additional element, as Lara reported that she had agreed to give a September concert in Charleroi, Belgium for a foundation that builds houses for orphans. Her only ‘eastern’ presence was a replay of her December Moscow concert on Russian TV, and her performing for a musical college in Armenia. It also turned out that what was taking her time (and presumably was not particularly restful) was a move to a new home in Belgium, again near Brussels.
The first part of June was another quiet time publicly for Lara. The concert schedule for her fall tour of Russia and the Ukraine was published on her website (only the English portion of the site – not the French), and it included 29 dates, of which 23 were in Russia. Lara had indicated they would be acoustic concerts, and the Russian fans noted both that the halls in the Kremlin seemed to be too large for such a show, and also that some of the cities listed were very small. Their major question however was whether Lara would actually sing the songs from the Mlle. Zhivago album live, as opposed to the lip-synching from her previous tour. [As it turned out, all these points ended up being moot].
By the beginning of summer, Lara had jumped back into action. She sang several songs and received an award at a Radio Judaica night in Brussels. Michael Bolton’s album of duets entitled ‘Gems’, including his duet with Lara of ‘The Prayer’, was released. Her contribution was recorded over the Internet, and was a bit muted compared to the live version, but otherwise served to introduce Lara to Bolton fans who had not known of her previously. Meanwhile, ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ was certified ‘gold’ in Russia (25,000 copies sold), and after being on the chart (mostly in the top 10) for 34 straight weeks, was the sixth best-selling disc for the first half year in that country. It still, however, had not been released anywhere but in Russia and the Ukraine. And Igor Krutoi was now saying that the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ film would be released in the fall, rather than the spring, to coincide with Lara’s tour.
The major event for the month, however, was the performance of the show ‘1939’ in Paris at the end of June. There were three shows over a two day period, and Lara was on-stage several times, singing several songs, including a new title ‘Sans pourquoi’. She received praise from all who saw it, including the press. The performance then moved on to other cities in France, without her.
The other occurrence of note was the opening of Lara’s Facebook site, promising more immediate interaction with fans, which coincided with the closing of the forum on her official site, and the discontinuation of her ‘Farfallina’ publications. There will be more on the ‘website’ situation later in this review.
In July, Lara returned to the ‘countries to the east’, this time with a concert in Astana, Kazakhstan at the beginning of the month, where she presented her typical Mlle. Zhivago show, complete with lip-synching on some of the songs. One difference was that at the end, Lara was asked to sing a reprise of the ‘Russian Song’, which she did, live, with no problem. This again raised the issue for the fans of whether she was being prohibited from singing live in general due to Krutoi’s perfectionism and/or the quality of the sound equipment, against her own preferences. We will probably never know…
Of more consequence was the sudden removal from Lara’s website of the venues for the Russian/Ukrainian tour. It was the first time since Lara’s sickness in 2004 that a previously scheduled concert tour posted on her site had been cancelled (although in this case, tickets had not yet been sold), and so her ‘team’ rushed to tell fans that it was not health but ‘professional’ reasons forcing the postponement. [We later learned what that meant…] Meanwhile, the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ movie seemed to recede as a reality – the tour had been meant to support it, and when asked what the status was, the director Alan Badoev responded in a crude/angry fashion about the ‘creative process’. Rumors also began circulating that Lara was asking for changes in the film, and that Badoev would be presenting them to Lara presently.
Towards the end of the month, Lara was vacationing with her family in Marbella, in southern Spain, where she and Gerard apparently own property. [This was at the time that Badoev said he would be flying to Brussels to meet with Lara…]
Then it was back to the ‘countries to the east’ at the very end of July, to Latvia for another edition of the ‘New Wave’ festival, where Russian and western performers intermingle with young talent. Lara performed six songs, including duets/triplets with opera singers Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Sumi Jo (again with plenty of lip-synching by all involved). She also did a wonderful duet of “Les Feuilles Mortes” (i.e., ‘Autumn Leaves’) with Krutoi, which ranks in some estimations as one of the highlights of her year. Rumors arose of a fall concert being planned with these same participants (it never occurred).
August was a month away from the spotlight for Lara, as is usual in the French speaking/European world. The main event was a fan club meeting in Brussels. Last year Lara made a surprise entry; this year, she still took it seriously, even while not attending, by sending her father and best friend Nathalie in her place. A filmed video tribute to Lara by various artists was shown, including Dorian Sherwood, Pierre-Yves Duchesne, George Perris, and Rick Allison (yes, that’s right) among others. Various pictures that fans sent were presented, and gifts for Lara were given to her father. At the end of the month, Lara made a brief appearance filming her contribution to the 20th anniversary of the Belgian radio station Bel RTL, which was also promoting her September concert in Charerloi.
“À la rentrée” in early September, Lara appeared on the show "Les Grosses Têtes", which usually involves interviews on weighty, often political topics. Lara was treated like a ‘light entertainment interlude’, the host didn’t really know much about her, and her opinions were not seriously considered. Lara herself seemed somewhat disappointed, noting that she was expecting somewhat more critical questions, and that she was up for them.
The only other public event that month was the long-awaited charity concert in Charleroi on the 22nd. Originally touted as the ‘first’ of the Mlle. Zhivago concerts, it then became what appeared to be the only one, after the Russian/Ukrainian tour was cancelled. In fact, it turned out to be not even that, as none of the MZ songs were presented; it was instead very similar to private/charity concerts Lara has been giving for much of the last decade. The question of why the Mlle. Zhivago album was being avoided hung heavy in the minds of some of the fans, as expressed on Lara’s FB site.
The question had even greater resonance when at the beginning of October, Lara announced she was now actively working on her next French album, ‘Le Secret’. Rumored for more than a year, it nevertheless came as somewhat of a surprise to fans, since in interviews just a few months previous, Lara had expressed uncertainty as to what direction her future recording activities would go. French fans were overjoyed at the prospect of getting new music from Lara, the first new French- language album of original songs since ‘Neuf’ in 2005. But it also suggested she was finished with ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ without ever having promoted the CD anywhere but the ‘countries to the east’, and releasing it in only two countries there. And what about the Mlle. Zhivago film?
In that regard, the director Alan Badoev in an interview suggested that the trailer for the movie would finally be released during this month. He also said the film itself would be shown on Russian TV and be made available as a DVD for the French audience. If this were true, one would have thought Lara would be gearing up for its promotion, but there was not a word from her about it, and her website mentioned none of these things.
Finally true to his promise, the trailer did appear on October 24th, indicating a fast-paced and very dark film, with, as had been advertized, love and death being primary themes. The initial reaction from Lara’s fans and people all over the world was highly positive, as it showed Lara with a wide range of emotions in scenes that looked exciting. Badoev himself had prepared the trailer. Lara’s reaction was immediate and hostile. She disaffirmed it, saying she had not approved its release, and in fact the film itself would never be shown, that it did not align itself with her morals. Great confusion resulted from this pronouncement, with Badoev writing on his site that if that were the case, why had Lara not objected during its filming? Nevertheless, he said that he worked for the benefit and with the approval of others, and if Lara did not want the film released, it would be killed.
This was a great disappointment for Lara’s fans; nevertheless, many of the more closely affiliated websites followed her lead and removed all links to the trailer. It helped explain the cancellation of her Russian/Ukrainian tour to promote it, and made clear that the rumors over the summer that Lara was unhappy with some aspects of it were more serious than had been supposed. It also suggested that the lack of promotion of the CD may have been tied up with her unhappiness with the film, although that is not certain, and shouldn’t necessarily have been the case. Her turn back to a new French CD might also now be seen as a rebound from this (rather than a directive from Universal, as some had supposed).
To say that this was the major event of the year, in a negative sense, would not have seemed an exaggeration. Her whole approach in the ‘countries to the east’ had been centered around this project, and its collapse would seem to nullify that aspect of her future career. She would also appear to be alienating the film’s chief proponent, Igor Krutoi, with whom Lara had worked so well, and for whom she had so much respect. It suggested to fans that this was yet another example of Lara’s failure to exploit her ability in a new venue, similar to what happened in the U.S. and Brazil.
However, Lara did not act as if this were an obstacle, for she started setting up concerts in the ‘countries to the east’ (and Lebanon) in the February-April time frame (although not in Russia and the Ukraine). Time would tell whether she would include Mlle. Zhivago songs at these venues, as she had in the past two years.
Meanwhile, other activities seemed to be occupying her time this month. Lara recorded her presentation on the show "Laurent Gerra ne s'interdit rien” with two duets, one with the host ‘Laurent Gerra’ and one with the ‘Voca People’, a medley of her past hits; it would be broadcast in early December. Lara’s duet with Nana Mouskouri of the song “La Vie L'Amour La Mort” was released on Nana’s album ‘Rendezvous’, November 21st. And on the same day, after a year of searching for financing (including asking the public), Thierry Gali’s CD of fairy tales “Il etait une fois” was released, on which Lara reads ‘Snow White’.
And of great pleasure for Lara, with possible future implications for her international career, Lara attended David Foster’s (4th) wedding celebration in Los Angeles. She had the opportunity to sing with Andrea Bocceli, and be photographed with her idol Barbra Streisand, among others.
Another big event this month concerned Lara’s ‘fan club’. For some 5 years, fans had paid 40 euros per year and received 4 issues of her magazine ‘Farfallina’, basically their only benefit. This year, the magazine was discontinued, and so fans wondered what their money was really buying. After fielding complaints for many months, Lara and her people finally acted. Lara proposed to give a private (free) concert for the fan club members in Paris in mid-January, or otherwise return the 40 euros to fans who could not attend. She indicated that the fans could vote for what songs they wanted to hear, and a poll was set up on her facebook site. Unfortunately, it was handled in such a confusing fashion that in the end no one knew which songs received the most votes, leading the most cynical fans to suppose Lara would sing what she wanted to anyway. But at least the fans’ complaints had been heard, in this regard at least.
Lara had been scheduled to appear at an awards dinner in Moscow in early December, but would she really go, and would Krutoi join her? Much to everyone’s surprise, she did and he did, with them performing together at both the charity show and the recording of a New Year’s Eve program, while seeming to be the best of friends. He even indicated on a TV show that he was writing new songs for Lara. That raised the thought in people’s minds that if they still were friendly, there might be some amicable resolution to the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ problem. And indeed, Lara followed this up with a statement on her website indicating that further editing of the film was going on, and she would have the “much more than music” project available for the fans – they just needed to be a bit more patient. While the drama concerning all of this has not yet really ended – we don’t know whether it will still be a film of any consequence, or for that matter, whether it will really ultimately appear – her announcement provided hope for a ‘happy ending’ to what seemed to be a most unfortunate affair.
Some minor events closed this month, with Lara (and Gerard) acting as judges for photographers of the ‘Hotel de Sers’ in Paris, and Lara once again agreeing to be the sponsor of the International Academy of Musical Comedy (AICOM), and a judge for its competition.
We cannot close this ‘year in review’ without discussing the status of Lara’s on-line sites. During the year, she/her team made the decision to close her official site forum, and instead open up a Facebook site. Their goal, they said, was to make Lara’s activities more immediately available to the public (and this was the explanation then offered for the discontinuation of the ‘Farfallina’ publication – now everything would be offered up quickly, and for free, to a greater number of fans). The forum would be replaced by the Facebook ‘discussion’ section. One immediate disadvantage is that it was quickly swamped with messages of praise that had previously been relegated to the ‘Book of Gold’ on the official site – this diluted substantive discussions. But even worse, Facebook itself then decided to close the ‘discussion’ sections (saying they just wanted only the short interactions that can be placed on the FB ‘wall’ at each site). As the only topics on the ‘Wall’ are those introduced by Lara’s people, that effectively removed anything else that fans wanted to discuss, including all hints of criticism, constructive or not. Hence the one central place that fans could express their opinions – and provide new information on Lara’s activities, which they often did – was now gone.
There were effectively no other sites that could pick up the slack, because they had all withered over the years in the face of the official site forum. Some 5-10 smaller sites are in existence, with their characteristic contributors, but it is a fractured community. At one point last year, it looked as if the Russian fan site might become quite important – it was so well done that rumors abounded they would help Lara build a new ‘official site’. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and with Lara’s cancellation of the Russian tour and dismissal of the Mlle. Zhivago film, it became fairly moribund in recent months. With Lara’s recent statements, and especially if there is a new Russian tour, it might spring back to life.
In addition, several of the wonderful sites from the past few years have disappeared or limited their activity. ‘larafabiannews.com’ closed its doors, as Tarcisio decided it required too much work given his other obligations. Christina’s “Greek Music Treasure Box” has been fairly quiet for the last 6 months. Even ‘larafabianweb.com’ exists on a minimal level, although that too may revive if Lara has more activities in France/Belgium. New facebook sites like ‘larafabian est ton autre’, and Lara Fabian International Page’ have popped up, the FB version of LFIAG exists, and ‘Lara Fabian’-pure continues as both FB and URL. Again the problem with the FB sites is the lack of ability to write anything of length/substance, and, in general, allow fans to introduce new topics. The situation with fan sites for Lara is probably as poor as it’s been in 10 years or more. This limitation on fan discussion and activity does not work in her favor as far as maintaining interest in her doings.
Of course, the whole point of Lara’s FB site was to allow her to make more frequent contact with her fans, and it did to some degree. Her messages have been posted every now and then (as opposed to ‘rarely’ on the official site), and she’s offered some items that were not available elsewhere (like the recent photos from David Foster’s marriage celebration). On the other hand, it is very particular about what it reports – for example, it has included nothing about her recent trip to Moscow, meeting with Krutoi, her various performances there, etc. Lara seems determined to keep all that away from her French fans. While the site has both French and English as its official languages, the English is clearly an after-thought, with some official messages translated, and some not. The use of only those languages has also discouraged world-wide participation; Russian fans generally don’t use it because, as one pair commented, they felt silly responding to each other on the site in poor English rather than in Russian (true also for Italian and Spanish fans). Basically, Lara is primarily relating to her “home-base” here, her French-speaking “angels”, as she does elsewhere. The FB site currently shows 12,700 people ‘liking’ it (two autographed copies of EWIM were distributed to fans when it reached 10,000) and it continues to grow. It quickly removes any negative/controversial comments.
Our ‘News Updates’ also had some different looks. A biography of Lara,
“Lara Fabian, Toutes les femmes en elle” by Jérémy Patinier (http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/lara-fabian-toutes-les-femmes-en-elle-%28biographie%29/18165241) was published late last year, and we spent much of this past year slowly going through its main points. It was not ‘investigative’ in any sense, but it did include enough new information to make the time spent worthwhile for all but the most devout followers. Also, responding to a suggestion, the ‘News Updates’ were offered on their own Facebook site, where they did receive some additional attention. However, the closing of the FB discussion sections affected this as well, and now the FB page primarily includes links to the sites where the full update is available. It’s unclear how large the number of English-speaking fans interested in Lara actually is…
Finally, on the positive side, the Lara Fabian Romanian channel put English subtitles on a number of Lara’s interview shows and songs during this past year
see:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UULK7NxUJfc47yIrguBATLGw&feature=plcp). We thank them for this great effort, making her work available to a larger audience.
In summary, after Lara’s very busy and productive 2010, this was a year with just one CD release (the Canadian ‘best of’), some notable performances before large audiences, but ultimately, a holding pattern with potentialities still to be fulfilled. And as we approach 2012, we are ironically back in pretty much the same position that we were in approaching 2011: waiting to see if Lara will utilize the CD/movie of Mlle. Zhivago to build a wider international career. Recent developments seem positive, but they did at the end of last year as well. So we are now clearly more aware of the possible pitfalls. Another difference is that she has more explicitly led fans to believe in the upcoming appearance of a new French album. And additional work with Krutoi seems as if it might be in the offing. Would she be able to promote entirely separate ventures in widely disparate locales at the same time? (She tried it toward the end of 2010, and admitted it proved too much for her). Will the Mlle. Zhivago project ever be made available to her French fans, uniting her international and French careers? By this time next year, we expect that these questions will have been answered, but as we know, with Lara, nothing is predictable!
David
There has been no ‘official’ Lara calendar for several years now, but pure-lara.fr has come up with their own version for 2012. It is available for downloading at:
www.pure-lara.fr/index.php/actualites/43-calendrier-2012-non-officiel
Also, the Mlle. Zhivago facebook site has some very nice ‘wallpaper’ available with Lara-montages; they can be found at:
www.facebook.com/groups/104543256256462/
Lara Fabian Brazil created a video of what in their opinion were Lara’s best moments of 2011; it is available at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcRogtgsDpc
Finally, for those who never got to see Lara’s complete performance on "Laurent Gerra ne s'interdit rien", it has been subtly reintroduced to youtube, at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcS1ILATjrw
In the coming week, we expect that Lara's performance for New Year's Eve in Russia will be shown Saturday night; hopefully there will be video available of it. Happy New Year to Lara and all of you...
As this is the last full week from the “News Update” perspective for 2011, given below is the customary “Year in Review” (IMHO). Comments welcome!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year in Review 2011
A year that started out with much promise gradually deteriorated into what appeared to be missed opportunities. But hope springs eternal, and there’s a chance that next year will be the one in which Lara’s projects garner the attention they deserve.
2010 closed with Lara still pursuing her career in the ‘countries to the east’, appearing on both Ukrainian and Russian TV on New Years’ Eve, in both venues ‘singing’ what we have chosen to call the ‘Russian Song’ from the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ album, [Singing being a bit of a euphemism, for as she did throughout much of her time in these countries, it was really lip-synched]. Lara continued her habit of appearing there in gorgeous gowns, appropriate for what fans called the ‘kitsch’ of these shows, but looking quite beautiful nonetheless. Indicative of how she had infiltrated herself into the Russian culture, a parody of Lara and Igor performing this song was shown on Russian TV from the point of view of the original singer, Alla Pugacheva (who was actually in the audience at the Ukraine show). The publicity helped push the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ CD near the top of the Russian charts, where it was to stay for many weeks, and it also lifted several of her past albums into prominence.
Back in France/Belgium, Lara was still dealing with her ‘best of’ release and it was performing respectively on the charts; ultimately it achieved its best results in Belgium, where it went platinum, and was the 25th best selling album in 2011 (after being 30th in 2010). The wonderful DVD of her live ‘TLFM Font Leur Show” had its solo release, after previously having been packaged with the ‘best of’ CD. However, this was the first ‘missed opportunity’ of the year, for it was rumored that a ‘making of’ bonus had been filmed for inclusion (to differentiate it from the previous version), showing the generation of the holograms for one thing, but was omitted at the last moment. Hence there was no incentive for the public to buy the stand-alone version. It ended up as the 34th best selling DVD in its category in Belgium. And while plans at this time were being made for the ‘best of’ release in Canada, no effort was made to produce the DVD (in NTSC format) for that country.
During the month of January, Lara celebrated her 41st birthday, and as part of her continued outreach ‘to the east’, recorded a new song with Igor Krutoi, “Always”, which was made available for download. According to the Russian fans, it was to be part of another upcoming (English) album with Krutoi. She then participated in the Spring Festival in Beijing with a live performance of ‘I Will Love Again’ (it had won a competition among Chinese fans), as well as a duet with a local popular singer. She also indicated on her website and on a radio program that the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ movie was to be released in April, while the album itself was being prepped for release in Asia Minor, Germany and Italy. Her momentum in this ‘international’ direction seemed in full swing.
Her French career was not completely dormant during this time. Rumors abounded that she was planning a new French album with the Israeli Giora Linenberg; while this proved to be somewhat premature, by the end of the year it got much firmer footing. Her ‘virtual duet’ with Ray Charles. ‘Ensemble’, from the ‘best-of’ release became the second single, and received some airplay. However, by the end of the month, the album was dropping on the French charts, as Lara did not have as much time to promote it.
In February, Lara hit the jackpot in terms of appearing before large audiences. Not only did the TV show of the Spring Festival in Beijing air to over a hundred million viewers, Lara opened the Asian winter games with a performance of “Always” in Kazakhstan, this time to an immense live crowd (50,000 people) as well as an extended TV audience (of some 570,000). She received quite a bit of positive press for these shows throughout eastern Europe and Asia, and spent some additional time in Moscow recording for future broadcasts. This elicited some rumors about her ‘relationship’ with Igor Krutoi, which Lara greeted with hearty laughter, helping to dispel them. Additional rumors arose concerning a Russian/Ukrainian tour in the fall; this too was to become somewhat more solid, before falling apart entirely. France was not entirely ignored, with an occasional radio show for the ‘best of’ promotion, and news that Lara would be acting in a show put on by AICOM (for whom she is the ‘Godmother’) later in the year, one thing that did actually happen.
March was a busy month for Lara and her fans throughout the world. It began with her presiding over the AICOM 2nd Musical Comedy Competition in Paris, and continued with further verification of her up-coming role in their show ‘1939’ to take place in Paris in June. But her main visibility was elsewhere. Her appearance in the U.S. PBS show “The Hitman Returns: David Foster and Friends” (recorded the previous year) hit the airways, and was released as a CD/DVD, with high quality performances by Lara of a duet with Michael Bolton (‘The Prayer”) and her solo of ‘Caruso’. She had performances in Azerbaijan with Igor Krutoi; in Moscow at the Russian ‘Star Academy’ and also for their version of ‘American Idol’; in Grozny (the Chechen Republic) for International Women’s Day; and in Armenia for ‘French Day’. Alan Badoev, the director of the “Mlle. Zhivago” film indicated it was now finished and would be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. In an interview, Lara repeated her plans for an upcoming Russian tour, presumably in conjunction with the film’s commercial release, and indicated other countries in Europe that she might be visiting as well. And not to be left out, Lara’s Canadian ‘best of’ (one CD instead of two) got its first promotion with the release of ‘Je me souviens’ as the initial single (also the official name of the album).
April brought further extensive appearances for Lara, both ‘at home’ and abroad. Continuing the theme of ‘large audiences’, she performed in London for Michael Gorbachev’s 80th birthday, and a world-wide TV audience got to see her provide a wonderful rendition of ‘Je t’aime’. She also performed for the French ‘Sidaction’ program, raising money for the fight against AIDS, was at a musical awards show in Armenia, and her had ‘best of’ Canadian CD hit the shelves, with a set list more oriented toward her Canadian career. There was some publicity associated with its release, with Lara giving an interview to a Montreal paper, but Lara did not go there in person. Instead, she continued her concentration in eastern Europe/Asia, including a big TV interview in the Ukraine. That country also showed her Russian TV concert from the previous December, in effect playing up her importance as an international singer. One discordant note: the list of movies to be presented at Cannes as made available, and ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ was not on it.
Lara said in interviews that she was now quite tired, and May found her primarily out of the spotlight. While the ‘best of’ release continued to do quite well in Belgium, the Canadian version dropped out of sight after Lara’s quick promotion of it ended. Lara did provide some interviews concerned with the upcoming AICOM play, noting how its director is also her voice coach, and that the story (‘1939’) is set against the backdrop of the second World War in a little French village. It was written and composed by teachers from AICOM. Her French focus took on an additional element, as Lara reported that she had agreed to give a September concert in Charleroi, Belgium for a foundation that builds houses for orphans. Her only ‘eastern’ presence was a replay of her December Moscow concert on Russian TV, and her performing for a musical college in Armenia. It also turned out that what was taking her time (and presumably was not particularly restful) was a move to a new home in Belgium, again near Brussels.
The first part of June was another quiet time publicly for Lara. The concert schedule for her fall tour of Russia and the Ukraine was published on her website (only the English portion of the site – not the French), and it included 29 dates, of which 23 were in Russia. Lara had indicated they would be acoustic concerts, and the Russian fans noted both that the halls in the Kremlin seemed to be too large for such a show, and also that some of the cities listed were very small. Their major question however was whether Lara would actually sing the songs from the Mlle. Zhivago album live, as opposed to the lip-synching from her previous tour. [As it turned out, all these points ended up being moot].
By the beginning of summer, Lara had jumped back into action. She sang several songs and received an award at a Radio Judaica night in Brussels. Michael Bolton’s album of duets entitled ‘Gems’, including his duet with Lara of ‘The Prayer’, was released. Her contribution was recorded over the Internet, and was a bit muted compared to the live version, but otherwise served to introduce Lara to Bolton fans who had not known of her previously. Meanwhile, ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ was certified ‘gold’ in Russia (25,000 copies sold), and after being on the chart (mostly in the top 10) for 34 straight weeks, was the sixth best-selling disc for the first half year in that country. It still, however, had not been released anywhere but in Russia and the Ukraine. And Igor Krutoi was now saying that the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ film would be released in the fall, rather than the spring, to coincide with Lara’s tour.
The major event for the month, however, was the performance of the show ‘1939’ in Paris at the end of June. There were three shows over a two day period, and Lara was on-stage several times, singing several songs, including a new title ‘Sans pourquoi’. She received praise from all who saw it, including the press. The performance then moved on to other cities in France, without her.
The other occurrence of note was the opening of Lara’s Facebook site, promising more immediate interaction with fans, which coincided with the closing of the forum on her official site, and the discontinuation of her ‘Farfallina’ publications. There will be more on the ‘website’ situation later in this review.
In July, Lara returned to the ‘countries to the east’, this time with a concert in Astana, Kazakhstan at the beginning of the month, where she presented her typical Mlle. Zhivago show, complete with lip-synching on some of the songs. One difference was that at the end, Lara was asked to sing a reprise of the ‘Russian Song’, which she did, live, with no problem. This again raised the issue for the fans of whether she was being prohibited from singing live in general due to Krutoi’s perfectionism and/or the quality of the sound equipment, against her own preferences. We will probably never know…
Of more consequence was the sudden removal from Lara’s website of the venues for the Russian/Ukrainian tour. It was the first time since Lara’s sickness in 2004 that a previously scheduled concert tour posted on her site had been cancelled (although in this case, tickets had not yet been sold), and so her ‘team’ rushed to tell fans that it was not health but ‘professional’ reasons forcing the postponement. [We later learned what that meant…] Meanwhile, the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ movie seemed to recede as a reality – the tour had been meant to support it, and when asked what the status was, the director Alan Badoev responded in a crude/angry fashion about the ‘creative process’. Rumors also began circulating that Lara was asking for changes in the film, and that Badoev would be presenting them to Lara presently.
Towards the end of the month, Lara was vacationing with her family in Marbella, in southern Spain, where she and Gerard apparently own property. [This was at the time that Badoev said he would be flying to Brussels to meet with Lara…]
Then it was back to the ‘countries to the east’ at the very end of July, to Latvia for another edition of the ‘New Wave’ festival, where Russian and western performers intermingle with young talent. Lara performed six songs, including duets/triplets with opera singers Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Sumi Jo (again with plenty of lip-synching by all involved). She also did a wonderful duet of “Les Feuilles Mortes” (i.e., ‘Autumn Leaves’) with Krutoi, which ranks in some estimations as one of the highlights of her year. Rumors arose of a fall concert being planned with these same participants (it never occurred).
August was a month away from the spotlight for Lara, as is usual in the French speaking/European world. The main event was a fan club meeting in Brussels. Last year Lara made a surprise entry; this year, she still took it seriously, even while not attending, by sending her father and best friend Nathalie in her place. A filmed video tribute to Lara by various artists was shown, including Dorian Sherwood, Pierre-Yves Duchesne, George Perris, and Rick Allison (yes, that’s right) among others. Various pictures that fans sent were presented, and gifts for Lara were given to her father. At the end of the month, Lara made a brief appearance filming her contribution to the 20th anniversary of the Belgian radio station Bel RTL, which was also promoting her September concert in Charerloi.
“À la rentrée” in early September, Lara appeared on the show "Les Grosses Têtes", which usually involves interviews on weighty, often political topics. Lara was treated like a ‘light entertainment interlude’, the host didn’t really know much about her, and her opinions were not seriously considered. Lara herself seemed somewhat disappointed, noting that she was expecting somewhat more critical questions, and that she was up for them.
The only other public event that month was the long-awaited charity concert in Charleroi on the 22nd. Originally touted as the ‘first’ of the Mlle. Zhivago concerts, it then became what appeared to be the only one, after the Russian/Ukrainian tour was cancelled. In fact, it turned out to be not even that, as none of the MZ songs were presented; it was instead very similar to private/charity concerts Lara has been giving for much of the last decade. The question of why the Mlle. Zhivago album was being avoided hung heavy in the minds of some of the fans, as expressed on Lara’s FB site.
The question had even greater resonance when at the beginning of October, Lara announced she was now actively working on her next French album, ‘Le Secret’. Rumored for more than a year, it nevertheless came as somewhat of a surprise to fans, since in interviews just a few months previous, Lara had expressed uncertainty as to what direction her future recording activities would go. French fans were overjoyed at the prospect of getting new music from Lara, the first new French- language album of original songs since ‘Neuf’ in 2005. But it also suggested she was finished with ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ without ever having promoted the CD anywhere but the ‘countries to the east’, and releasing it in only two countries there. And what about the Mlle. Zhivago film?
In that regard, the director Alan Badoev in an interview suggested that the trailer for the movie would finally be released during this month. He also said the film itself would be shown on Russian TV and be made available as a DVD for the French audience. If this were true, one would have thought Lara would be gearing up for its promotion, but there was not a word from her about it, and her website mentioned none of these things.
Finally true to his promise, the trailer did appear on October 24th, indicating a fast-paced and very dark film, with, as had been advertized, love and death being primary themes. The initial reaction from Lara’s fans and people all over the world was highly positive, as it showed Lara with a wide range of emotions in scenes that looked exciting. Badoev himself had prepared the trailer. Lara’s reaction was immediate and hostile. She disaffirmed it, saying she had not approved its release, and in fact the film itself would never be shown, that it did not align itself with her morals. Great confusion resulted from this pronouncement, with Badoev writing on his site that if that were the case, why had Lara not objected during its filming? Nevertheless, he said that he worked for the benefit and with the approval of others, and if Lara did not want the film released, it would be killed.
This was a great disappointment for Lara’s fans; nevertheless, many of the more closely affiliated websites followed her lead and removed all links to the trailer. It helped explain the cancellation of her Russian/Ukrainian tour to promote it, and made clear that the rumors over the summer that Lara was unhappy with some aspects of it were more serious than had been supposed. It also suggested that the lack of promotion of the CD may have been tied up with her unhappiness with the film, although that is not certain, and shouldn’t necessarily have been the case. Her turn back to a new French CD might also now be seen as a rebound from this (rather than a directive from Universal, as some had supposed).
To say that this was the major event of the year, in a negative sense, would not have seemed an exaggeration. Her whole approach in the ‘countries to the east’ had been centered around this project, and its collapse would seem to nullify that aspect of her future career. She would also appear to be alienating the film’s chief proponent, Igor Krutoi, with whom Lara had worked so well, and for whom she had so much respect. It suggested to fans that this was yet another example of Lara’s failure to exploit her ability in a new venue, similar to what happened in the U.S. and Brazil.
However, Lara did not act as if this were an obstacle, for she started setting up concerts in the ‘countries to the east’ (and Lebanon) in the February-April time frame (although not in Russia and the Ukraine). Time would tell whether she would include Mlle. Zhivago songs at these venues, as she had in the past two years.
Meanwhile, other activities seemed to be occupying her time this month. Lara recorded her presentation on the show "Laurent Gerra ne s'interdit rien” with two duets, one with the host ‘Laurent Gerra’ and one with the ‘Voca People’, a medley of her past hits; it would be broadcast in early December. Lara’s duet with Nana Mouskouri of the song “La Vie L'Amour La Mort” was released on Nana’s album ‘Rendezvous’, November 21st. And on the same day, after a year of searching for financing (including asking the public), Thierry Gali’s CD of fairy tales “Il etait une fois” was released, on which Lara reads ‘Snow White’.
And of great pleasure for Lara, with possible future implications for her international career, Lara attended David Foster’s (4th) wedding celebration in Los Angeles. She had the opportunity to sing with Andrea Bocceli, and be photographed with her idol Barbra Streisand, among others.
Another big event this month concerned Lara’s ‘fan club’. For some 5 years, fans had paid 40 euros per year and received 4 issues of her magazine ‘Farfallina’, basically their only benefit. This year, the magazine was discontinued, and so fans wondered what their money was really buying. After fielding complaints for many months, Lara and her people finally acted. Lara proposed to give a private (free) concert for the fan club members in Paris in mid-January, or otherwise return the 40 euros to fans who could not attend. She indicated that the fans could vote for what songs they wanted to hear, and a poll was set up on her facebook site. Unfortunately, it was handled in such a confusing fashion that in the end no one knew which songs received the most votes, leading the most cynical fans to suppose Lara would sing what she wanted to anyway. But at least the fans’ complaints had been heard, in this regard at least.
Lara had been scheduled to appear at an awards dinner in Moscow in early December, but would she really go, and would Krutoi join her? Much to everyone’s surprise, she did and he did, with them performing together at both the charity show and the recording of a New Year’s Eve program, while seeming to be the best of friends. He even indicated on a TV show that he was writing new songs for Lara. That raised the thought in people’s minds that if they still were friendly, there might be some amicable resolution to the ‘Mlle. Zhivago’ problem. And indeed, Lara followed this up with a statement on her website indicating that further editing of the film was going on, and she would have the “much more than music” project available for the fans – they just needed to be a bit more patient. While the drama concerning all of this has not yet really ended – we don’t know whether it will still be a film of any consequence, or for that matter, whether it will really ultimately appear – her announcement provided hope for a ‘happy ending’ to what seemed to be a most unfortunate affair.
Some minor events closed this month, with Lara (and Gerard) acting as judges for photographers of the ‘Hotel de Sers’ in Paris, and Lara once again agreeing to be the sponsor of the International Academy of Musical Comedy (AICOM), and a judge for its competition.
We cannot close this ‘year in review’ without discussing the status of Lara’s on-line sites. During the year, she/her team made the decision to close her official site forum, and instead open up a Facebook site. Their goal, they said, was to make Lara’s activities more immediately available to the public (and this was the explanation then offered for the discontinuation of the ‘Farfallina’ publication – now everything would be offered up quickly, and for free, to a greater number of fans). The forum would be replaced by the Facebook ‘discussion’ section. One immediate disadvantage is that it was quickly swamped with messages of praise that had previously been relegated to the ‘Book of Gold’ on the official site – this diluted substantive discussions. But even worse, Facebook itself then decided to close the ‘discussion’ sections (saying they just wanted only the short interactions that can be placed on the FB ‘wall’ at each site). As the only topics on the ‘Wall’ are those introduced by Lara’s people, that effectively removed anything else that fans wanted to discuss, including all hints of criticism, constructive or not. Hence the one central place that fans could express their opinions – and provide new information on Lara’s activities, which they often did – was now gone.
There were effectively no other sites that could pick up the slack, because they had all withered over the years in the face of the official site forum. Some 5-10 smaller sites are in existence, with their characteristic contributors, but it is a fractured community. At one point last year, it looked as if the Russian fan site might become quite important – it was so well done that rumors abounded they would help Lara build a new ‘official site’. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and with Lara’s cancellation of the Russian tour and dismissal of the Mlle. Zhivago film, it became fairly moribund in recent months. With Lara’s recent statements, and especially if there is a new Russian tour, it might spring back to life.
In addition, several of the wonderful sites from the past few years have disappeared or limited their activity. ‘larafabiannews.com’ closed its doors, as Tarcisio decided it required too much work given his other obligations. Christina’s “Greek Music Treasure Box” has been fairly quiet for the last 6 months. Even ‘larafabianweb.com’ exists on a minimal level, although that too may revive if Lara has more activities in France/Belgium. New facebook sites like ‘larafabian est ton autre’, and Lara Fabian International Page’ have popped up, the FB version of LFIAG exists, and ‘Lara Fabian’-pure continues as both FB and URL. Again the problem with the FB sites is the lack of ability to write anything of length/substance, and, in general, allow fans to introduce new topics. The situation with fan sites for Lara is probably as poor as it’s been in 10 years or more. This limitation on fan discussion and activity does not work in her favor as far as maintaining interest in her doings.
Of course, the whole point of Lara’s FB site was to allow her to make more frequent contact with her fans, and it did to some degree. Her messages have been posted every now and then (as opposed to ‘rarely’ on the official site), and she’s offered some items that were not available elsewhere (like the recent photos from David Foster’s marriage celebration). On the other hand, it is very particular about what it reports – for example, it has included nothing about her recent trip to Moscow, meeting with Krutoi, her various performances there, etc. Lara seems determined to keep all that away from her French fans. While the site has both French and English as its official languages, the English is clearly an after-thought, with some official messages translated, and some not. The use of only those languages has also discouraged world-wide participation; Russian fans generally don’t use it because, as one pair commented, they felt silly responding to each other on the site in poor English rather than in Russian (true also for Italian and Spanish fans). Basically, Lara is primarily relating to her “home-base” here, her French-speaking “angels”, as she does elsewhere. The FB site currently shows 12,700 people ‘liking’ it (two autographed copies of EWIM were distributed to fans when it reached 10,000) and it continues to grow. It quickly removes any negative/controversial comments.
Our ‘News Updates’ also had some different looks. A biography of Lara,
“Lara Fabian, Toutes les femmes en elle” by Jérémy Patinier (http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/lara-fabian-toutes-les-femmes-en-elle-%28biographie%29/18165241) was published late last year, and we spent much of this past year slowly going through its main points. It was not ‘investigative’ in any sense, but it did include enough new information to make the time spent worthwhile for all but the most devout followers. Also, responding to a suggestion, the ‘News Updates’ were offered on their own Facebook site, where they did receive some additional attention. However, the closing of the FB discussion sections affected this as well, and now the FB page primarily includes links to the sites where the full update is available. It’s unclear how large the number of English-speaking fans interested in Lara actually is…
Finally, on the positive side, the Lara Fabian Romanian channel put English subtitles on a number of Lara’s interview shows and songs during this past year
see:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UULK7NxUJfc47yIrguBATLGw&feature=plcp). We thank them for this great effort, making her work available to a larger audience.
In summary, after Lara’s very busy and productive 2010, this was a year with just one CD release (the Canadian ‘best of’), some notable performances before large audiences, but ultimately, a holding pattern with potentialities still to be fulfilled. And as we approach 2012, we are ironically back in pretty much the same position that we were in approaching 2011: waiting to see if Lara will utilize the CD/movie of Mlle. Zhivago to build a wider international career. Recent developments seem positive, but they did at the end of last year as well. So we are now clearly more aware of the possible pitfalls. Another difference is that she has more explicitly led fans to believe in the upcoming appearance of a new French album. And additional work with Krutoi seems as if it might be in the offing. Would she be able to promote entirely separate ventures in widely disparate locales at the same time? (She tried it toward the end of 2010, and admitted it proved too much for her). Will the Mlle. Zhivago project ever be made available to her French fans, uniting her international and French careers? By this time next year, we expect that these questions will have been answered, but as we know, with Lara, nothing is predictable!
David
