Post by davidhr on May 15, 2012 9:34:44 GMT -5
We learned this past week that Lara’s upcoming CD/DVD/book of Mlle. Zhivago is now available internationally at the following website:
www.bookstar.fr/index.asp
As indicated on the site, the package will contain a book of 64 pages describing the genesis and history of the Mlle. Zhivago project; a 104 page book of photos which look to be (at least partly) from the Mlle. Zhivago movie; a CD of 10 songs plus 2 bonus songs; and the DVD of Lara’s concert in Moscow from Nov. 5, 2010 (but also including her performance of ‘Always’ at the Asian winter games in 2011, the only song in what is listed as ‘Part 2’). According to the website, the cost is about 20 euros, but beware, shipping costs are quite high. The official release date is June 21.
It’s nice that this is being made available to the international community, although it would have been even nicer if Lara’s website had made the information known. As usual, fans were the ones who found it. It does appear legitimate, however (e.g., when one orders from it, one goes to an https site, and confirmation is provided, etc.).
There are some very interesting aspects revealed by the details of this release. Including the photos from the MZ movie is a big surprise (one that we had actually joked about as being unlikely). One wonders how she is able to do this. Presumably the photos are the property of the movie producers, along with the rest of the film material, so they must have given her permission – or else Lara has really ‘owned’ all the material from the very beginning, which doesn’t make much sense since she didn’t finance it. Regardless, she is certainly risking generating even more interest in the film by making available the wonderful photos from the movie, and apparently describing the whole process of making the film; who would not want to see it after receiving this material? That’s already happening on some of the sites, as just the presence of the wonderful pictures in the ad have raised the interest among fans. [Badoev clearly knew what would be in this package, because he said immediately after Lara’s announcement of it that seeing pictures is not the same as seeing the 'live' action].
Lara is obviously trying to ‘rescue’ what she sees as the true quality from this whole enterprise, but in doing so, she’s also managing to emphasize what has been left out. Instead of satisfying fans, she may well be putting more pressure on herself; my guess is that it raises the odds the film will eventually be released.
The track list of the CD is provided, and assuming it is correct, Lara has dropped 3 of the songs in English from this release: ‘Mr. President’, ‘Mama’ and ‘Tomorrow is a Lie’. One can understand that for a release in France/Belgium she didn’t want the album to be overloaded with English songs; as it stands now, including the bonus cuts, there are 3 songs in French, 4 in English, 3 in Italian (if one counts ‘vocalize’), 1 in Spanish, and 1 in Russian (despite the fact that the announcement says Lara sings in ‘4 languages’ – counting must not be their strongpoint
). It is somewhat surprising that the Russian song is still there, since it’s not an original song with her lyrics, and would not be of obvious appeal to her French speaking audience, although it is wonderfully sung. The addition of ‘Always’ suggests that the English language album Krutoi had said he was working on with Lara, of which it was said to be a part, will not take place (maybe a casualty of the MZ film problem).
As for the songs omitted, there was speculation on some websites that the ones chosen had no ‘pictures from the movie’ associated with them, but that’s clearly untrue since we’ve already seen clips from the ‘Mr. President’ segment. ‘Tomorrow is a Lie’ is the English version of ‘Demain n’existe pas’, and its removal can be justified in that light. The big surprise (and disappointment) is the omission of ‘Mama’, which ranks as one of the best songs she’s ever sung. How does her mother feel about the song Lara dedicated to her being cut from the release in France? Perhaps Lara is keeping it for her new album - that would require her including an English language song on her upcoming French album (not impossible, given that the clip she shows on her FB site of work on the new album is of a duet in English). One supposes that if the MZ project is ever made available officially in other countries, the songs for the CD may be changed (though that would require an additional pressing, perhaps new packaging, etc.). Whatever the reason, it diminishes the power of the CD that is available to be reviewed in France (uncertain as that is). Dropping ‘Desperate Housewife’ would have been a much better choice, IMHO. All three songs are available on the accompanying DVD (and given that they were lip-synched, the audience will be receiving the CD versions of the songs, whether they know it or not).
This whole release, and in fact this whole affair, must rank as one of the oddest events in music publishing, and including the photos of the ‘forbidden film’ makes it odder still. If anyone ever gets around to writing a real biography of Lara, this chapter will be an unmatched indicator of the craziness that has epitomized her professional career.
In other news, Lara has been energized to interact more with her fans, possibly to minimize their disappointment concerning the film. In addition to thanking them again for their support, she has taken to providing indications on her FB site of her personal favorite designers such as Rita Zia for jewelry, Consuelo Zoely for casual clothes, and Bernard de Poorter for dresses. This was the sort of thing that would occasionally show up in the Farfallina publications. The FB site was supposed to replace that, and in this one limited area, it is now making good on that promise.
In the same spirit of ‘keeping in touch’, Lara also placed the following message on her FB site this morning:
------------------------------------------
Hi everybody. Today I'm going to Paris for a shooting. This is a show on Orange TV with Arthur Benzaken and the show is called ZAK !!!! I play my own self but in a totally crazy way in an episode with François Berléand... It's really funny and offbeat... See you soon my angels... Lov. L.
------------------------------------------
(Hopefully they have not given Lara final approval on the way this episode turns out!).
Geoffrey Falcon has placed the chronicle (in French) of his trip to Slovakia to hear Lara on the larafabianweb site, at:
www.larafabianweb.com/?page=bratislava130312
He notes the amazing fan response, especially for those in that country who had never heard Lara before. He also notes the vocal trouble she had with ‘Always’, and the trepidation she felt when she debuted ‘Le Secret’. For those of you who have not downloaded the live version of it, the website ‘du cote de chez Lara’ has placed an mp3 at:
rapidshare.com/#!download|323p2|3329038963|Lara_Fabian_-_Le_secret.mp3|4356|R~916D967A99D454B3873A3361A9C92821|0|0
Lara’s upcoming concert in Caesarea, Israel is getting some publicity, e.g., at:
www.kassabravo.org/announce/11483
One interesting aspect of their short biography of her is the statement (in translation by Google): “Fabian’s performances differ from the majority of the world's pop stars with a lack of dancers, scenery and trendy clothes. The singer goes on stage in a strict dress with minimal jewelry and make-up, content just to be with her voice, 4.1 octaves, which can be classified as a lyric soprano.” Let’s hope that Consuelo Zoely and Bernard de Poorter do not read that she doesn’t wear trendy clothes… . It’s also somewhat humorous that this article is in Russian, for if there was any time that this description did not fit Lara, in all respects, it was her concerts and TV shows in that country.
Another theoretically quiet week publicly for Lara coming up, although so far one would have to say she has managed to keep herself in the news, however inadvertently.
David
www.bookstar.fr/index.asp
As indicated on the site, the package will contain a book of 64 pages describing the genesis and history of the Mlle. Zhivago project; a 104 page book of photos which look to be (at least partly) from the Mlle. Zhivago movie; a CD of 10 songs plus 2 bonus songs; and the DVD of Lara’s concert in Moscow from Nov. 5, 2010 (but also including her performance of ‘Always’ at the Asian winter games in 2011, the only song in what is listed as ‘Part 2’). According to the website, the cost is about 20 euros, but beware, shipping costs are quite high. The official release date is June 21.
It’s nice that this is being made available to the international community, although it would have been even nicer if Lara’s website had made the information known. As usual, fans were the ones who found it. It does appear legitimate, however (e.g., when one orders from it, one goes to an https site, and confirmation is provided, etc.).
There are some very interesting aspects revealed by the details of this release. Including the photos from the MZ movie is a big surprise (one that we had actually joked about as being unlikely). One wonders how she is able to do this. Presumably the photos are the property of the movie producers, along with the rest of the film material, so they must have given her permission – or else Lara has really ‘owned’ all the material from the very beginning, which doesn’t make much sense since she didn’t finance it. Regardless, she is certainly risking generating even more interest in the film by making available the wonderful photos from the movie, and apparently describing the whole process of making the film; who would not want to see it after receiving this material? That’s already happening on some of the sites, as just the presence of the wonderful pictures in the ad have raised the interest among fans. [Badoev clearly knew what would be in this package, because he said immediately after Lara’s announcement of it that seeing pictures is not the same as seeing the 'live' action].
Lara is obviously trying to ‘rescue’ what she sees as the true quality from this whole enterprise, but in doing so, she’s also managing to emphasize what has been left out. Instead of satisfying fans, she may well be putting more pressure on herself; my guess is that it raises the odds the film will eventually be released.
The track list of the CD is provided, and assuming it is correct, Lara has dropped 3 of the songs in English from this release: ‘Mr. President’, ‘Mama’ and ‘Tomorrow is a Lie’. One can understand that for a release in France/Belgium she didn’t want the album to be overloaded with English songs; as it stands now, including the bonus cuts, there are 3 songs in French, 4 in English, 3 in Italian (if one counts ‘vocalize’), 1 in Spanish, and 1 in Russian (despite the fact that the announcement says Lara sings in ‘4 languages’ – counting must not be their strongpoint
). It is somewhat surprising that the Russian song is still there, since it’s not an original song with her lyrics, and would not be of obvious appeal to her French speaking audience, although it is wonderfully sung. The addition of ‘Always’ suggests that the English language album Krutoi had said he was working on with Lara, of which it was said to be a part, will not take place (maybe a casualty of the MZ film problem). As for the songs omitted, there was speculation on some websites that the ones chosen had no ‘pictures from the movie’ associated with them, but that’s clearly untrue since we’ve already seen clips from the ‘Mr. President’ segment. ‘Tomorrow is a Lie’ is the English version of ‘Demain n’existe pas’, and its removal can be justified in that light. The big surprise (and disappointment) is the omission of ‘Mama’, which ranks as one of the best songs she’s ever sung. How does her mother feel about the song Lara dedicated to her being cut from the release in France? Perhaps Lara is keeping it for her new album - that would require her including an English language song on her upcoming French album (not impossible, given that the clip she shows on her FB site of work on the new album is of a duet in English). One supposes that if the MZ project is ever made available officially in other countries, the songs for the CD may be changed (though that would require an additional pressing, perhaps new packaging, etc.). Whatever the reason, it diminishes the power of the CD that is available to be reviewed in France (uncertain as that is). Dropping ‘Desperate Housewife’ would have been a much better choice, IMHO. All three songs are available on the accompanying DVD (and given that they were lip-synched, the audience will be receiving the CD versions of the songs, whether they know it or not).
This whole release, and in fact this whole affair, must rank as one of the oddest events in music publishing, and including the photos of the ‘forbidden film’ makes it odder still. If anyone ever gets around to writing a real biography of Lara, this chapter will be an unmatched indicator of the craziness that has epitomized her professional career.
In other news, Lara has been energized to interact more with her fans, possibly to minimize their disappointment concerning the film. In addition to thanking them again for their support, she has taken to providing indications on her FB site of her personal favorite designers such as Rita Zia for jewelry, Consuelo Zoely for casual clothes, and Bernard de Poorter for dresses. This was the sort of thing that would occasionally show up in the Farfallina publications. The FB site was supposed to replace that, and in this one limited area, it is now making good on that promise.
In the same spirit of ‘keeping in touch’, Lara also placed the following message on her FB site this morning:
------------------------------------------
Hi everybody. Today I'm going to Paris for a shooting. This is a show on Orange TV with Arthur Benzaken and the show is called ZAK !!!! I play my own self but in a totally crazy way in an episode with François Berléand... It's really funny and offbeat... See you soon my angels... Lov. L.
------------------------------------------
(Hopefully they have not given Lara final approval on the way this episode turns out!).
Geoffrey Falcon has placed the chronicle (in French) of his trip to Slovakia to hear Lara on the larafabianweb site, at:
www.larafabianweb.com/?page=bratislava130312
He notes the amazing fan response, especially for those in that country who had never heard Lara before. He also notes the vocal trouble she had with ‘Always’, and the trepidation she felt when she debuted ‘Le Secret’. For those of you who have not downloaded the live version of it, the website ‘du cote de chez Lara’ has placed an mp3 at:
rapidshare.com/#!download|323p2|3329038963|Lara_Fabian_-_Le_secret.mp3|4356|R~916D967A99D454B3873A3361A9C92821|0|0
Lara’s upcoming concert in Caesarea, Israel is getting some publicity, e.g., at:
www.kassabravo.org/announce/11483
One interesting aspect of their short biography of her is the statement (in translation by Google): “Fabian’s performances differ from the majority of the world's pop stars with a lack of dancers, scenery and trendy clothes. The singer goes on stage in a strict dress with minimal jewelry and make-up, content just to be with her voice, 4.1 octaves, which can be classified as a lyric soprano.” Let’s hope that Consuelo Zoely and Bernard de Poorter do not read that she doesn’t wear trendy clothes…
. It’s also somewhat humorous that this article is in Russian, for if there was any time that this description did not fit Lara, in all respects, it was her concerts and TV shows in that country. Another theoretically quiet week publicly for Lara coming up, although so far one would have to say she has managed to keep herself in the news, however inadvertently.
David
