Post by davidhr on Nov 28, 2017 8:46:17 GMT -5
The past week had some joys and sorrows in it for Lara. On the down side, it featured the passing of Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Lara wrote the following on her Instagram site:
"I am deeply saddened by the death of Dmitri Hvorostovsky. I'll miss his voice, his talent and his heart. My condolences to his family, to his relatives and to Russia."
And on her FB site she wrote,
“We will miss you terribly Dima, and I will always hear your voice somehow out there. Love. Lara."
As ‘Anna Russia’ indicated in the comments to Lara’s post, her video tribute to him was played on Russian TV news, and she posted the link to it, at
www.5-tv.ru/news/167279/
Lara’s words, as usual, were very appropriate. She said,
“My dear friend, my dear Dima! I woke up this morning and unfortunately you were gone. I'm so sad we will no longer be able to hold you, and look at your beautiful face anymore. But I am sure of one thing: we will be hearing your voice here, in our hearts, forever. I love you. Be safe, wherever you went. Thank you for everything you gave to this universe through your music and your soul.”
As one of Igor Krutoi’s “stable of singers”, he appeared at various events with Lara in Russia. Perhaps their most famous duet was of the song, “Toi et moi”; the version from the Kremlin in 2014 can be found on youtube, at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUlD4JDZzwE
or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8G1gpuas9I
and from the New Wave Festival in Sochi, in 2016, at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6yTKUKyRvg
There was also a nice version (including Alina Yarovaya) of “Ti amo cosi”, from that same concert, at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNeRFiZeERc
They also did a wonderful performance of ‘Always’, back in 2011, visible at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwlSyjypvQ
as well as other performances, including Sumi Jo in the mix. They sounded very well together, and Lara will undoubtedly miss him.
[The following is relevant but somewhat off topic: The NY Times ran a big obituary about Dmitri, who was 55 when has died from the brain cancer that he had been fighting since its initial diagnosis in June of 2015. It was pointed out that he had a compelling story – he was born and grew up in Krasnoyarsk in central Siberia, which was largely closed to foreigners during his childhood. He fell in with street gangs, started drinking vodka, and got into many brawls. But he still managed to enroll in music schools, and received government awards, despite his Italian lyricism being at odds with the Russian melancholy – he learned to merge the two. He eventually became a world famous opera singer, and, having overcome a serious drinking problem, appeared at the Met some 180 times, performing 13 different roles. His last appearance there was in May of 2016, where he received a great ovation.]
In other, more upbeat news, Lara sang some old and new songs at ‘Le National’ in Montreal on 11/23. A video of her performance of ‘Tu t’en vas’ and a segment of “I Will Love Again” can be found at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ9C6YoTyLA
And she sang “Growing Wings”, which can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mhVCbiIVG0
One advantage of Lara’s being back in Quebec is that she gets to dust off (and we get to hear) some of her wonderful hits from the past that she otherwise would never sing anymore – and “Tu t’en vas” is one of the best of those. It’s also good that she’s presenting songs from the new album since, at least up to now, there is no Quebec concert listed.
Also, next Saturday (Dec. 2) at 9 PM local time, Lara’s appearance on ‘Belle et Bum’ will be broadcast on Tele-Quebec (http://belleetbum.telequebec.tv/emission/saison/15/episode/349/). It was recorded last Wednesday; a picture of Lara with the other participants can be found on her Twitter account, at
A very short extract of Lara singing “I Will Love Again” on the program is available on youtube (thanks to Lara Fabian, Bien Plus Qu'une Passion. "Corse - Réunion"'s video), at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=68WsQ_LsP8Q
(It’s also available on Instagram, at
Lara’s team has been busy publicizing upcoming tour events on Lara’s FB site. Moscow on 2/25/18, Prague on 6/13, as well as some of the upcoming U.S. events have been given special emphasis. When some text accompanies the announcement, it is from the general publicity for the tour, giving Lara’s background, and announcing the new album. So far there are now 24 venues listed in the ‘Events’ section of her website (the additional date, 6/13, has just been added for Prague). We've been told there are some 10-15 dates still to be added; it will be interesting to see whether there are any for Canada, Brazil, and Asia, places that have been suggested as possibilities by Lara. Of the sites that are listed, only the 5 shows in Germany do not have tickets available yet.
And speaking of Germany, Lara’s team noted that her album ‘Camouflage’ is the “album of the week” on ‘Antenna Brandenburg’. It has frequencies in a number of German cities and can be found on the internet at
antennebrandenburg.radio.de/
Interestingly, the station bills itself as, “The most beautiful music from the 60s to the 90s. A mix of soft-pop, oldies and hits makes the day not only audible in Brandenburg.” Not sure how Lara’s new album fits in with that description, and it’s a bit ironic, given Lara and her Team’s desire to make this ‘electro-pop’ album sound particularly modern.
In the francophone world, Camouflage has dropped to 213th on ‘Charts in France’, where it’s estimated that some 7700 copies have been sold. In Belgium, on the francophone chart it went up six places, to #48. In Quebec, it left the English language charts after one week. Michel Serra on the LFIAG site reported that on Spotify there have been 788,000 streams. 1500 streams count as one album ‘sale’ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2016/02/13/now-that-streaming-can-make-a-song-platinum-what-counts-and-what-doesnt/#67e6de0e17ef), so this equates to 550 albums. All-in-all, one would imagine it is around the 10,000 album mark world-wide.
Interesting photo(s) of the week: two beautiful photos of taken in the studio for the program “Microphone”, of Lara wearing new dresses from Marie Saint Pierre; the first from Lara’s Instagram account,
and the second from ‘Lara Fabian est ton autre’ FB site,
www.facebook.com/larafabiantonautre/photos/pcb.1505915982795394/1505915876128738/?type=3&theater
As far as we know, in addition to these promo outings, Lara is continuing to work on ‘La Voix’. Come 2018, the fruits of that will become available (hopefully outside of Canada, as well). Meanwhile, the Quebec promotion will apparently continue, with some more TV shows in the offing, starting later this week. Since the album is not doing well chart-wise in Quebec, and there are no concerts yet scheduled in the province, it’s not clear what the promotion is for, though it should help ‘La Voix. And Lara seems to be having a good time.
David
"I am deeply saddened by the death of Dmitri Hvorostovsky. I'll miss his voice, his talent and his heart. My condolences to his family, to his relatives and to Russia."
And on her FB site she wrote,
“We will miss you terribly Dima, and I will always hear your voice somehow out there. Love. Lara."
As ‘Anna Russia’ indicated in the comments to Lara’s post, her video tribute to him was played on Russian TV news, and she posted the link to it, at
www.5-tv.ru/news/167279/
Lara’s words, as usual, were very appropriate. She said,
“My dear friend, my dear Dima! I woke up this morning and unfortunately you were gone. I'm so sad we will no longer be able to hold you, and look at your beautiful face anymore. But I am sure of one thing: we will be hearing your voice here, in our hearts, forever. I love you. Be safe, wherever you went. Thank you for everything you gave to this universe through your music and your soul.”
As one of Igor Krutoi’s “stable of singers”, he appeared at various events with Lara in Russia. Perhaps their most famous duet was of the song, “Toi et moi”; the version from the Kremlin in 2014 can be found on youtube, at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUlD4JDZzwE
or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8G1gpuas9I
and from the New Wave Festival in Sochi, in 2016, at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6yTKUKyRvg
There was also a nice version (including Alina Yarovaya) of “Ti amo cosi”, from that same concert, at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNeRFiZeERc
They also did a wonderful performance of ‘Always’, back in 2011, visible at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwlSyjypvQ
as well as other performances, including Sumi Jo in the mix. They sounded very well together, and Lara will undoubtedly miss him.
[The following is relevant but somewhat off topic: The NY Times ran a big obituary about Dmitri, who was 55 when has died from the brain cancer that he had been fighting since its initial diagnosis in June of 2015. It was pointed out that he had a compelling story – he was born and grew up in Krasnoyarsk in central Siberia, which was largely closed to foreigners during his childhood. He fell in with street gangs, started drinking vodka, and got into many brawls. But he still managed to enroll in music schools, and received government awards, despite his Italian lyricism being at odds with the Russian melancholy – he learned to merge the two. He eventually became a world famous opera singer, and, having overcome a serious drinking problem, appeared at the Met some 180 times, performing 13 different roles. His last appearance there was in May of 2016, where he received a great ovation.]
In other, more upbeat news, Lara sang some old and new songs at ‘Le National’ in Montreal on 11/23. A video of her performance of ‘Tu t’en vas’ and a segment of “I Will Love Again” can be found at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ9C6YoTyLA
And she sang “Growing Wings”, which can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mhVCbiIVG0
One advantage of Lara’s being back in Quebec is that she gets to dust off (and we get to hear) some of her wonderful hits from the past that she otherwise would never sing anymore – and “Tu t’en vas” is one of the best of those. It’s also good that she’s presenting songs from the new album since, at least up to now, there is no Quebec concert listed.
Also, next Saturday (Dec. 2) at 9 PM local time, Lara’s appearance on ‘Belle et Bum’ will be broadcast on Tele-Quebec (http://belleetbum.telequebec.tv/emission/saison/15/episode/349/). It was recorded last Wednesday; a picture of Lara with the other participants can be found on her Twitter account, at
A very short extract of Lara singing “I Will Love Again” on the program is available on youtube (thanks to Lara Fabian, Bien Plus Qu'une Passion. "Corse - Réunion"'s video), at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=68WsQ_LsP8Q
(It’s also available on Instagram, at
http://instagram.com/p/Bb3dEhgHMt_). At both those singing events Lara seemed to be singing in very good voice, and a very good mood.
Lara’s team has been busy publicizing upcoming tour events on Lara’s FB site. Moscow on 2/25/18, Prague on 6/13, as well as some of the upcoming U.S. events have been given special emphasis. When some text accompanies the announcement, it is from the general publicity for the tour, giving Lara’s background, and announcing the new album. So far there are now 24 venues listed in the ‘Events’ section of her website (the additional date, 6/13, has just been added for Prague). We've been told there are some 10-15 dates still to be added; it will be interesting to see whether there are any for Canada, Brazil, and Asia, places that have been suggested as possibilities by Lara. Of the sites that are listed, only the 5 shows in Germany do not have tickets available yet.
And speaking of Germany, Lara’s team noted that her album ‘Camouflage’ is the “album of the week” on ‘Antenna Brandenburg’. It has frequencies in a number of German cities and can be found on the internet at
antennebrandenburg.radio.de/
Interestingly, the station bills itself as, “The most beautiful music from the 60s to the 90s. A mix of soft-pop, oldies and hits makes the day not only audible in Brandenburg.” Not sure how Lara’s new album fits in with that description, and it’s a bit ironic, given Lara and her Team’s desire to make this ‘electro-pop’ album sound particularly modern.
In the francophone world, Camouflage has dropped to 213th on ‘Charts in France’, where it’s estimated that some 7700 copies have been sold. In Belgium, on the francophone chart it went up six places, to #48. In Quebec, it left the English language charts after one week. Michel Serra on the LFIAG site reported that on Spotify there have been 788,000 streams. 1500 streams count as one album ‘sale’ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2016/02/13/now-that-streaming-can-make-a-song-platinum-what-counts-and-what-doesnt/#67e6de0e17ef), so this equates to 550 albums. All-in-all, one would imagine it is around the 10,000 album mark world-wide.
Interesting photo(s) of the week: two beautiful photos of taken in the studio for the program “Microphone”, of Lara wearing new dresses from Marie Saint Pierre; the first from Lara’s Instagram account,
http://instagram.com/p/BcAOOkhHoru
and the second from ‘Lara Fabian est ton autre’ FB site,
www.facebook.com/larafabiantonautre/photos/pcb.1505915982795394/1505915876128738/?type=3&theater
As far as we know, in addition to these promo outings, Lara is continuing to work on ‘La Voix’. Come 2018, the fruits of that will become available (hopefully outside of Canada, as well). Meanwhile, the Quebec promotion will apparently continue, with some more TV shows in the offing, starting later this week. Since the album is not doing well chart-wise in Quebec, and there are no concerts yet scheduled in the province, it’s not clear what the promotion is for, though it should help ‘La Voix. And Lara seems to be having a good time.
David
