Post by davidhr on Dec 1, 2009 14:17:25 GMT -5
A mixed week for Lara, at best.
Lara's concert last Tuesday night at Dunkirk got quite good reviews, with an enthusiastic audience and Lara in top form. The show appeared to be similar to those from October/early November, as expected. A number of videos of at least parts of her songs are available on Youtube.
In addition, Lara gave a well-received show at the Zenith in Pau, on the 26th. Here, the reception was perhaps even more positive, which seemed to surprise Lara a bit, and again she sang quite well. A few pictures are available on the official site at:
www.larafabian.com/forumLara/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8719&sid=6d76e8f5baa266e29489677927193626&start=45
However, her concert on the 29th in Renes was a different story. First the house was less than half filled, with little ambiance outside of the first few rows (taken by her most loyal fans, obviously). Several people noted that the average age of the audience was ~50 years old. But the worst part was that Lara was sick, continually blowing her nose, and unable to reach her usual vocal benchmarks. After a subpar "Wind Beneath my Wings" Lara started crying, although it's unclear whether it was from frustration or from gratitude at the enthusiastic support from the first rows despite the circumstances. Adagio was skipped all together. Some pictures of Lara from the event are on the official site at:
www.larafabian.com/forumLara/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8716&sid=6d76e8f5baa266e29489677927193626&start=165
and one can see a feverish Lara. One can also see that she was presented with teddy bears (and flowers), and I'm sure the presents were consoling.
The week was further dampened by a number of announcements. On the 25th, Nathalie reported that three of Lara's concert dates for early December (at Metz, Nancy and Angiers) had been postponed and moved, mostly to smaller rooms. The new dates for them are March 20-25th. The reason given to some fans who called for an explanation is that there weren't enough tickets sold. It was always risky to book the big Zenith theatres; presumably Lara will not make that mistake again unless she gets more positive indications. There were numerous unhappy fans on the official site, some detailing the tremendous difficulties they had gone through to be able to attend these concerts, all now for naught. Tickets are to be honored for the later shows, but given the smaller theatres, it's hard to know exactly how that will work.
It was also announced, on the 27th, that Lara had backed out of her appearance on the December 5th Telethon, where she was supposed to be the 'godmother' at Annecy (Amel Bent is replacing Lara). A 'last minute personal problem' was the official explanation. Given that she was apparently well on the 26th, it doesn't seem likely that her subsequent cold was the problem. [Nor could she know that the cold would last for another week…]. The idea that she would have a 'personal problem' one week in advance gave birth to speculation that the event had become too 'polemical' for her. Whatever the reason, Lara had apparently wanted a prominent position in this event for a long time, so it must be something really important to her.
And despite these announcements, it's not as if all events in this time period have been cancelled. Lara is still supposed to record "n'oubliez pas les paroles" today, a program where a performing artist is teamed with a non-artist, and the duo play a game to win money (her companion probably should not get too close to her!). [If her concerts hadn't been postponed, it would have been problematic for her to make this taping.] It's scheduled to be shown January 1st. Furthermore, her concert in Coltraine on December 9th is still on, perhaps helped by it being in Belgium. We'll see if these events take place as planned.
The song "If", with 18 singers uniting in contribution to the 25th anniversary of the fight against AIDS, was released today. The song itself can be downloaded from www.larafabiannews.blogger.com.br/index.html. The video for this song is supposed to be shown on TV5 today although it's not clear when that will happen, while the making of the video is already available on dailymotion and youtube. Presumably the video of "If" will appear on these sites shortly, as well. The full album, entitled "Message", is to be released towards the end of January, with Lara singing "Amoureuse".
The children's album "Il était une fois", organized by Thierry Gali, is now supposed to be available. You may remember that it consists of various artists, including Lara, reading children's stories. An extract is available on larafabianweb.com.
The new Russian website for Lara at www.lara-fabian.ru opened today. It is truly a high class production, including some wonderful videos of Lara's recent concerts. While the site so far is only in Russian, it is presumably going to have an English (and perhaps French) component. Universal translator websites come in very handy!
TLFM dropped another 28 places, and is now 109th in France. With the postponement of these concerts (and it's not impossible that there will be additional changes), it's not clear if it will ever regain momentum.
Lara's week is now much less busy than had originally been planned, which may be for the best if her cold is still evident. After today, there are no events planned until next week.
David
Lara's concert last Tuesday night at Dunkirk got quite good reviews, with an enthusiastic audience and Lara in top form. The show appeared to be similar to those from October/early November, as expected. A number of videos of at least parts of her songs are available on Youtube.
In addition, Lara gave a well-received show at the Zenith in Pau, on the 26th. Here, the reception was perhaps even more positive, which seemed to surprise Lara a bit, and again she sang quite well. A few pictures are available on the official site at:
www.larafabian.com/forumLara/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8719&sid=6d76e8f5baa266e29489677927193626&start=45
However, her concert on the 29th in Renes was a different story. First the house was less than half filled, with little ambiance outside of the first few rows (taken by her most loyal fans, obviously). Several people noted that the average age of the audience was ~50 years old. But the worst part was that Lara was sick, continually blowing her nose, and unable to reach her usual vocal benchmarks. After a subpar "Wind Beneath my Wings" Lara started crying, although it's unclear whether it was from frustration or from gratitude at the enthusiastic support from the first rows despite the circumstances. Adagio was skipped all together. Some pictures of Lara from the event are on the official site at:
www.larafabian.com/forumLara/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8716&sid=6d76e8f5baa266e29489677927193626&start=165
and one can see a feverish Lara. One can also see that she was presented with teddy bears (and flowers), and I'm sure the presents were consoling.
The week was further dampened by a number of announcements. On the 25th, Nathalie reported that three of Lara's concert dates for early December (at Metz, Nancy and Angiers) had been postponed and moved, mostly to smaller rooms. The new dates for them are March 20-25th. The reason given to some fans who called for an explanation is that there weren't enough tickets sold. It was always risky to book the big Zenith theatres; presumably Lara will not make that mistake again unless she gets more positive indications. There were numerous unhappy fans on the official site, some detailing the tremendous difficulties they had gone through to be able to attend these concerts, all now for naught. Tickets are to be honored for the later shows, but given the smaller theatres, it's hard to know exactly how that will work.
It was also announced, on the 27th, that Lara had backed out of her appearance on the December 5th Telethon, where she was supposed to be the 'godmother' at Annecy (Amel Bent is replacing Lara). A 'last minute personal problem' was the official explanation. Given that she was apparently well on the 26th, it doesn't seem likely that her subsequent cold was the problem. [Nor could she know that the cold would last for another week…]. The idea that she would have a 'personal problem' one week in advance gave birth to speculation that the event had become too 'polemical' for her. Whatever the reason, Lara had apparently wanted a prominent position in this event for a long time, so it must be something really important to her.
And despite these announcements, it's not as if all events in this time period have been cancelled. Lara is still supposed to record "n'oubliez pas les paroles" today, a program where a performing artist is teamed with a non-artist, and the duo play a game to win money (her companion probably should not get too close to her!). [If her concerts hadn't been postponed, it would have been problematic for her to make this taping.] It's scheduled to be shown January 1st. Furthermore, her concert in Coltraine on December 9th is still on, perhaps helped by it being in Belgium. We'll see if these events take place as planned.
The song "If", with 18 singers uniting in contribution to the 25th anniversary of the fight against AIDS, was released today. The song itself can be downloaded from www.larafabiannews.blogger.com.br/index.html. The video for this song is supposed to be shown on TV5 today although it's not clear when that will happen, while the making of the video is already available on dailymotion and youtube. Presumably the video of "If" will appear on these sites shortly, as well. The full album, entitled "Message", is to be released towards the end of January, with Lara singing "Amoureuse".
The children's album "Il était une fois", organized by Thierry Gali, is now supposed to be available. You may remember that it consists of various artists, including Lara, reading children's stories. An extract is available on larafabianweb.com.
The new Russian website for Lara at www.lara-fabian.ru opened today. It is truly a high class production, including some wonderful videos of Lara's recent concerts. While the site so far is only in Russian, it is presumably going to have an English (and perhaps French) component. Universal translator websites come in very handy!
TLFM dropped another 28 places, and is now 109th in France. With the postponement of these concerts (and it's not impossible that there will be additional changes), it's not clear if it will ever regain momentum.
Lara's week is now much less busy than had originally been planned, which may be for the best if her cold is still evident. After today, there are no events planned until next week.
David