Post by davidhr on Feb 9, 2010 14:18:16 GMT -5
Lara’s week involved many of the same elements as the week before; concerts, media appearances, and some more confusion about her upcoming albums.
Lara finished the last two concerts of the current segment, in Toulouse on the 4th, and Mérignac on the 5th. While the Zenith was again not filled in Toulouse, the audience was respectable and the ambiance was described as very good, people often standing for the songs. The highlight of the evening was something the fans provided: the whole room lit their lighters/matches during Lara’s rendition of “Wind Beneath My Wings” (which she normally dedicates to her fans); Lara had her eyes closed in the beginning, and when she opened them, she saw all the lights. It reportedly moved her to tears. (One can sort of see this on the video from this concert available on ‘youtube’ – part 17 from Toulouse).
Another anecdote concerned a group of fans from New York who came to the concert carrying a sign that read, "Lara please come back to New York to perform”. Lara saw it and was reportedly quite amused; she stopped to autograph the sign. [Hopefully she will pay attention to it. As you may know, while Lara has been in New York to perform on several TV shows, she has never given a concert there – so ‘come back’ is a bit of a euphemism.]
In addition to the many videos from this concert on ‘youtube’ (thanks to “papillonrad”), valou712 put some hallucinatory photos on the official site, p. 20 of the concert thread.
The concert on the 5th in Mérignac took place in a much smaller venue, and it too was described in glowing terms by the fans attending, with great ambiance. It was so well-received that it probably served to solidify Lara’s feeling that her next set of concerts should be in smaller theatres. Despite the size, the full show – not the acoustic show – was presented. And in this case, fans found the holograms sharper and easier to see, and Lara closer and seemingly more personal (she even stopped to sign many autographs after the show, something she has not been doing). At the end after Adagio, the audience yelled for another song, and Lara seemed willing. Apparently she asked the musicians what they thought about “Il besoin de parler” – but Manu Pitois rejected it (presumably for the sake of preserving Lara’s vocals). At both concerts her voice was in very good form, although occasionally showing some fatigue.
With that in mind, she now is getting a rest of some 10 days before her concerts in Russia and Eastern Europe. Their schedule continues to change: the show in Armenia on the 20th has been cancelled, and a performance in Moldavia has been added for April 1st (possibly the beginning of another set of concerts in that part of the world).
Her week also involved numerous media events, with radio appearances in Belgium on ‘Bel RTL Soir’ and Vivacité RTBF on the 1st, and NRJ radio on the 4th. In addition, she was on the TV show “Sans Chichis”. And, shortly before the concert in Mérignac, she gave an interview in the journal “Gratuit Bordelais”. Descriptions of the discussions, as well as links to the files are available on larafabianweb.com, the official site, and NABBOX. Special thanks to Tarcisio and also to Christina for making most of these available! [And don’t miss the complete recording of Lara’s show in Rouen made available on larafabiannews.com]. We should also recognize that the official site’s allowance of links to and discussion of live audio and video taken at her concerts has made it a much more interesting place to visit. True, the official site still does not respond to even important questions concerning Lara’s schedule, is tardy in informing the audience about changes, and is as mysterious as Lara herself about future plans – but it has given the fans more of the ability to do what they do best: provide material by and about Lara that they acquire through dint of effort. Even discussions of Patrick Fiori now avoid censure. Perhaps it is simply a matter of embracing the inevitable – the videos would appear on ‘youtube’ anyway – but having them part of the discussion allows much more informed interaction.
On the recent shows, of continued interest were Lara’s varied comments about her upcoming multilingual album. She repeated that it is not meant for the French market, but in a subsequent program she amended that remark a bit by saying that it will be released in October outside of France/Belgium, and only later in those countries. This timing would take it out of competition with the upcoming live DVD for the French audience. Lara also continued to refer obliquely to another CD – presumably with original songs in French – but declined to say more about it. This might well be the album “Le Secret” (and even if it’s not, Lara’s continued ‘hide-and-seek’ comments about it render it ‘le secret’
). Given her recent statements it is unlikely that it will be released in 2010. Perhaps if, as she suggested, Lara will be touring in 2011 in smaller theatres, it might emerge then.
Concerning the confusion surrounding the release dates, Candydo on the official site noted that for each disc, Lara acts as the producer, pays for the creation of her albums and owns their rights under her own label (“9 Productions”). She then signs a license with the record labels for distribution and dissemination of them. Under this arrangement she is free to record what she wants with the musicians she wants. [This is different from her situation with Sony who controlled – and paid for – the complete process. Her lack of freedom, and the distribution problems she encountered, compelled her to buy out her contract from them.] For distribution in France it is Universal, but she is free to find different record companies for the distribution in different countries. Candydo noted that the album made with Igor Krutoi may very well be sold in Russia through a Russian record label (perhaps Igor’s own, for example), and then use Universal in France, if Pascal Negro agrees. The suggestion is that Negro has perhaps not yet agreed to the release of Mme. Zhivago so Lara can’t be more precise about its date. The October date given for the other countries implies there is a contractual arrangement in place, although why Igor Krutoi keeps saying the release will be in the spring is still unexplained. Although the official site lists EWIM as a “Universal Music” release (in its ‘discography’ section), that may well be an error – neither the pocket for the CD, nor the label on the CD itself mention Universal – and both did for “TLFM”. Lara had said she wanted to convince Universal to distribute EWIM, but it looks like she failed and had to do it herself. That may be the same situation for ‘Mme Zhivago’ as far as France and Belgium are concerned.
Another theme that gets continued play in these shows are the strong emotions Lara provokes, both the criticism and the great affection (the latter displayed by fans calling/writing in). Lara says she tries to rise above the fray by maintaining a positive attitude, but we know that this is really a goal she sets for herself. Lara herself displays these emotions, which then get mirrored back to her. It is a continual fascination to the hosts of the programs.
The two charity projects Lara has been involved in were highlighted this past week. The musical project “URGENCE HAITI”, for which Lara provided the song TLFM for the multi-artist album, reached the shelves this past week. Her website actually sent around a notice asking people to buy it. Reports are that musical charity events are most effective right after a catastrophe occurs, and lose their ability to generate much support fairly quickly as time passes.
And the project for the fight against AIDS announced that there will be a three day event March 26-28, with a concert on the 27th to promote the release of the album called “MESSAGES” the following Monday. Lara submitted the song “Amoureuse” for this collection (both this song and TLFM for the Haiti project are exactly the same as the ones on the TLFM album). Lara’s participation (rumored to be on a joint rendition of the song ‘If’) will probably be pre-recorded, as she has a concert the next day in Israel.
‘Adagio’ continues to get great reviews as the concluding song of Lara’s concert, and it is obviously becoming a big hit for singers around the world. In one of the latest such episodes, the young Italian singer Christian Imparato performed a wonderful rendition, and recently Lara sent him a letter indicating what a big fan she is of his. The video of him receiving this letter after his rendition of ‘Ancora’ is on youtube; links to both it and his ‘Adagio’ can be found on larafabianweb.com. One can imagine that Lara sees herself in him.
Lara’s next concert is in St. Petersburg on the 15th. We can hope that the very active Russian fan community will provide videos of her performances there!
David
Lara finished the last two concerts of the current segment, in Toulouse on the 4th, and Mérignac on the 5th. While the Zenith was again not filled in Toulouse, the audience was respectable and the ambiance was described as very good, people often standing for the songs. The highlight of the evening was something the fans provided: the whole room lit their lighters/matches during Lara’s rendition of “Wind Beneath My Wings” (which she normally dedicates to her fans); Lara had her eyes closed in the beginning, and when she opened them, she saw all the lights. It reportedly moved her to tears. (One can sort of see this on the video from this concert available on ‘youtube’ – part 17 from Toulouse).
Another anecdote concerned a group of fans from New York who came to the concert carrying a sign that read, "Lara please come back to New York to perform”. Lara saw it and was reportedly quite amused; she stopped to autograph the sign. [Hopefully she will pay attention to it. As you may know, while Lara has been in New York to perform on several TV shows, she has never given a concert there – so ‘come back’ is a bit of a euphemism.]
In addition to the many videos from this concert on ‘youtube’ (thanks to “papillonrad”), valou712 put some hallucinatory photos on the official site, p. 20 of the concert thread.
The concert on the 5th in Mérignac took place in a much smaller venue, and it too was described in glowing terms by the fans attending, with great ambiance. It was so well-received that it probably served to solidify Lara’s feeling that her next set of concerts should be in smaller theatres. Despite the size, the full show – not the acoustic show – was presented. And in this case, fans found the holograms sharper and easier to see, and Lara closer and seemingly more personal (she even stopped to sign many autographs after the show, something she has not been doing). At the end after Adagio, the audience yelled for another song, and Lara seemed willing. Apparently she asked the musicians what they thought about “Il besoin de parler” – but Manu Pitois rejected it (presumably for the sake of preserving Lara’s vocals). At both concerts her voice was in very good form, although occasionally showing some fatigue.
With that in mind, she now is getting a rest of some 10 days before her concerts in Russia and Eastern Europe. Their schedule continues to change: the show in Armenia on the 20th has been cancelled, and a performance in Moldavia has been added for April 1st (possibly the beginning of another set of concerts in that part of the world).
Her week also involved numerous media events, with radio appearances in Belgium on ‘Bel RTL Soir’ and Vivacité RTBF on the 1st, and NRJ radio on the 4th. In addition, she was on the TV show “Sans Chichis”. And, shortly before the concert in Mérignac, she gave an interview in the journal “Gratuit Bordelais”. Descriptions of the discussions, as well as links to the files are available on larafabianweb.com, the official site, and NABBOX. Special thanks to Tarcisio and also to Christina for making most of these available! [And don’t miss the complete recording of Lara’s show in Rouen made available on larafabiannews.com]. We should also recognize that the official site’s allowance of links to and discussion of live audio and video taken at her concerts has made it a much more interesting place to visit. True, the official site still does not respond to even important questions concerning Lara’s schedule, is tardy in informing the audience about changes, and is as mysterious as Lara herself about future plans – but it has given the fans more of the ability to do what they do best: provide material by and about Lara that they acquire through dint of effort. Even discussions of Patrick Fiori now avoid censure. Perhaps it is simply a matter of embracing the inevitable – the videos would appear on ‘youtube’ anyway – but having them part of the discussion allows much more informed interaction.
On the recent shows, of continued interest were Lara’s varied comments about her upcoming multilingual album. She repeated that it is not meant for the French market, but in a subsequent program she amended that remark a bit by saying that it will be released in October outside of France/Belgium, and only later in those countries. This timing would take it out of competition with the upcoming live DVD for the French audience. Lara also continued to refer obliquely to another CD – presumably with original songs in French – but declined to say more about it. This might well be the album “Le Secret” (and even if it’s not, Lara’s continued ‘hide-and-seek’ comments about it render it ‘le secret’
). Given her recent statements it is unlikely that it will be released in 2010. Perhaps if, as she suggested, Lara will be touring in 2011 in smaller theatres, it might emerge then.Concerning the confusion surrounding the release dates, Candydo on the official site noted that for each disc, Lara acts as the producer, pays for the creation of her albums and owns their rights under her own label (“9 Productions”). She then signs a license with the record labels for distribution and dissemination of them. Under this arrangement she is free to record what she wants with the musicians she wants. [This is different from her situation with Sony who controlled – and paid for – the complete process. Her lack of freedom, and the distribution problems she encountered, compelled her to buy out her contract from them.] For distribution in France it is Universal, but she is free to find different record companies for the distribution in different countries. Candydo noted that the album made with Igor Krutoi may very well be sold in Russia through a Russian record label (perhaps Igor’s own, for example), and then use Universal in France, if Pascal Negro agrees. The suggestion is that Negro has perhaps not yet agreed to the release of Mme. Zhivago so Lara can’t be more precise about its date. The October date given for the other countries implies there is a contractual arrangement in place, although why Igor Krutoi keeps saying the release will be in the spring is still unexplained. Although the official site lists EWIM as a “Universal Music” release (in its ‘discography’ section), that may well be an error – neither the pocket for the CD, nor the label on the CD itself mention Universal – and both did for “TLFM”. Lara had said she wanted to convince Universal to distribute EWIM, but it looks like she failed and had to do it herself. That may be the same situation for ‘Mme Zhivago’ as far as France and Belgium are concerned.
Another theme that gets continued play in these shows are the strong emotions Lara provokes, both the criticism and the great affection (the latter displayed by fans calling/writing in). Lara says she tries to rise above the fray by maintaining a positive attitude, but we know that this is really a goal she sets for herself. Lara herself displays these emotions, which then get mirrored back to her. It is a continual fascination to the hosts of the programs.
The two charity projects Lara has been involved in were highlighted this past week. The musical project “URGENCE HAITI”, for which Lara provided the song TLFM for the multi-artist album, reached the shelves this past week. Her website actually sent around a notice asking people to buy it. Reports are that musical charity events are most effective right after a catastrophe occurs, and lose their ability to generate much support fairly quickly as time passes.
And the project for the fight against AIDS announced that there will be a three day event March 26-28, with a concert on the 27th to promote the release of the album called “MESSAGES” the following Monday. Lara submitted the song “Amoureuse” for this collection (both this song and TLFM for the Haiti project are exactly the same as the ones on the TLFM album). Lara’s participation (rumored to be on a joint rendition of the song ‘If’) will probably be pre-recorded, as she has a concert the next day in Israel.
‘Adagio’ continues to get great reviews as the concluding song of Lara’s concert, and it is obviously becoming a big hit for singers around the world. In one of the latest such episodes, the young Italian singer Christian Imparato performed a wonderful rendition, and recently Lara sent him a letter indicating what a big fan she is of his. The video of him receiving this letter after his rendition of ‘Ancora’ is on youtube; links to both it and his ‘Adagio’ can be found on larafabianweb.com. One can imagine that Lara sees herself in him.
Lara’s next concert is in St. Petersburg on the 15th. We can hope that the very active Russian fan community will provide videos of her performances there!
David
