Post by davidhr on May 6, 2014 8:15:58 GMT -5
A Bulgarian article which appeared one week ago seemed to provide even more convincing evidence of the state of Lara’s improved health. Here’s the English translation adapted from Larafabianweb.com; original source a Bulgarian article at www.facebook.com/ARTBGBULGARIA. There are also similar articles on other Bulgarian on-line sites.
------------------------------------------------
Article from Bulgaria:
The opening of LARA FABIAN’s two concerts in Sofia!
The interest for Lara Fabian’s concert on October 23 is huge. The most loyal fans, by their admiration , and who render homage to the French singer, have bought a ticket the first month of the opening [of sales] of the event. Organizers say they have not received so many letters and messages from fans since the first concert of the Irish master "Lord of the Dance" in Sofia. The biggest fans of LARA FABIAN want to get the best seats. Therefore, ART BG opens a concert of the world star on October 22 in Hall 1 of NDK in Sofia , at 20:00. Tickets are the same price as for the concert on the 23rd.
LARA FABIAN wants to do more than just a concert in Bulgaria for her first time being invited as a guest here. She has the overwhelming desire to be here as long as possible among the public to respond to her fans and to please them. The great star of French music is in good health and is currently planning a European tour in September.
The concerts of Lara Fabian in Sofia will be on 22 and 23 October in Hall 1, at 20:00 hours (local time ) .
Tickets for October 22 are on sale now . The first 300 tickets are at a discounted price of 10 LEV below. Tickets range from 50 to 100 BGN and the VIP at 150 BGN . [One Bulgarian BGN is about 0.7 US $].
You can buy them in the ticketing center at NPC stores in Piccadilly , Suite 1 , Germanos , OMV stations and via the online system Eventim.bg .
----------------------------------------
Such specifics are gradually eroding any skepticism concerning Lara’s health. The article seems to imply they have spoken with Lara personally, that she is planning a European tour starting in September, that she wants to meet her Bulgarian fans, and that she is in good health. While we don’t know how literally to take any of that, it’s hard to believe she would go to such lengths to emphasize this concert and meeting with fans if she had any doubts about her future availability. Nevertheless, relying on an old idiom, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’, the final proof can only be obtained when Lara is back on stage performing without any problem.
There is another advertisement, this one from the concert scheduled for Offenbach, on October 8th, that presents a possible explanation of what is really going on…It is available (in German) at
www.stadthalle-offenbach.de/of-startseite/details/lara-fabian.html
Here is the (modified Google) translation:
----------------------------------------------------------
Lara Fabian
Lara Fabian unplugged -
Her finest hits in a new guise
Since 1997 Fabian has been one of the great singing stars in France, Canada and Belgium. While Lara Fabian is located in the French-speaking countries in the field of song, she has released two English albums internationally, which are located between pop and "adult contemporary". Enthusiastically spoken of by her record company and several media as the "new Céline Dion".
On her first major tour of Germany, the artist presents a completely new page: Unplugged, with a handmade chamber music ensemble sound on acoustic instruments, and without electronic gimmickry.
With the brand new program, the artist takes a return to her personal inner roots off the beaten paths, an artistic presentation of her inner life - a rich, complex and fascinating landscape of the soul. Lara remains true to herself and her fans and is always good for surprises.
------------------------------------------------------------
If this is indeed the template for the fall tour, it brings into clarity Lara’s thinking. Rather than risk a program with loud ‘electronic’ sounds, she is planning a completely acoustic tour, with a more muted background. Even during the worst of her problems last fall, she indicated she would have been able to do that (though her doctors may not have agreed). It also may explain why this is being done outside of France – it may be acceptable in those foreign countries that have no expectations of anything else, but might not ‘play’ in her usual venues where fans would be expecting a continuation of the standard ‘Le Secret’ tour that previous shows offered. The difference may be a matter of degree – her tour versions weren’t actually overly loud to begin with - so Lara may still sing many of the same songs, just within an ‘unplugged’ framework. This would be a far less risky approach then a return to ‘concerts as usual’, especially with no trial period to gauge their impact on her ears. It is not without any risk, however.
There are occasional comments (less than one would have thought) on her FB page Tour Dates section, asking why (still) none of these events are listed there. [The comments are mixed in with many other earlier ones, and for some reason, they’re not presented by date…]. As suggested previously, one possibility is that she doesn’t want to alienate her French fans for not using the time instead to make up for their cancelled concerts. Better that reason than her having some doubts about her health six months from now….Having set this all in motion, Lara better be in a position to deliver, at least in an acoustic mode; one would hate to think what having to cancel concerts in all these different countries would entail…
Last week the announcement that Lara was being considered as a juror on the French version of the show “The Voice” was treated with some excitement among her French fans. And it has become a hot topic in the French media. Here’s the translation of the relevant portion of the article in ‘the public’ (http://www.public.fr/News/Exclu-Public-Amel-Bent-ou-Lara-Fabian-qui-remplacera-Jenifer-525931)
---------------------------------------------
Exclusive to the Public: Amel Bent or Lara Fabian: who will replace Jennifer?
Helene Segara, Julie Zenatti or Lara Fabian, the potential successors of Jenifer for next season bump into one another. It is the latter who is approached. Negotiations are currently underway, but the prod would have contacted a fourth singer Amel Bent. We see her regularly on the sets of TF1. Then Lara or Amel? Answer in a few weeks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this is true, then the ball would seem to be in Lara’s court. It would make sense to keep someone in reserve, anyway, given the uncertainty concerning Lara’s health. The larafabianweb.com FB site offered another reason for caution by reviewing the scheduling for the show:
** recording of 5 days of open auditions during November at the Studios du Lendit in Saint-Denis, a suburb in northern Paris;
** the broadcast on TF1 of these auditions, starting in mid-January or February;
** recording of the competition on two days in the months of January or February;
** broadcast of the competition in February or March;
** then, for the direct filming at the studios in Saint-Denis, the jury must be present every Saturday and each coach must equally work with his/her team during the week.
**The ‘adventure’ of ‘The Voice’ lasts 6 to 7 months and during this time, the coaches are practically unavailable to do anything else.
While Lara is not being considered (as far as we know) as a ‘coach’, of which there are four, the schedules for all these events have to take into account the availability of the coaches as well. Lara already has events planned in October, November (Moscow) and January (Brooklyn). From November on these are only sporadic events, so are not ‘deal-breakers’, but if she is truly well –well enough to be on that program – she may very well want to get back to singing, and so look for even more opportunities, especially in France and Belgium. Since we seem to be using idioms in this update, we can fall back on another one: “where there’s a will there’s a way”
. Perhaps what that schedule implies more than anything is that if Lara is on the show, there will be no tour of any consequence from November 2014 through April or May 2015. And this might well interfere with or, at least delay, the expected launch and promotion of her next album with Krutoi (advertised to be in English, French and Italian).
Our review of other fan websites takes a macabre turn this week. Lara’s continued absence from the public scene is taking a toll on them. In very sad news, the websites and Twitter account associated with ‘Pure-Lara’ have announced they are closing, after eight years of providing much material and innovative projects. Valou, who ran the site, was an important source of news, and will be greatly missed. The sites had become more and more inactive over the past few months, and Valou indicated that keeping them open under those circumstances was unacceptable. He is to be thanked for all he did and the creativity the sites displayed.
Also inactive for several months is the ‘open’ version of LFIAG. As contrasted with Lara-Pure, which was a loyal source of Lara’s ‘angels’, LFIAG has for many years played devil’s advocate. Alex, who runs the site, has always pushed Lara to be more than she is, to modernize and make herself relevant to the general public in France. [Disclaimer: these news updates began (and still continue) on an English language version of LFIAG, LARADOMUS, at Alex’s suggestion].
There are few sites of this nature, perhaps the Mademoiselle Zhivago FB site being the only other one active at this juncture. It has had recent controversies concerning its ‘tone’, but at least that is indicative of a still live passion about Lara.
Other sites that have closed since her cessation of public activities four months ago include ‘Le Secret de Lara Fabian’, ‘Lara Fabian 9’, and ‘l’Ange sublime par Claire Evelyne Daugé’. The Russian forum (http://larafabian.borda.ru/) is not officially closed, but has had very few posts for many months now, and is clearly on life-support. Closed Twitter sites include #TeamLaraFabian and LaraFabian_News. It really goes without saying, but the continued existence of any of Lara’s fan sites cannot be taken for granted and they should be appreciated while they are still here (true, obviously, for everything else in life…). Fan sites for Lara have always come and gone, but interest clearly wanes when one is out of the public eye - and Lara’s ‘return’ is still probably four months away!
In this mood of reflecting on passed websites and past glories, we come to this week’s ‘best of’ videos. In extreme contrast with those from last week, instead of an abundance of videos, we have a scarcity. The three videos chosen are:
Je ‘taime encore: app.box.com/s/zq85bfhoqf2zw6e0r179
L’amour existe encore: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6bbQF_4anE
L'amoureux de l'an deux mille: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxmJF9NjnOs
For ‘Je t’aime encore’, the term scarcity doesn’t do it justice – there are no videos I’m aware of where Lara is actually singing it live. So, in desperation, we have to go with a lip-synched version. In deference to the author of the music, Krutoi, the choice is one with him in it, from the ‘Song of the year’ on December 1, 2012. Another choice with Krutoi of approximately equal value could have been from the ‘New Wave’ Festival in Lativa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwN3V9MUzaY). Primary difference: the joint celebration with Krutoi at the end of the ‘Song of the Year’; and of course, in these countries, Lara’s outfits are each noteworthy .
Two wonderful versions exist for ‘L’amour existe encore’. The live performance chosen from the TLFM DVD is simply exquisite. And the version from Paris (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zu7kwYykaw) is almost as good.
For ‘’L’amoureux de l’an deux mille’, the video from the Molson Centre production was the choice – great visual quality and singing. Another excellent version is from the concert in Brussels (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORB9U577iCE).
We may find out more in the coming week(s) about Lara’s possible return to French TV with ‘The Voice’; if it comes about, it will undoubtedly increase her visibility in the Francophile world, but may have negative consequences for her active music career over the next year. In the long-term, though, it might help sustain and grow her French record-buying audience, which hasn’t exactly been overwhelmingly abundant in the past decade. We may also receive additional news about the fall tour in the ‘countries to the east’; at some point, Lara’s FB site is going to have to comment on it . Information on these two aspects will provide an updated perspective on Lara’s health and her expectations for it.
David
------------------------------------------------
Article from Bulgaria:
The opening of LARA FABIAN’s two concerts in Sofia!
The interest for Lara Fabian’s concert on October 23 is huge. The most loyal fans, by their admiration , and who render homage to the French singer, have bought a ticket the first month of the opening [of sales] of the event. Organizers say they have not received so many letters and messages from fans since the first concert of the Irish master "Lord of the Dance" in Sofia. The biggest fans of LARA FABIAN want to get the best seats. Therefore, ART BG opens a concert of the world star on October 22 in Hall 1 of NDK in Sofia , at 20:00. Tickets are the same price as for the concert on the 23rd.
LARA FABIAN wants to do more than just a concert in Bulgaria for her first time being invited as a guest here. She has the overwhelming desire to be here as long as possible among the public to respond to her fans and to please them. The great star of French music is in good health and is currently planning a European tour in September.
The concerts of Lara Fabian in Sofia will be on 22 and 23 October in Hall 1, at 20:00 hours (local time ) .
Tickets for October 22 are on sale now . The first 300 tickets are at a discounted price of 10 LEV below. Tickets range from 50 to 100 BGN and the VIP at 150 BGN . [One Bulgarian BGN is about 0.7 US $].
You can buy them in the ticketing center at NPC stores in Piccadilly , Suite 1 , Germanos , OMV stations and via the online system Eventim.bg .
----------------------------------------
Such specifics are gradually eroding any skepticism concerning Lara’s health. The article seems to imply they have spoken with Lara personally, that she is planning a European tour starting in September, that she wants to meet her Bulgarian fans, and that she is in good health. While we don’t know how literally to take any of that, it’s hard to believe she would go to such lengths to emphasize this concert and meeting with fans if she had any doubts about her future availability. Nevertheless, relying on an old idiom, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’, the final proof can only be obtained when Lara is back on stage performing without any problem.
There is another advertisement, this one from the concert scheduled for Offenbach, on October 8th, that presents a possible explanation of what is really going on…It is available (in German) at
www.stadthalle-offenbach.de/of-startseite/details/lara-fabian.html
Here is the (modified Google) translation:
----------------------------------------------------------
Lara Fabian
Lara Fabian unplugged -
Her finest hits in a new guise
Since 1997 Fabian has been one of the great singing stars in France, Canada and Belgium. While Lara Fabian is located in the French-speaking countries in the field of song, she has released two English albums internationally, which are located between pop and "adult contemporary". Enthusiastically spoken of by her record company and several media as the "new Céline Dion".
On her first major tour of Germany, the artist presents a completely new page: Unplugged, with a handmade chamber music ensemble sound on acoustic instruments, and without electronic gimmickry.
With the brand new program, the artist takes a return to her personal inner roots off the beaten paths, an artistic presentation of her inner life - a rich, complex and fascinating landscape of the soul. Lara remains true to herself and her fans and is always good for surprises.
------------------------------------------------------------
If this is indeed the template for the fall tour, it brings into clarity Lara’s thinking. Rather than risk a program with loud ‘electronic’ sounds, she is planning a completely acoustic tour, with a more muted background. Even during the worst of her problems last fall, she indicated she would have been able to do that (though her doctors may not have agreed). It also may explain why this is being done outside of France – it may be acceptable in those foreign countries that have no expectations of anything else, but might not ‘play’ in her usual venues where fans would be expecting a continuation of the standard ‘Le Secret’ tour that previous shows offered. The difference may be a matter of degree – her tour versions weren’t actually overly loud to begin with - so Lara may still sing many of the same songs, just within an ‘unplugged’ framework. This would be a far less risky approach then a return to ‘concerts as usual’, especially with no trial period to gauge their impact on her ears. It is not without any risk, however.
There are occasional comments (less than one would have thought) on her FB page Tour Dates section, asking why (still) none of these events are listed there. [The comments are mixed in with many other earlier ones, and for some reason, they’re not presented by date…]. As suggested previously, one possibility is that she doesn’t want to alienate her French fans for not using the time instead to make up for their cancelled concerts. Better that reason than her having some doubts about her health six months from now….Having set this all in motion, Lara better be in a position to deliver, at least in an acoustic mode; one would hate to think what having to cancel concerts in all these different countries would entail…
Last week the announcement that Lara was being considered as a juror on the French version of the show “The Voice” was treated with some excitement among her French fans. And it has become a hot topic in the French media. Here’s the translation of the relevant portion of the article in ‘the public’ (http://www.public.fr/News/Exclu-Public-Amel-Bent-ou-Lara-Fabian-qui-remplacera-Jenifer-525931)
---------------------------------------------
Exclusive to the Public: Amel Bent or Lara Fabian: who will replace Jennifer?
Helene Segara, Julie Zenatti or Lara Fabian, the potential successors of Jenifer for next season bump into one another. It is the latter who is approached. Negotiations are currently underway, but the prod would have contacted a fourth singer Amel Bent. We see her regularly on the sets of TF1. Then Lara or Amel? Answer in a few weeks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this is true, then the ball would seem to be in Lara’s court. It would make sense to keep someone in reserve, anyway, given the uncertainty concerning Lara’s health. The larafabianweb.com FB site offered another reason for caution by reviewing the scheduling for the show:
** recording of 5 days of open auditions during November at the Studios du Lendit in Saint-Denis, a suburb in northern Paris;
** the broadcast on TF1 of these auditions, starting in mid-January or February;
** recording of the competition on two days in the months of January or February;
** broadcast of the competition in February or March;
** then, for the direct filming at the studios in Saint-Denis, the jury must be present every Saturday and each coach must equally work with his/her team during the week.
**The ‘adventure’ of ‘The Voice’ lasts 6 to 7 months and during this time, the coaches are practically unavailable to do anything else.
While Lara is not being considered (as far as we know) as a ‘coach’, of which there are four, the schedules for all these events have to take into account the availability of the coaches as well. Lara already has events planned in October, November (Moscow) and January (Brooklyn). From November on these are only sporadic events, so are not ‘deal-breakers’, but if she is truly well –well enough to be on that program – she may very well want to get back to singing, and so look for even more opportunities, especially in France and Belgium. Since we seem to be using idioms in this update, we can fall back on another one: “where there’s a will there’s a way”
. Perhaps what that schedule implies more than anything is that if Lara is on the show, there will be no tour of any consequence from November 2014 through April or May 2015. And this might well interfere with or, at least delay, the expected launch and promotion of her next album with Krutoi (advertised to be in English, French and Italian). Our review of other fan websites takes a macabre turn this week. Lara’s continued absence from the public scene is taking a toll on them. In very sad news, the websites and Twitter account associated with ‘Pure-Lara’ have announced they are closing, after eight years of providing much material and innovative projects. Valou, who ran the site, was an important source of news, and will be greatly missed. The sites had become more and more inactive over the past few months, and Valou indicated that keeping them open under those circumstances was unacceptable. He is to be thanked for all he did and the creativity the sites displayed.
Also inactive for several months is the ‘open’ version of LFIAG. As contrasted with Lara-Pure, which was a loyal source of Lara’s ‘angels’, LFIAG has for many years played devil’s advocate. Alex, who runs the site, has always pushed Lara to be more than she is, to modernize and make herself relevant to the general public in France. [Disclaimer: these news updates began (and still continue) on an English language version of LFIAG, LARADOMUS, at Alex’s suggestion].
There are few sites of this nature, perhaps the Mademoiselle Zhivago FB site being the only other one active at this juncture. It has had recent controversies concerning its ‘tone’, but at least that is indicative of a still live passion about Lara.
Other sites that have closed since her cessation of public activities four months ago include ‘Le Secret de Lara Fabian’, ‘Lara Fabian 9’, and ‘l’Ange sublime par Claire Evelyne Daugé’. The Russian forum (http://larafabian.borda.ru/) is not officially closed, but has had very few posts for many months now, and is clearly on life-support. Closed Twitter sites include #TeamLaraFabian and LaraFabian_News. It really goes without saying, but the continued existence of any of Lara’s fan sites cannot be taken for granted and they should be appreciated while they are still here (true, obviously, for everything else in life…). Fan sites for Lara have always come and gone, but interest clearly wanes when one is out of the public eye - and Lara’s ‘return’ is still probably four months away!
In this mood of reflecting on passed websites and past glories, we come to this week’s ‘best of’ videos. In extreme contrast with those from last week, instead of an abundance of videos, we have a scarcity. The three videos chosen are:
Je ‘taime encore: app.box.com/s/zq85bfhoqf2zw6e0r179
L’amour existe encore: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6bbQF_4anE
L'amoureux de l'an deux mille: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxmJF9NjnOs
For ‘Je t’aime encore’, the term scarcity doesn’t do it justice – there are no videos I’m aware of where Lara is actually singing it live. So, in desperation, we have to go with a lip-synched version. In deference to the author of the music, Krutoi, the choice is one with him in it, from the ‘Song of the year’ on December 1, 2012. Another choice with Krutoi of approximately equal value could have been from the ‘New Wave’ Festival in Lativa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwN3V9MUzaY). Primary difference: the joint celebration with Krutoi at the end of the ‘Song of the Year’; and of course, in these countries, Lara’s outfits are each noteworthy
.Two wonderful versions exist for ‘L’amour existe encore’. The live performance chosen from the TLFM DVD is simply exquisite. And the version from Paris (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zu7kwYykaw) is almost as good.
For ‘’L’amoureux de l’an deux mille’, the video from the Molson Centre production was the choice – great visual quality and singing. Another excellent version is from the concert in Brussels (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORB9U577iCE).
We may find out more in the coming week(s) about Lara’s possible return to French TV with ‘The Voice’; if it comes about, it will undoubtedly increase her visibility in the Francophile world, but may have negative consequences for her active music career over the next year. In the long-term, though, it might help sustain and grow her French record-buying audience, which hasn’t exactly been overwhelmingly abundant in the past decade. We may also receive additional news about the fall tour in the ‘countries to the east’; at some point, Lara’s FB site is going to have to comment on it
. Information on these two aspects will provide an updated perspective on Lara’s health and her expectations for it. David
