Post by davidhr on Nov 18, 2014 9:12:18 GMT -5
The latest chapter in Lara’s ‘Russian Fairy Tale’ took place this past weekend, with the concert celebration of Igor Krutoi’s 60th birthday. It was full of the pomp and circumstance and the glittery stage set that any proper fairy tale should have. Lara’s time on stage exceeded (our) expectations, running about 44 minutes – enough to be almost a proper concert. But the setlist was very different from her recent outings, heavily favoring the ‘Mademoiselle Zhivago’ songs that Lara feels are appropriate primarily for this country (and in honor of Igor Krutoi). She was joined in this adventure by Krutoi’s usual suspects, Sumi Jo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky on several songs, with duets and triplets that we have heard previously.
The setlist was as follows:
Lara Fabian - Mademoiselle Hyde
Lara Fabian - Llora
Lara Fabian & Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Toi et Moi
Lara Fabian & Sumi Jo - Sons and Daughters
Lara Fabian - Angels Pass Away
Lara Fabian - Russian Fairy tale
Lara Fabian - Vocalize
Lara Fabian & Sumi Jo & Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Ti Amo Cosi
Fortunately, we have very good videos from the first performance on the 15th, and some videos from the second the following day, as well.
The complete performance from the 15th can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJhFLplqzNU
In addition, there are a number of videos of the individual songs or segments available on youtube, e.g. www.youtube.com/channel/UCjqxYC_hviYRlnzwfW10TpQ
and at:
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570103516469659 (Ti Amo Cosi)
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570089843137693 (Mademoiselle Hyde; Llora)
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570097953136882 (Toi et Moi; Sons and Daughters)
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570101223136555 (Angels Pass Away; Russian Fairy tale; Vocalize)
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570105003136177 (the end of the concert)
as well as on the site ‘Lara Fabian connection people’ (http://vk.com/lf_cp).
This latter site also provides some (lower quality) videos of the show on the 16th (which seemed to have the same setlist), e.g.:
Mademoiselle Hyde:http://vk.com/video29514449_171223834
Toi et Moi:http://vk.com/lf_cp?z=video124572634_170581606%2F43a909fe3683274900
Sons and Daughters:http://vk.com/lf_cp?z=video124572634_170581612%2Ffeb102ecfd67eb1434
Angels Pass Away: vk.com/lf_cp?z=video124572634_170581616%2F4509dc312c2182c51a
Russian Fairy Tale (inc):http://vk.com/lf_cp?z=video-121236_170537734%2Fvideos-121236
Vocalize:http://vk.com/lf_cp?z=video-121236_170537777%2Fvideos-121236
There are also numerous pictures available, e.g., from 'Lara Fabian est ton autre FB site':
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.754401261280207.1073741872.166959643357708
and from ‘Lara Fabian in Ukrainian Hearts’,
www.facebook.com/larafabianinukrainianhearts/photos
A Russian news story about the event and rehearsals for it can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbJkUdVS-Vo; Lara appears at around the 2:40 mark.
As can be seen, Lara looked fabulous: one even got to see her legs! And as one could hear, she sounded superb – she even proved she could sing ‘Llora’ live (and yes, it appeared to be live – a rarity for an Igor Krutoi event!). Whatever she’s doing she should keep it up, because since her return from her medical leave, Lara’s singing has been as good as in her earlier days. Too bad she didn’t get a chance to sing with Andrea Bocelli, who was also there. The stage setup was certainly fabulous, although there were certain flaws – like the clown in the background performing during the song ‘Llora’, a title about marital abuse! It was also reported that there was a strict separation between the audience and performers, hence the lack of the flowers Lara would normally have received.
There were some setlist surprises. One was obviously the choice of the particular songs from the MZ album – why those and not others? For example, ‘Mama mia’ was a big favorite when it was presented at her Moscow concerts, as was ‘Lou’. But even more confounding was that she did not perform “Love of Tired Swans” (the Russian version of ‘Je t’aime encore’) despite the release of the single on Russian radio two weeks before; talk about missing a commercial opportunity, something one wouldn’t have thought Krutoi would have done. And without her promoting this new song, we also did not get a chance to hear anything about a new album with Krutoi. It would also have given her a chance to sing in Russian, which did not occur at all because she also did not perform ‘Love Like A Dream’.
In an indication of how our expectations have changed, it was disconcerting to see that that this event was not mentioned at all on Lara’s official site (two years ago, no one would have expected anything at all from that site, as even media performances in France were ignored). But after Lara’s recent attempts to communicate with fans, including cute pictures and words of hope preceding her concerts, photos of Lara with various people, words of thanks to those who came to see her…we’ve grown accustomed to such interactions. In this case – nothing; it was as if it didn’t exist. Russia – and everything involving Krutoi for that matter – somehow is off limits for the site (and thus for Lara’s ‘Angels’). And this is after she finally got around to acknowledging last week the upcoming concerts in Azerbaijan and Moldavia on that site, now included in her official tour schedule. True, the Moscow performance was not part of her tour per se, but people had to buy tickets for it, and it was a very big event for which Lara performed almost a full concert. A similar event for Krutoi, in in Brooklyn, New York next January (in which Lara will probably have a smaller part to play) has been listed on the site for some time. Kishinev, Moldavia is 1300 km from Moscow, but some invisible line is crossed making one acceptable and the other ‘verboten’. However, it took several years for Lara to get around to openly acknowledging the ‘countries to the east’ tours on her site; perhaps it will just take some more time before she feels comfortable covering the Russian events on her FB site as well.
Instead – almost ludicrously – Lara (or her people) used the time and space on her FB page to promote a short extract of a duet Lara did some years ago with Maurane that was being rebroadcast on French TV 3. Not only was it not new, and brief, but it could not even be seen in Belgium (despite both singers being Belgian), given the strict French TV rules for the web. And apparently Lara wasn’t even mentioned on the show. Quite a contrast with what we can see in those videos above…
In other news, tickets for Lara’s performance in Estonia on April 22, 2015 are now available, at:
tallinnconcerthall.com/en/events/lara-fabian/?t=10015. The poster, at www.facebook.com/events/877758385575870/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular, is similar to ones used throughout the recent ‘Best of’ tour, although whether that means the concerts will be similar isn’t clear. It may be that Lara views these acoustic concerts as a way of introducing herself to new audiences with the least degree of ‘fuss’; this will be her first performance in that country.
In ‘chart’ news, back in France, two albums featuring Lara’s contributions are up near the top. The ’30 years of Top 50’ album is now in 3rd place, while the ‘Sidaction – Kiss and Love’ debuted at number 5. If Lara can’t be in France herself at this point in time, she can still benefit from these ensemble exposures. In a similar successful vein, ‘Make Me Yours Tonight’ is back up at #1 on the Turkish charts (https://twitter.com/search?q=LFabian%20Official&src=typd) in its 15th week.
Lara’s people have not yet quelled the complaints about her lack of French concerts in the foreseeable future, except to reply that, “as was said, new dates will be announced”. Fans then asked whether any new French concerts would be replacements for the cancelled ‘Le Secret’ ones, or associated with the new album. Following further expressions of disappointment at not seeing ‘Le Secret’ songs performed live, a fan ‘Fabryce Ewa’ reminded them that a good quality fan-made video of the ‘Le Secret’ concert from 9-20-13 in Brussels could be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVpNZvfykfo. That also reminds us that nothing was ever done with the many Gigabytes of fan-made videos sent to Lara from which she was supposed to create the memorial “Le Secret” video concert.
Several people have written suggesting that Lara's including Hollywood, Florida on her (so far) abbreviated North American tour was due to the concentration of wealthy Russians having taken up residence in that area. This may well be so - but it still raises the issue of why there rather than in, say, Miami, some 20km to the south, a city that has many big concert halls and four times the population.
And finally on the subject of future concerts: Lara will be in Baku, Azerbaijan this coming weekend (there were also rumors she might be in St. Petersburg, along with Krutoi, on the 20th or 22nd, but they have not been substantiated). It’s not clear what her setlist will be, although probably it will resemble the acoustic ‘Best of’ from her recent tour, rather than the songs sung in Moscow. After that, she’s off (so far) for a couple of weeks until her scheduled appearance in Moldavia. Within this general time frame, we may, as they said, find out about further concert venues, probably for next spring.
David
The setlist was as follows:
Lara Fabian - Mademoiselle Hyde
Lara Fabian - Llora
Lara Fabian & Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Toi et Moi
Lara Fabian & Sumi Jo - Sons and Daughters
Lara Fabian - Angels Pass Away
Lara Fabian - Russian Fairy tale
Lara Fabian - Vocalize
Lara Fabian & Sumi Jo & Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Ti Amo Cosi
Fortunately, we have very good videos from the first performance on the 15th, and some videos from the second the following day, as well.
The complete performance from the 15th can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJhFLplqzNU
In addition, there are a number of videos of the individual songs or segments available on youtube, e.g. www.youtube.com/channel/UCjqxYC_hviYRlnzwfW10TpQ
and at:
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570103516469659 (Ti Amo Cosi)
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570089843137693 (Mademoiselle Hyde; Llora)
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570097953136882 (Toi et Moi; Sons and Daughters)
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570101223136555 (Angels Pass Away; Russian Fairy tale; Vocalize)
www.facebook.com/video.php?v=570105003136177 (the end of the concert)
as well as on the site ‘Lara Fabian connection people’ (http://vk.com/lf_cp).
This latter site also provides some (lower quality) videos of the show on the 16th (which seemed to have the same setlist), e.g.:
Mademoiselle Hyde:http://vk.com/video29514449_171223834
Toi et Moi:http://vk.com/lf_cp?z=video124572634_170581606%2F43a909fe3683274900
Sons and Daughters:http://vk.com/lf_cp?z=video124572634_170581612%2Ffeb102ecfd67eb1434
Angels Pass Away: vk.com/lf_cp?z=video124572634_170581616%2F4509dc312c2182c51a
Russian Fairy Tale (inc):http://vk.com/lf_cp?z=video-121236_170537734%2Fvideos-121236
Vocalize:http://vk.com/lf_cp?z=video-121236_170537777%2Fvideos-121236
There are also numerous pictures available, e.g., from 'Lara Fabian est ton autre FB site':
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.754401261280207.1073741872.166959643357708
and from ‘Lara Fabian in Ukrainian Hearts’,
www.facebook.com/larafabianinukrainianhearts/photos
A Russian news story about the event and rehearsals for it can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbJkUdVS-Vo; Lara appears at around the 2:40 mark.
As can be seen, Lara looked fabulous: one even got to see her legs! And as one could hear, she sounded superb – she even proved she could sing ‘Llora’ live (and yes, it appeared to be live – a rarity for an Igor Krutoi event!). Whatever she’s doing she should keep it up, because since her return from her medical leave, Lara’s singing has been as good as in her earlier days. Too bad she didn’t get a chance to sing with Andrea Bocelli, who was also there. The stage setup was certainly fabulous, although there were certain flaws – like the clown in the background performing during the song ‘Llora’, a title about marital abuse! It was also reported that there was a strict separation between the audience and performers, hence the lack of the flowers Lara would normally have received.
There were some setlist surprises. One was obviously the choice of the particular songs from the MZ album – why those and not others? For example, ‘Mama mia’ was a big favorite when it was presented at her Moscow concerts, as was ‘Lou’. But even more confounding was that she did not perform “Love of Tired Swans” (the Russian version of ‘Je t’aime encore’) despite the release of the single on Russian radio two weeks before; talk about missing a commercial opportunity, something one wouldn’t have thought Krutoi would have done. And without her promoting this new song, we also did not get a chance to hear anything about a new album with Krutoi. It would also have given her a chance to sing in Russian, which did not occur at all because she also did not perform ‘Love Like A Dream’.
In an indication of how our expectations have changed, it was disconcerting to see that that this event was not mentioned at all on Lara’s official site (two years ago, no one would have expected anything at all from that site, as even media performances in France were ignored). But after Lara’s recent attempts to communicate with fans, including cute pictures and words of hope preceding her concerts, photos of Lara with various people, words of thanks to those who came to see her…we’ve grown accustomed to such interactions. In this case – nothing; it was as if it didn’t exist. Russia – and everything involving Krutoi for that matter – somehow is off limits for the site (and thus for Lara’s ‘Angels’). And this is after she finally got around to acknowledging last week the upcoming concerts in Azerbaijan and Moldavia on that site, now included in her official tour schedule. True, the Moscow performance was not part of her tour per se, but people had to buy tickets for it, and it was a very big event for which Lara performed almost a full concert. A similar event for Krutoi, in in Brooklyn, New York next January (in which Lara will probably have a smaller part to play) has been listed on the site for some time. Kishinev, Moldavia is 1300 km from Moscow, but some invisible line is crossed making one acceptable and the other ‘verboten’. However, it took several years for Lara to get around to openly acknowledging the ‘countries to the east’ tours on her site; perhaps it will just take some more time before she feels comfortable covering the Russian events on her FB site as well.
Instead – almost ludicrously – Lara (or her people) used the time and space on her FB page to promote a short extract of a duet Lara did some years ago with Maurane that was being rebroadcast on French TV 3. Not only was it not new, and brief, but it could not even be seen in Belgium (despite both singers being Belgian), given the strict French TV rules for the web. And apparently Lara wasn’t even mentioned on the show. Quite a contrast with what we can see in those videos above…
In other news, tickets for Lara’s performance in Estonia on April 22, 2015 are now available, at:
tallinnconcerthall.com/en/events/lara-fabian/?t=10015. The poster, at www.facebook.com/events/877758385575870/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular, is similar to ones used throughout the recent ‘Best of’ tour, although whether that means the concerts will be similar isn’t clear. It may be that Lara views these acoustic concerts as a way of introducing herself to new audiences with the least degree of ‘fuss’; this will be her first performance in that country.
In ‘chart’ news, back in France, two albums featuring Lara’s contributions are up near the top. The ’30 years of Top 50’ album is now in 3rd place, while the ‘Sidaction – Kiss and Love’ debuted at number 5. If Lara can’t be in France herself at this point in time, she can still benefit from these ensemble exposures. In a similar successful vein, ‘Make Me Yours Tonight’ is back up at #1 on the Turkish charts (https://twitter.com/search?q=LFabian%20Official&src=typd) in its 15th week.
Lara’s people have not yet quelled the complaints about her lack of French concerts in the foreseeable future, except to reply that, “as was said, new dates will be announced”. Fans then asked whether any new French concerts would be replacements for the cancelled ‘Le Secret’ ones, or associated with the new album. Following further expressions of disappointment at not seeing ‘Le Secret’ songs performed live, a fan ‘Fabryce Ewa’ reminded them that a good quality fan-made video of the ‘Le Secret’ concert from 9-20-13 in Brussels could be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVpNZvfykfo. That also reminds us that nothing was ever done with the many Gigabytes of fan-made videos sent to Lara from which she was supposed to create the memorial “Le Secret” video concert.
Several people have written suggesting that Lara's including Hollywood, Florida on her (so far) abbreviated North American tour was due to the concentration of wealthy Russians having taken up residence in that area. This may well be so - but it still raises the issue of why there rather than in, say, Miami, some 20km to the south, a city that has many big concert halls and four times the population.
And finally on the subject of future concerts: Lara will be in Baku, Azerbaijan this coming weekend (there were also rumors she might be in St. Petersburg, along with Krutoi, on the 20th or 22nd, but they have not been substantiated). It’s not clear what her setlist will be, although probably it will resemble the acoustic ‘Best of’ from her recent tour, rather than the songs sung in Moscow. After that, she’s off (so far) for a couple of weeks until her scheduled appearance in Moldavia. Within this general time frame, we may, as they said, find out about further concert venues, probably for next spring.
David
