Barbra!

A few years ago, Ms Streisand was all over PBS with her show “Barbra Streisand: One Night Only At the Village Vanguard”.  She can still touch people with her voice and it was fun to listen and watch her wrap her tiny audience (the NYC club only seats about 150) around her finger – or vocal chords in this case.  Barbra is still amazing.

I wanted to hear her, so I dug out one of the diva’s old records “The Broadway Album” (yes, “album” – like I said “old”, but now on CD) and again was in awe of her renditions of some great songs from past musicals. I have a weakness for Broadway show tunes, especially those songs from Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gershwin – music from Porgy & Bess, Carousel, West Side Story, The King & I, etc. These songs appeal to me because they always have a story to tell, an emotion to crystallize, a longing to express.

Over the years, these poems set to music have become “standards” – they haven’t gone away, they are being sung someplace, somewhere every day. Whether in person or on CD, Ms Streisand’s versions are beautiful, soaring, romantic, funny, perfect.

Barbra Streisand – a treasure!