BARBRA STREISAND's NEW album. Who Knew?

What a great, understated new album by the original Diva herself. Lady Gaga? Mariah Carey? Who's that? No one....and I mean NO ONE embodies every element of the term diva more than this goddess.

Before anyone (except Garland, Callas, and Merman) there was and is La Diva Streisand. This album is a lovely selection of some of my favorite old standards. Before her overdone symphonic albums like Yentl, etc, Ms. Streisand was putting out some of the most brilliant works ever recorded. This album harkens back to that time, in my opinion.

The entire collection of songs and Streisand's restrained and brilliant vocal interpretation coupled with the exquisite piano and instrument arrangements by Diana Krall and her band, make this in my opinion one of the diva's best albums ever.

Here's two of my favorite songs that are on her new album. See what I mean. Sheer perfection, this woman.

Some Other Time
Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Comden/Green

On the Town is a musical with music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based on Jerome Robbins' idea for his 1944 ballet Fancy Free, which he had set to Bernstein's music. The musical introduced several popular and classic songs, among them "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "I Can Cook, Too", and "Some Other Time". The story concerns three American sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City during wartime 1944. Each of the three sailors becomes enamoured of a particular woman — and of the city itself.

On the Town was first produced on Broadway in 1944 and was made into a film in 1949. The show has enjoyed a number of major revivals. The musical integrates dance into its storytelling: Robbins made a number of ballets and extended dance sequences for the show, including the "Imaginary Coney Island" ballet.

See my other blogs about the masterful Leonard Bernstein.

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most...
Lyrics by Fran Landesman, set to music by Tommy Wolf.

Landesman's first career was in the fashion industry in New York. She and her husband then moved to his home of St Louis, where he and his brother started up the "Crystal Palace", a cabaret. This was a successful venture, attracting big-name acts as well as producing avant-garde theatre.

Fran Landesman's experiences sitting in the bar of the Crystal Palace, listening to musicians and audiences, led her to begin writing song lyrics in 1952. One of her best-known is "Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most", her exploration of T.S. Eliot's "April is the cruelest month..." The Palace's pianist Tommy Wolf set her lyrics to music, and the song became a hit, leading to more Landesman–Wolf creations.


This is an album for anyone who truly is devoted to the honest telling of brilliant lyrics, songs sung angelically, and the emotional landscape realized perfectly.

Bravo, La Streisand!

Leonard Bernstein's perfect SIMPLE SONG by the goddess RENEE FLEMING

Leonard Bernstein is a bit of hero for me. One of my favorites of his songs, SIMPLE SONG (Hymn and Song), is from his musical theater composition materpiece MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers. This remarkable composition, perhaps one of his greatest, was commissioned by another goddess, Jacqueline Kennedy, for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C in 1971. It is a variation of the traditional Requiem Masses written throughout history by composers.

There are a number of other wonderful songs from this composition and I'll feature some of my other favorites in future entries.

This song is coupled with one of the most beautiful voices, that of the diva Renee Fleming. It is the perfect example of a heavenly song finding the perfect vehicle to deliver it. See. It is perfect in every way.

For the perfect simple beauty of this song and this beautiful voice, I give Thanks. They enrich my world.

Elaine Stritch--LADIES WHO LUNCH--Stephen Sondheim, speaking of beauty

Okay, I admit it. I am crazy for Stephen Sondheim's work. So for those theater people, or otherwise, who find this to be uninteresting then you should move on to the next post. There is, after all, something for everyone on this blog.

Elaine Stritch originated this song on Broadway in Sondheim's musical Company. The song is Ladies Who Lunch. Streisand recorded it later and really did a disservice to the song.......Ladies Who Lunch isn't supposed to be a pretty song. It's beauty is in its anger and its grit. And no one ever sang the song more perfectly realized than Elaine Stritch. She originated the song/role on Broadway. And no one has ever come close to her original interpretation.

Here's a clip of Stritch doing the song in at the turn of the century 99/00 (many years since the she originated the song on Broadway).




I urge you to watch the following youtube excerpt which excerpts a documentary about the original cast recording of Sondheim's Company. This documentary film was done in the last few years and includes Stritch's narration of her own personal crisis during the making of the original cast recording.

Shelly Mullen and Patricia Bradley.....you must watch this clip. And pay particular attention to Stritch's statement about quitting. She's right you know.

I can't embed the video in this in this blog but you can go watch the excerpt of Stritch's recording for the original cast album of this song by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf52APstI0A

YOU WALK WITH ME--from the musical The Full Monte--by the amazingly talented and beautiful SEAN McDERMOTT

I spent a good part of the day I yesterday trying to figure how to add songs to the blog. So you better all listen up to these!

Some of the songs I love aren't available on youtube videos. So will include them here with an mp3 player. Just press the play button and listen.

This song is from the musical The Full Monty and is sung by Sean McDermott. It's from his album Piece of Sky.


Pretty damn fine song and eye candy no? For more information about Sean, visit his website at http://www.seanmcdermott.com/