"CLASSICAL BARBRA" TO BE REISSUED WITH TWO NEW TRACKS

Though best known as one of the preeminent pop singers of our time, Barbra Streisand made a powerful statement in the classical music realm when she recorded Classical Barbra in 1973. Originally released in 1976, the album gained Streisand a raft of admirers in the classical music world. Glenn Gould called her voice "one of the natural wonders of the age, an instrument of infinite diversity and timbral resource." Classical Barbra was one of the first and is still one of the greatest records in the category we know today as “classical crossover” and is available February 5th, 2013 from Sony Masterworks.
Of the reissue, Ms. Streisand says, “I have always had a special affection for Classical Barbra. I loved the process of developing and making the recording, and I was gratified by the success it had when it was originally released and, what a thrill it was to receive a Grammy nomination in the Classical division...Now it is back in a new expanded edition, beautifully remastered and sounding better than it has since the LP release. I’m also pleased that we could include two bonus tracks that have never before been available. They remind me again how rewarding this whole project was."
Fifteen-time Grammy-winning producer Steven Epstein has remastered the original recording for this new release, the first reissue of the now-classic album since it became available on CD a quarter of a century ago. In addition to the original 10 songs, it now includes two previously unreleased bonus tracks recorded during the original sessions. Both new tracks are two songs composed by Franz Schubert – “An Sylvia” and “Auf dem wasser zu singen” – which offer the unique opportunity to hear Streisand’s amazing voice with a piano as its only accompaniment.
Comprised of art songs and arias by a range of European composers, from George Frideric Handel and Robert Schumann to Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré, Classical Barbra rose to No. 46 on the Billboard Top 200 chart in 1976 and is certified gold in the U.S. Accompanied by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claus Ogerman, Streisand sings in English, French, German, Italian, Latin, and (in Joseph Canteloube's "Brezairola") in a European provincial dialect called Occitan. Other gems include Fauré's Pavane, songs that include Debussy's "Beau Soir" and Robert Schumann's "Mondnacht," as well as the arias "Lascia ch'io pianga" from Händel's opera Rinaldo, and "In Trutina" from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.
In the original liner notes Leonard Bernstein wrote, "Barbra Streisand's natural ability to make music takes her over to the classical field with extraordinary ease. It's clear that she loves these songs. In her sensitive, straightforward and enormously appealing performance, she has given us a very special musical experience."
More recently, New York Times classical music critic Anthony Tommasini said of Streisand that "her ability to shape a phrase with velvety legato and find the right expressive coloring for each note and each word is the epitome of cultured vocalism."

ANOTHER HONOR FOR MS STREISAND

 

 

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES BARBRA STREISAND AS RECIPIENT OF THE 40^TH ANNUAL CHAPLIN AWARD

AWARD WILL BE PRESENTED APRIL 22

New York, NY (January 18, 2013) -The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that Academy Award-winner Barbra Streisand, the first American woman artist to receive credit as writer, director, producer and star of a major feature film, YENTL, will be honored at the 40th Annual Chaplin Award Gala held at Lincoln Center on the evening of Monday, April 22, 2013. The event will be attended by a host of notable guests and celebrities honoring the international film legend’s groundbreaking career and will feature film and interview clips culminating in the presentation of The Chaplin Award.

"The Board is very excited to have Barbra Streisand as the next recipient of The Chaplin Award," said Ann Tenenbaum, The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Board Chairman. “She is an artist whose long career of incomparable achievements is most powerfully expressed by the fact that her acclaimed YENTL was such a milestone film. We welcome her to the list of masterful directors who have been prior recipients of the Chaplin Award Tribute."

The Film Society’s Annual Gala began in 1972 and honored Charles Chaplin – who returned to the US from exile to accept the commendation. Since then, the award has been renamed for Chaplin, and has honored many of the film industry’s most notable talents, including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Laurence Olivier, Federico Fellini, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Michael Douglas, Sidney Poitier, and last year, Catherine Deneuve.

"Barbra Streisand is an American icon whose groundbreaking work significantly opened the doors for other female filmmakers.  She has been an inspiration to me and so many of my peers," said FSLC Executive Director Rose Kuo.  "She is the perfect recipient for our 40th anniversary because, like our award's namesake, she is a world class, multi-faceted film artist."

The only artist ever to receive an Academy Award, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards and France’s Legion d’honneur as well as the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Streisand is also the first female film director to receive the Kennedy Center Honors.

She won Academy Awards for both Best Actress for her iconic portrayal of Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL (1968) and Best Original Song for composing “Evergreen” for A STAR IS BORN (1976). She also was nominated for Best Actress for THE WAY WE WERE (1973). The three films she directed (YENTL, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES) received 14 Oscar nominations.

With YENTL (1983), Streisand’s first film as a director, she became the first woman ever credited as to the writer, director, producer, and star in a major motion picture. The film earned five Oscar nominations and also brought her Golden Globes for both Best Director and Best Picture.

THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991) her next directorial feature, was the first motion picture directed by its female star to receive a Best Director nomination from the Directors Guild of America (and third woman to ever receive a feature film direction nomination) as well as seven Academy Award nominations. Streisand also produced the film in addition to directing and starring in it.

Her Academy Award for "Evergreen" established Streisand as the first female composer to win that award. She was nominated again in 1997 as co-composer of "I Finally Found Someone," based on her love theme for THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES (1996). Streisand directed, produced and starred in the film which went on to achieve two Oscar nominations and the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for Lauren Bacall.

Streisand was born April 24th in Brooklyn to Diana and Emanuel Streisand. Her father, who passed away when Barbra was 15 months old, was a highly respected teacher and scholar.

An honor student at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, the teenage Streisand won a singing contest at a small Manhattan club and soon after developed a devout and growing following as a singer at the clubs. Not long after that she was attracting music industry attention at such spots as the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel. She then signed a contract with Columbia Records in 1962, and her debut album quickly became the nation's top-selling record by a female vocalist.

Following her award-winning stage debut performance in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale," she was signed to play the great comedienne Fanny Brice in the Broadway production of "Funny Girl." When the curtain came down at the Winter Garden Theatre on March 26, 1964, the star and the show were major hits. Her performance won her a second Tony nomination.

Few movie debuts have been as auspicious as Streisand's in Columbia Pictures' FUNNY GIRL. In addition to winning the 1968 Academy Award for this performance, she won the Golden Globe and was named Star of the Year by the National Association of Theatre Owners.

After appearing in the films HELLO, DOLLY! (1969) and ON A CLEAR DAY, YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (1970), she starred in the non-musical comedy THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT (1970). 1972 brought another resounding comedy hit, WHAT’S UP DOC?, followed by UP THE SANDBOX, one of the first American films to deal with the growing women's movement. It was the premiere picture for Streisand’s own production company, Barwood Films.

THE WAY WE WERE (1973) brought Streisand her second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her first feature film producing effort, A STAR IS BORN (1976) won six Golden Globes. The soundtrack album topped the charts and has been certified quadruple-platinum.

Streisand made her directorial debut with the highly acclaimed, YENTL (1983). The film received five Academy Award nominations, and she received Golden Globe Awards both as Best Director and as producer of the Best Picture (musical or comedy) of 1983. The 11 Golden Globes (plus the Cecil B. DeMille Award) she has received from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association throughout her career are the most achieved by any entertainment artist. In January 2000 she received that organization's coveted Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.

After a break from feature films following her performance in 1987’s NUTS, Streisand returned to the director’s chair for THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991). In 1996 she directed, produced and starred in THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES (1996).

Then, in 2004, Streisand made a celebrated return to film acting (her first performance on film since THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES) in MEET THE FOCKERS (2004) which teamed her with Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro. It quickly became the highest grossing live-action comedy film ever, the first (and only to date) to earn more that a half billion dollars. The DVD had similar success, selling three million copies in its first 24 hours. She is currently starring in THE GUILT TRIP opposite Seth Rogen.

Streisand is married to director/actor, James Brolin.

For ticketing and additional information, go to filmlinc.com/gala.

JACK & JACKIE & MARILYN & JOE

In the summer of 1954, Peter arranged for Jack and Jackie to be invited to the agent Charles Feldman’s home for a party. Peter knew that among the guests would be Marilyn Monroe, the most talked- about woman in the world that year, and her husband of six months, former New York Yankee baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Their marriage was already on the rocks, and it would end a few months later, destroyed by DiMaggio’s jealousy and Monroe’s unwillingness to give up her burgeoning career, as DiMaggio insisted, and be a housewife.

DiMaggio’s mistrust of Marilyn’s fidelity was usually unfounded, but in the case of Marilyn and John F. Kennedy, his suspicions were justified. Marilyn said she felt uncomfortable at the party because Jack Kennedy stared at her the entire evening. “I may be flattering myself,” she giggled, “but he couldn’t take his eyes off me.” Charlie Feldman noticed that Jackie saw what Jack was doing, and she was getting angry. Joe DiMaggio was aware of what was going on, too. Every few minutes he would grab Marilyn’s arm and say, “Let’s go! I’ve had enough of this!” Marilyn didn’t want to leave, and Feldman recalled that “they had words about it.”

The DiMaggios did leave early, but sometime before that Marilyn gave Senator Kennedy her phone number. The next day Jack called, and DiMaggio answered the phone. When he asked who was calling, Kennedy said, “A friend.” DiMaggio hung up in Jack’s face and started to grill Marilyn about who it was, because he hadn’t recognized Kennedy’s voice. The next time Marilyn saw Kennedy, he said, “I guess I shouldn’t call at certain times, huh?”

A few months after the party at Charlie Feldman’s, Jack was hospitalized for surgery to alleviate a chronic back problem. Visitors to his room were amused by a color poster of Marilyn Monroe he had taped to the wall, in which she wore blue shorts and stood with her legs spread widely apart. Kennedy had hung the poster upside down.

 

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MARILYN'S DECOLLETAGE CREATES AN UPROAR

In Atlantic City to appear as the Grand Marshall for the 1952 Miss America pageant, Marilyn was asked to pose with “the real Miss Americas,” women in the Armed Services, as part of a “glamour” recruitment campaign. An enterprising photographer stood on a chair to capture the full measure of the Monroe cleavage. The photo wasn’t given much press play because of the plenitude of beautiful women at the pageant; most papers were interested more in their state’s entry. But an irate army information officer, aghast at the thought that the picture would give parents of potential recruits “a wrong impression of Army life,” ordered that the picture be killed. Of course, it then received tremendous play, running seven columns wide in the Los Angeles Herald and Express and on front pages across the country. Marilyn was asked about the brouhaha, and in a story under the headline “Marilyn Wounded by Army Blushoff,” she said, “I am very surprised and very hurt. I wasn’t aware of any objectionable decolletage on my part. I’d noticed people looking at me all day, but I thought they were admiring my Grand Marshal’s badge.”