Why doen't Mandy sing?
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Ithilfaen — 11 years ago(January 01, 2015 02:55 PM)
The musical part of the movie was constructed only to reinforce the narrative after about a dozen scripts failed to convey Yentl's intentions and thoughts. That's the only reason Yentl is the only singing character. The point is to relay her internal struggles and thoughts the way a voice-over narration would.
For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco -
bpollen — 11 years ago(December 22, 2014 01:36 PM)
There is no evidence whatsoever of that.
Male and female singers are not competitors, in the first place. In the second place, the movie was scored and written before it was cast. In the third place, have you noticed that Patinkin rarely sings in his acting roles? He's into money and stardom and has chosen not to capitalize on his voice. -
TheChamCham — 11 years ago(March 31, 2015 12:36 AM)
When he was interviewed years later, he said that Avigdor was never meant to sing and that he had no problem with that and that despite rumors that he and Barbra Streisand did not get along during the filming, that they actually did.
"I say ! Open this door at once! We're British !" -
paramitch — 9 years ago(May 02, 2016 07:24 AM)
Sorry, I'm a classical voice and Early Music nerd, and Patinkin is
not
a countertenor. He is a
tenor
.
Countertenor is a role traditionally sung in head voice by high tenors and in previous centuries by castrati, often in ranges as high as modern-day sopranos. Patinkin has a superb range but he is nevertheless a tenor. He does not typically sing or record in soprano ranges.
EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to add this, but I do absolutely think Streisand was wrong to limit singing to only herself even if it wasn't meant to be so, it comes across as arrogance. And she cast the movie with some wonderful singers, which made it an even worse crime. The idea, decades later, that Patinkin never sang (or Irving, for the matter) is such a shame.
I love this movie, but it might have been even more of a classic if we'd heard
another freaking voice singing on that soundtrack other than Yentl's
(at a certain point I began imagining throwing coconuts at her mentally because all of the songs sounded the same).
Cheers!I keep thinking I'm a grownup, but I'm not. -
rascal67 — 9 years ago(October 17, 2016 11:32 PM)
I love this movie, but it might have been even more of a classic if we'd heard another freaking voice singing on that soundtrack other than Yentl's
My sentiments exactly. While I can partially understand the artistic device of having only Yentl sing from the main character's pov, I think this was something Streisand also used to her benefit, and in spite of the fact that the films song score was written before filming, it does appear odd that she would cast an accomplished singer as her leading man and not let him belt out a few. She wanted it to be all about HER.
Don't eat the whole ones! Those are for the guests. -
pvd295 — 9 years ago(November 02, 2016 06:42 PM)
I had always heard that she never wanted it to be a musical, but the studio insisted she sing in the movie (as they knew that would be a big box office draw). Her first two choices for the role opposite her was Michael Douglas and then Richard Gere - both non-singers.
The studio was hesitant about funding the movie (with it's storyline) and not having Streisand sing, and it was dragging on. She went along with the studio to get the movie made, hired Patinkin to sing as well, but then realized she didn't have to make it a traditional musical - but 'a film with music'. That's how she came about doing all the singing herself and not Mandy. She satisfied the studio, and herself.
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