Harold_Robbins — 14 years ago(August 29, 2011 11:50 AM)

It's been many years since I've seen YENTL (that will be rectified soon - it's on it's way to me), and truthfully, the music never made much impression on me, though I've heard "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" now and then, and I think seen a clip or two of "A Piece of Sky" now and then - but I wasn't paying attention. That's my excuse for not realizing what a stunning tour-de-force "A Piece of Sky" is.
Streisand approaches songs as an actress before she approaches them as a singer - she says she has to believe and love the lyrics before she can sing them - well, while she's done a lot of stuff about which I can't quite believe that's true, I'm not going into that here - "A Piece of Sky" is on the 'Deluxe' version of "What Matters Most," and I have to say that from my first listen to it a few days ago, what she says about that approach hit home: Streisand believed 1000% in the lyrics of that song, and it comes through in her performance - that it's superbly
acted
as well as sung comes through gloriously - I'm a longtime Streisand fan (one of those whose been along for the ride for 5 decades) and a great admirer of her talent, but it have to say I can't remember when anything she did blew me completely away as "A Piece of Sky" does at this time (and it's, what? Almost 30 years old?). And those timpanis at the end - thrilling.
Listening to it several times today, it occurred to me that perhaps the final section of "A Piece of Sky" was what Stephen Schwartz was aiming for with WICKED's "Defying Gravity" but failed to achieve - "Gravity" descends into awkwardness, giving the performer nothing better than to go "AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh" whereas "Sky" builds and achieves a stunning climax both vocally and orchestrally.
Brava, Barbra, and sorry to be slow on the uptake!
9/01: I've just watched the film again - after 20+ years it was pretty much all new to me, and I enjoyed it very much - interesting, though, that with all of Streisand's career-long declarations about wanting to do new things and not repeat herself, she chose to set "A Piece of Sky" on a ship, albeit the stern this time (and okay, so it was a tugboat the first time around).
"In my case, self-absorption is
completely
justified."