For many years now, my wife’s two biggest dreams were: to see MIchael Jordan in person play basketball . . . and to see Barbra Streisand perform live in concert. We never quite managed the first one (and it’s not like we didn’t have ample opportunity- we just didn’t get the job done, perhaps thinking that the ageless Jordan would play on forever.) As for the second, it was already a farfetched notion, given how rarely Streisand ever performed in public, even in her prime. As she approached her 70th birthday, the likelihood of Streisand ever singing in public again seemed to grow more remote by the day.
When I saw the full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune this summer, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. But no, it was true- the legendary (and rather elusive) Barbra Streisand was performing a concert at Chicago’s United Center on October 26th. And just like that, I knew what special gift I would be giving my wife to commemorate her 50th birthday (which was back in June) – tickets to this concert, if I could get them.
I called the ticket phone number right at the stroke of 10 a.m. that Thursday morning when tickets first went on sale, determined not to lose out on this rare opportunity. Unfortunately, I was on my cell phone, interacting with an automated ticket service – and despite my best efforts to spit out my words with perfect clarity, I had to repeat at least 2/3’s of my responses, many of them actually 3 or 4 times. And 3 or 4 minutes into the transaction, I realized that my battery meter was on its lowest level, and I had the sinking fear that my cell phone was going to die before this complicated transaction was completed. Grimly, I kept on plugging, experimenting with talking louder, softer, faster, slower. And when I finally heard those beautiful words “your transaction is complete” I would have let out a war whoop if I hadn’t been completely exhausted by the ordeal!
A couple of weeks later, the tickets came in the mail – addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Stacy Birt – which gives you some idea of just how difficult that automated transaction turned out to be. (At least they got the address right!) And by the way, our two tickets cost as much as my first car. And I didn’t mind one little bit. You only turn 50 once. And if there is an occasion in life where one should pull out all the stops, it’s when you reach that exalted half-century mark.
And what about the concert? It was amazing. Kathy already had tears in her eyes when we first walked into the lobby (I later quipped on facebook that I had tears in my eyes as well, but more for the $40 price tag for the program booklet, which of course we had to have.) The United Center appeared to be a sell-out, as far as we could tell, and there was an intense electricity in the air- the sense that we were about to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And we did. Barbra Streisand knows how to put on a show – how to shape a song in her inimitable fashion – and how to draw in an audience of tens of thousands of people into what turns out to be an amazingly intimate experience. There were certainly plenty of moments when her voice turned a bit froggy – and the ball-busting breath control which was once a hallmark of her singing is pretty much a thing of the past. But all that aside, Streisand wears 70 amazingly well.
High points? It’s hard to make a list. The concert, titled “Back to Brooklyn,” began with the sweet sound of her very first recording, made while she was a young teenager: “you’ll never know just how much I love you” as we saw pictures from her early life and career flashing on the screens around the stadium. At some point it shifted into a later, more lushly orchestrated recording of the same song – which in turn led into a sparkling overture played by the orchestra (numbering 50 musicians at least) – and on their last climactic chord, there was Barbra Streisand suddenly standing in the center spotlight, and the place went berserk. Her first song, “on a clear day you can see forever,” was maybe the best helping of “Prime Streisand” we had all night, and she sounded all but untouched by time. As for the rest, we especially loved her spoken tribute to the late Marvin Hamlisch and the touching performance of “The Way We Were” . . . the duet she sang with her son Jason Gould (who is a wonderful singer, judging from what we heard that night) . . . the combo of Mama’s Turn from Gypsy and Don’t Rain on my Parade from Funny Girl which ended the first half . . . Leonard Bernstein’s Maybe Some Other Time, which was the very last song of the night.
I think it was right before the official finale of the concert, Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow” from Candide, that she shared this beautiful quotation by Nelson Henderson:
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” It’s true – it’s about making a difference for the better, and not just in the here and now but also for those who come after us. I think her primary reason to sharing this quote was to say something about taking care of this planet on which we live and leaving it at least somewhat verdant for our children and our children’s children. But I think those words also have something to say about the legacy of Barbra Streisand herself, and of how her artistry has left such a deep impression in the lives of so many people who have drawn inspiration, encouragement and joy from her singing over these many years – giving so generously of herself, despite her fears, and moving people in ways that she could not possibly understand or ever calculate. Kathy is one of those people so powerfully touched. She told me right before the concert started that her most powerful introduction to Streisand came when her dad came back from the hardware store having heard a very special voice for the first time over the speaker- a singer named Barbra Streisand. Kathy had heard of her and heard a couple of her songs, but there was something about her dad’s enthusiasm that made her want to seek out this exciting young artist- and she did. And the song with which Barbra first cast her spell over Kathy was “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” – and as if by divine providence, Streisand sang this very same song on Friday night’s concert.
The bewitchment continues. . .
pictured above: Trust me. That woman in the red gown at the center of the picture is Barbra Streisand.