Papa can you hear meeeee?

Weird album of the week time! It's a bit late because Friday night was Sarah Millican night, of which more you will hear imminently. I have also decided to change the feature to just plain old album of the week, because my taste in music really isn't that eclectic, as you would have soon found out. This week, however, is still fairly unusual. So lucky you.   

Yentl: Original Soundtrack

Yes. The time has come for me to share with you all the joy that is the Yentl soundtrack. I have been quoted in the past, regarding this musical experience, as saying “This is perfection, I hope you know.” And I still stand by that remark.

This is the soundtrack of a film of the same name, starring Barbra Streisand as Yentl, a young Jewish girl in 19^th Century Poland. The basic premise is that learning is denied to her as a woman, so when her father dies she seizes the opportunity to leave home and live her life as a man, enrolling in a yeshiva and finally being able to indulge openly in her unquenchable thirst for knowledge. It’s a film that manages to be both simultaneously touching and engaging, and absolutely hilarious (unintentional). It does have a strong element of female empowerment too which is obviously a good thing (but to be fair this is mainly down to the film – I think Yentl’s gender confusion issues are a lot more prevalent in the original story, most notable in the fact that she chooses to keep living as a man at the end...).

It was a Broadway play before Streisand got involved and made it into a film, and is based on a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer (who famously hates the film). Although it’s cheesy and Streisand is almost entirely unconvincing as a man, it’s still a cracking film and the music is dramatic and stirring and very much features Streisand at her best; in fact, I like it more than anything else she’s ever sung. I think being recorded with a proper orchestra helps – the studio versions of a couple of the songs sound shocking. It also (I have just found out, thank you Wikipedia) won the Oscar for best original music score at the 1983 Academy Awards, which is quite impressive and hopefully validates my obsession a little bit.

I realise this has turned into a bit of a weird film of the week situation, but I apologise for nothing. The soundtrack does mean more if you’ve seen the film, but it is great on its own. I genuinely do listen to it quite a lot (it’s pleasingly incongruous listening to it while on a busy tube). 

Brixpig x