An actor (sometimes actress for female; see terminology) is a person who acts in a dramatic or comic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity.^[1] The ancient Greek word for an "actor," ὑποκριτής (hypokrites), means literally "one who interprets";^[2] in this sense, an actor is one who interprets a dramatic character.^[3]

Terminology[link]

After 1660, when women first appeared on stage, actor and actress were initially used interchangeably for female performers, but later, influenced by the French actrice, actress became the usual term. The etymology is a simple derivation from actor with ess added.^[4] The word actor refers to a person who acts regardless of gender, and this term "is increasingly preferred", while actress refers specifically to a female person who acts. Actress "remains in general use",^[4] although in a survey of a "wide cross-section of current British English", compiled in 2010, actor was almost twice as commonly found as actress.^[5] Within the profession, however, the re-adoption of the neutral term dates to the 1950s–60s, the post-war period when women's contribution to cultural life in general was being re-evaluated.^[6] Actress remains the common term used in major acting awards given to female recipients.^[7]

The gender-neutral term "player" was common in film in the early days of the Motion Picture Production Code with regards to the cinema of the United States, but is now generally deemed archaic. However, it remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a theatre group or company (such as the East West Players)^{[citation needed]}.

History[link]

Actors Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin performing in The Big Voice: God or Merman play.

The first recorded case of an actor performing took place in 534 BC (though the changes in calendar over the years make it hard to determine exactly) when the Greek performer Thespis stepped on to the stage at the Theatre Dionysus and became the first known person to speak words as a character in a play or story. Prior to Thespis' act, stories were only known to be told in song and dance and in third person narrative. In honour of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians. Theatrical legend to this day maintains that Thespis exists as a mischievous spirit, and disasters in the theatre are sometimes blamed on his ghostly intervention.

Actors were traditionally not people of high status, and in the Early Middle Ages travelling acting troupes were often viewed with distrust. In many parts of Europe, actors could not even receive a Christian burial, and traditional beliefs of the region and time period held that this left any actor forever condemned. However, this negative perception was largely reversed in the 19th and 20th centuries as acting has become an honoured and popular profession and art.^[8]

Techniques[link]

Method acting[link]

Method acting is a technique developed from the acting 'system' created in the early 20th century by Konstantin Stanislavski in his work at the Moscow Art Theatre and its studios. The Group Theatre first popularised the Method in the 1930s; it was subsequently advanced and developed in new directions by Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen, Lee Strasberg (at the Actors Studio in the 1940s and 50s), and others.^[9] In Stanislavski's system', the actor analyzes the character in order to play him or her with psychological realism and emotional authenticity. Using the Method, an actor may recall emotions or reactions from his or her own life and use them to identify with the character being portrayed.

Method actors are often characterized as immersing themselves so totally in their characters that they continue to portray them even off-stage or off-camera for the duration of the project. However, this is a popular misconception. While some actors do employ this approach, it is generally not taught as part of the Method. Stella Adler, who was a member of the Group Theatre, along with Strasberg, emphasised a different approach of using creative imagination.^[10]

Method acting offers a systematic form of actor training in which the actor's sensory, psychological, and emotional abilities are developed; it revolutionized theatre in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Presentational and representational acting[link]

Presentational acting refers to a relationship between actor and audience, whether by direct address or indirectly by specific use of language, looks, gestures or other signs indicating that the character or actor is aware of the audience's presence.^[11] (Shakespeare's use of punning and wordplay, for example, often has this function of indirect contact.)

In representational acting, "actors want to make us 'believe' they are the character; they pretend."^[11] The illusion of the fourth wall with the audience as voyeurs is striven for.^[12]

As opposite gender[link]

In the past, only men could become actors in some societies. In the ancient Greece and Rome^[13] and the medieval world, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to go on the stage, and this belief persisted until the 17th century, when in Venice it was broken. In the time of William Shakespeare, women's roles were generally played by men or boys.^[14]

When an eighteen-year Puritan prohibition of drama was lifted after the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear on stage in England. Margaret Hughes is credited by some as the first professional actress on the English stage.^[15] This prohibition ended during the reign of Charles II in part due to the fact that he enjoyed watching actresses on stage.^[16] The first occurrence of the term actress was in 1700 according to the OED and is ascribed to Dryden.^[7]

In Japan, men (onnagata) took over the female roles in kabuki theatre when women were banned from performing on stage during the Edo period. This convention has continued to the present. However, some forms of Chinese drama have women playing all the roles.

In modern times, women sometimes play the roles of prepubescent boys. The stage role of Peter Pan, for example, is traditionally played by a woman, as are most principal boys in British pantomime. Opera has several "breeches roles" traditionally sung by women, usually mezzo-sopranos. Examples are Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.

Women in male roles are uncommon in film with the notable exceptions of the films The Year of Living Dangerously and I'm Not There. In the former film Linda Hunt played the pivotal role of Billy Kwan, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the latter film Cate Blanchett portrayed Jude Quinn, a representation of Bob Dylan in the sixties, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Women playing men in live theatre is particularly common in presentations of older plays, such as those of Shakespeare, that have large numbers of male characters in roles where the gender no longer matters in modern times.^{[citation needed]}

Having an actor dress as the opposite sex for comic effect is also a long-standing tradition in comic theatre and film. Most of Shakespeare's comedies include instances of overt cross-dressing, such as Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The movie A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum stars Jack Gilford dressing as a young bride. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon famously posed as women to escape gangsters in the Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot. Cross-dressing for comic effect was a frequently used device in most of the thirty Carry On films. Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams have each appeared in a hit comedy film (Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, respectively) in which they played most scenes dressed as a woman.

Occasionally, the issue is further complicated, for example, by a woman playing a woman acting as a man pretending to be a woman, like Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, or Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. In It's Pat: The Movie, filmwatchers never learn the gender of the androgynous main characters Pat and Chris (played by Julia Sweeney and Dave Foley).

A few roles in modern films, plays and musicals are played by a member of the opposite sex (rather than a character cross-dressing), such as the character Edna Turnblad in Hairspray—played by Divine in the original film, Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway musical, and John Travolta in the 2007 movie musical. Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously. Felicity Huffman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Bree Osbourne (a male-to-female transsexual) in Transamerica.

See also[link]

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Csapo, Eric, and William J. Slater. 1994. The Context of Ancient Drama. Ann Arbor: The U of Michigan P. ISBN 0-472-08275-2.
• Elam, Keir. 1980. The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. New Accents Ser. London and New York: Methuen. ISBN 0-416-72060-9.
• Weimann, Robert. 1978. Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater: Studies in the Social Dimension of Dramatic Form and Function. Ed. Robert Schwartz. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-3506-2.

Further reading[link]

• An Actor's Work by Constantin Stanislavski
• A Dream of Passion: The Development of the Method by Lee Strasberg (Plume Books, ISBN 0-452-26198-8, 1990)
• Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner (Vintage, ISBN 0-394-75059-4, 1987)
• Letters to a Young Actor by Robert Brustein (Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-00806-2, 2005).
• The Empty Space by Peter Brook
• The Technique of Acting by Stella Adler

External links[link]

Look up actor, actress, or player in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Actors' Equity Association (AEA): a union representing U. S. theatre actors and stage managers.
• American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA): a union representing U. S. television and radio actors and broadcasters (on-air journalists, etc.).
• British Actors' Equity: a trade union representing UK artists, including actors, singers, dancers, choreographers, stage managers, theatre directors and designers, variety and circus artists, television and radio presenters, walk-on and supporting artists, stunt performers and directors and theatre fight directors.
• Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance: an Australian/New Zealand trade union representing everyone in the media, entertainment, sports, and arts industries.
• Screen Actors Guild (SAG): a union representing U. S. film and TV actors.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2011)

Negar Khan is a Norwegian-Iranian actress.^[1]

Negar Khan Film career[link]

• Hello? Kaun Hai/Jaanleva (2007)
• Vita Smeralda (Italian) (2006)
• Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story (release date 2005)
• Double Cross Ek Dhoka (2005)
• Shaadi Ka Laddoo (2004)
• Rudrakhs (2004)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Negar Khan at the Internet Movie Database

This article about an Iranian actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Jackie Evancho
Evancho in February 2011
Background information
Birth name	Jacqueline Marie Evancho
Born	(2000-04-09) April 9, 2000 (age 12)
Origin	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Classical crossover
Occupations	Singer
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Syco Music, Columbia, Sony Music
Website	jackieevancho.com

Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho ( /iːˈveɪŋkoʊ/ ee-VAYNG-koh; born April 9, 2000) is an American classical crossover singer who has gained wide recognition at an early age.^[1][2]

Between 2008 and 2010, Evancho entered several talent competitions; made singing appearances, mostly in Pennsylvania; issued an independent album, Prelude to a Dream; and attracted interest on YouTube. Later in 2010, at the age of 10, she gained wider popularity with her performances in the fifth season of the America's Got Talent (AGT) competition, finishing in second place. With the subsequent release of her O Holy Night EP, she became the best-selling debut artist of 2010, the youngest top-10 debut artist in U.S. history and the youngest solo artist ever to go platinum. In June 2011, her first full-length major-label album, Dream With Me, debuted at #2 on American album charts, and she became the youngest top-5 debut artist in UK history. Billboard ranked Evancho the top Classical Albums Artist for 2011.

Evancho impressed composers Tim Janis and David Foster, each of whom included her in his concerts beginning in 2009. Foster later produced Evancho's album, Dream With Me, and subsequent PBS special for the television series, Great Performances. Evancho performed in front of U.S. President Barack Obama at the 2010 National Christmas Tree lighting in Washington, D.C. She is the ambassador for "Mission: Humane", a Humane Society program which encourages children's involvement in the protection of animals. She features songs from Dream With Me in a 2011–12 concert tour with symphony orchestras. Evancho released another studio album, Heavenly Christmas, in November 2011. The same month, she became the youngest person ever to give a solo concert at Lincoln Center in New York City. A national cotillion organization listed her as one of the "ten best-mannered people of 2011".

Early life[link]

Evancho was born to Lisa and Michael Evancho, who married in 1997.^[3][4] Her father operated a video security business until Evancho's singing and recording career required her parents' full-time attention.^[5] She has an older brother Jacob,^[6] a younger brother Zachary, and a younger sister Rachel.^[5] She was raised Catholic, attended Eden Hall Upper Elementary School from 2009 to 2010,^[7] but since she began to tour and record, she is cyber schooled.^[8] She resides in Richland Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her family and numerous pets.^[9][10][11] Evancho's interests include playing the violin and piano, and sewing.^[5][12]

Evancho's dedicated singing began just before her 8th birthday,^[13] after she saw the film version of the musical The Phantom of the Opera. Her mother purchased the DVD, and Evancho began to sing the songs around the family home.^[14] Her parents have said that they did not recognize that her voice was unusual until her first talent competition.^[15][16] In April 2008, her parents allowed her to enter the Kean Idol, a local talent contest.^[17] She finished as first runner-up;^[18][19] the winner was 20 years old. She began taking vocal lessons after her success in the contest,^[20][21][22] and her parents began receiving requests for her to sing at various events and nursing homes, mostly in Pennsylvania.^[23][18] She also started a YouTube channel^[24] and was a member of the Children's Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh during its 2008–09 season,^[18] as well as performing the title role in a 2009 school production of Little Red Riding Hood".^[25]

In January 2009, Evancho competed in Las Vegas in the 15th annual U.S.A. World Showcase Talent Competition, where she also finished in second place.^[18][7] She entered the 2009 Kean Idol contest and was again runner-up to an adult.^[17][7] She entered other talent contests,^[26] winning the Golden Ribby Award – WonderworldTV in April 2009^[27] and the Talent Quest TV Show in June 2009 (both in Massachusetts).^[28][29] Also in 2009, she sang "Ave Maria" in composer and conductor Tim Janis's PBS television special "Celebrate America"^[30][31] and performed in other concerts and TV shows with Janis,^[24] who sought her out after seeing her on YouTube.^[32][7] She also made various singing appearances around Pennsylvania in 2009 and 2010.^[23][33]

Career[link]

[edit] David Foster and Prelude to a Dream

Evancho in "David Foster & Friends" concert, December 29, 2011

Evancho first caught record producer David Foster's attention in 2009.^[17][16] After sending a video to him, she was selected for the regional semifinals of his “Hitman Talent Search Contest”, finishing as runner-up, and in October 2009 she sang in the "David Foster & Friends" concert at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.^[34][35][36]

In November 2009, Evancho released her independent debut album, Prelude to a Dream.^[37][38] The album featured mainly covers of songs such as Andrea Bocelli's "Con te partirò" and "The Prayer", Josh Groban's "To Where You Are" and Martina McBride's "Concrete Angel", and also included a rendition of "Amazing Grace", among other selections. It debuted in August 2010 on the Billboard 200 at #121 and at #2 on the Billboard Classical Albums Chart.^[39] Evancho's parents withdrew the album in September 2010, citing Evancho's vocal progress since its release.^[40] Since Evancho's success on America's Got Talent, the album has become a collector's item and an autographed copy received a final winning bid of $3,933.83 in 2012.^[41]

[edit] America's Got Talent

After two earlier unsuccessful auditions for the show,^[26] Evancho was accepted as a contestant on the fifth season of the America's Got Talent TV show (AGT) by placing first in a 2010 YouTube competition sponsored by AGT. On August 10, 2010, Evancho performed "O mio babbino caro" by Giacomo Puccini in the show's quarter-final round.^[42][43] She received a standing ovation after her performance and was awarded a trip to Universal Studios Florida for receiving the most fan votes of all the YouTube submissions to the show.^[44] Judge Howie Mandel said in his critique that the show sought to "find that one moment, that one gem, that one star from a place we've never looked before ... This is the moment. You're the star."^[45] After Evancho's performance, astonished commentators queried whether her performance had been lip-synched.^[46][47] On the next evening's live show, Mandel requested that Evancho sing an impromptu voice exercise as proof that the broadcast heard by the audience was Evancho's live voice.^[46]

Her semifinal performance was "Time to Say Goodbye".^[48][49] She advanced to the Top 10 round, where on September 7, 2010, she performed "Pie Jesu" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and was voted into the Final 4.^[50][51] Pittsburgh leaders declared the following week "Jackie Evancho Week" in appreciation "for her positive representation of our city" showing "poise and determination well beyond her years".^[52] Her final competition performance was her rendition of Gounod's "Ave Maria" on September 14. The following evening at the AGT season finale, Evancho performed "Time to Say Goodbye" together with guest artist Sarah Brightman;^[53] then Evancho was announced as the runner-up, finishing second to singer Michael Grimm.^[54] Many viewers and commentators felt that Evancho should have won,^[55] and even Grimm expressed surprise.^[56][57] The show brought Evancho wide exposure to American audiences, as up to 16 million viewers watched her performances each week.^[58] The finale show was AGT's highest-rated episode in three years.^[59]

Evancho performed in 10 of the 25 cities in the America's Got Talent national tour from October 1 to November 5, 2010.^[60][61] On October 8, 2010, Evancho signed a record deal with SYCO music and Columbia Records.^[59] From June 2010^[46] until 2011, Evancho coached with voice teacher Yvie Burnett, a mezzo-soprano from Scotland, who has worked with many of Simon Cowell's acts.^[10][62][25] Tim Janis scheduled Evancho to perform in his show at Carnegie Hall in New York City on December 2, 2010,^[21][17] where she would have been the venue's youngest female vocal soloist.^[63] During the AGT tour, however, her parents withdrew her from the Carnegie Hall event;^[64] by the time of that event, Evancho had begun making promotional appearances for Columbia Records, with whom she had signed.^[65][66]

[edit] O Holy Night

Evancho's first release on a major record label was a Columbia Records EP entitled O Holy Night. It was released on November 16, 2010, and reached rank #1 on Amazon's bestsellers in music during pre-orders on October 19, 2010.^[67] It entered the Billboard 200 at #2,^[68] making Evancho the top-selling debut artist for 2010 and the youngest solo artist ever to debut in the top 10.^[69][70] It also launched at #1 on Billboard's Classical Albums Chart^[69][71] and the Canadian Classical Albums Chart.^[72] It was #2 on Billboard's Holiday Albums Chart.^[73] The album sold 239,000 copies in its first week.^[74] On December 10, 2010, the album was certified platinum by the RIAA, shipping an excess of a million copies in the U.S.,^[75] making Evancho the youngest solo artist ever to go platinum.^[76][77] Allmusic rated the EP 2-1/2 stars out of a possible five.^[78]

Evancho's first stop in promoting the album was The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on September 23, 2010, where she sang and gave her first late-night interview with Jay Leno.^[79] She was interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show on October 19, 2010, and sang "Pie Jesu". She listed Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli among the artists that she would like to collaborate with in the future, later adding Lady Gaga, and revealed that writing is her favorite school subject.^[60] Among several other talk shows, QVC appearances and holiday singing appearances, Evancho performed on The Today Show on November 9, 2010,^[80] The View on November 15, 2010^[66] and Martha Stewart Living on November 30, 2010,^[81] each of which appearances also featured interviews.^[82]

Among other televised holiday appearances in 2010, Evancho sang "O Holy Night" in the My Macy's Holiday Parade presented by WPXI in Pittsburgh on November 27, 2010.^[60][83] On November 30, 2010, Evancho sang "O Holy Night" and, together with Katherine Jenkins, "Silent Night", on NBC's Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting special, "Christmas in Rockefeller Center".^[84] Such a duet had been anticipated since Piers Morgan commented on the similar appearance of the two singers.^[85] On December 9, 2010, Evancho performed at the National Christmas Tree lighting event in Washington, D.C., singing "O Holy Night",^[86][87] where she first met President Obama and his family.^[88][89][90] She performed at the 27th annual Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade, which aired on ABC television on December 25, 2010.^[91]

In its 2011 year-end charts (including releases from November 2010), Billboard ranked O Holy Night at #1 on its Classical Albums chart.^[92] It also ranked the album as the #15 best-selling album of 2011 in the U.S.^[93]

[edit] Dream with Me

Evancho's second full-length feature album (her first on a major label), Dream with Me, produced by David Foster for Sony and Syco Music, was released on June 14, 2011.^[94] The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart,^[95] reached #1 on the Billboard's U.S. Classical Chart,^[96] and was certified gold by the RIAA.^[97][98] The album also performed well internationally,^[99] with Evancho becoming the youngest artist ever to debut in the UK in the top 5.^[100] On its 2011 year end charts, Billboard ranked Dream With Me as the #2 best-selling Classical Album for the year^[92] and as the #45 U.S. album of 2011.^[93] The album includes 14 tracks ranging from popular songs ("Angel") to classical arias ("Ombra mai fu"), and original songs, including the title track for which Evancho contributed some of the lyrics; a deluxe edition of Dream with Me available only at the Target website includes four bonus tracks: "Someday", "Mi Mancherai", "The Impossible Dream" and "A Time For Us".^[101][102] Allmusic gave the album 3-1/2 stars out of a possible five, commenting: "Dream with Me hits all of the right notes, though there are few surprises or big moments to be found ... resulting in a solid "official" debut from a rising star at the dawn of her career."^[103]

Evancho promoted the album on talk shows^[104] and concerts in the U.S. and in Toronto.^[105][106] She filmed a solo concert television special that included nearly the same songs as the CD and first aired June 14, 2011, on PBS stations.^[107] The program was the most frequently broadcast of the PBS Great Performances series in 2011, and Evancho was the youngest person ever to have a special on the Great Performances series.^[108][109] The concert was taped in April 2011 at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida,^[33] and was co-hosted by David Foster, who played the piano in the orchestra for many of the selections,^[110] while Conrad Tao played piano or violin for some selections.^[111][112] The performances were released as a CD/DVD set in September 2011, Dream With Me In Concert.^[113][114] Allmusic noted: "the concert version ... sounds nearly identical (outside of the waves of applause) to the studio album ... but the accompanying DVD, which features the heavily choreographed performance, as well as an extensive photo gallery and interviews with both Evancho and Foster, should provide enough eye and ear candy to appease fans of the gifted young vocalist until a proper follow-up appears.^[115] The Sun wrote that the "classical crossover set ... showcases the extraordinary beauty of the child's pipes."^[116] USA Today rated the album 2-1/2 stars out of four: "[Evancho's] sweet, unblemished vocal tone and slow, careful vibrato hardly betray her young age. ... But Dream's predictable and often bombastic odes to love and faith can undermine the tween's most appealing quality: innocence. I'd have preferred a little less pomp and Puccini and more youthful wonder."^[117]

In July 2011, the singer began her first solo tour across the United States, to promote the album.^[118] It consisted of a series of often sell-out performances with symphony orchestras, beginning with the Sun Valley Orchestra on July 31,^[119] followed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on August 5,^[120] the Ravinia Festival Orchestra on August 7 (with Conrad Tao as pianist),^[121] the Omaha Symphony Orchestra on August 26,^[122] the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on August 31^[111] and her hometown Pittsburgh Opera on October 16.^[123] The opera company took the opportunity to introduce Evancho's fans (including many newcomers to opera) to its chorus and soloists, who performed several opera pieces along with Evancho's solos.^[124][125] As part of the tour, Evancho made her New York City solo concert debut at Avery Fisher Hall on November 7, 2011,^[111] becoming the youngest person ever to sing solo at Lincoln Center.^[108][126] She received repeated standing ovations.^[87] Her last appearance of the year to promote the album was in Las Vegas on December 29, 2011, with David Foster.^[127]

In 2012, Evancho continued her "Dream With Me" tour, beginning in January at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, in California. In her 2012 series of U.S. concerts, her duet partner has been tenor Josh Page.^[128][129] Her next "Dream With Me" concerts were in February 2012, with the San Diego Symphony at Copley Symphony Hall,^[130] at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles,^[131] and with Fresno Grand Opera's orchestra.^[132][133] Evancho's February tour stops constituted the tenth top-grossing tour reported by Billboard for the relevant week.^[134] In March, Evancho gave concerts in San Francisco at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall,^[135] in Sacramento at Community Center Theatre,^[136] and in West Valley City, Utah at Maverik Center.^[137][138]

On June 3 and 8, 2012, Evancho is scheduled to perform in Alpharetta, Georgia, at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre and in Newark, New Jersey, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, respectively.^[139]

[edit] Heavenly Christmas

Evancho's 2011 Christmas album, Heavenly Christmas, has ten tracks and was produced by Rob Mounsey^[140][141] It was released on November 1, 2011, exclusively at Walmart and Walmart.com in the U.S.^[142][143] Evancho is accompanied by the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the New York Chorus of St. Cecilia, conducted by Rob Mounsey.^[141] The selections include traditional Christmas Carols like "The First Noël" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem", standards like "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "White Christmas", and newer songs, such as "Walking in the Air" (from the 1982 animated film The Snowman) and "Believe" (from the 2004 movie soundtrack The Polar Express).^[141]

Evancho in Las Vegas, Nevada, December 2011

The album entered the Billboard Classical Albums chart at #1, the Holiday Albums chart at #3, and the Billboard 200 at #16, peaking at #11.^[144][145] It peaked at #9 on the Canadian Albums chart.^[146] On its 2011 year end charts, Billboard ranked Dream With Me as the #4 best-selling Classical Album for the year.^[92] Allmusic's review gives the album three stars, commenting, "Evancho's vocals are impressive as always, and the arrangements are mostly tasteful, with only occasional moments of bombast".^[147] The Salt Lake City Tribune rated the album "A-", writing: "some of us are still taken aback when we hear such a strong, womanly voice float out of an 11 year-old child. ... Her best offering is the cherubic 'Believe'."^[148] After hearing Evancho sing "The First Noël", Christopher John Farley of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "When [she] speaks, she has a little girl voice and talks about little girl things, like doing chores, and kittens. But when she sings, she sounds like she’s channeling a past life, a future self, or possibly an actual angel."^[149]

As with her previous albums, Evancho made talk show appearances on all the major television networks to promote Heavenly Christmas, singing "The First Noël" on The View^[150] and The Talk,^[151] and "Believe" on The Tonight Show,^[152] as well as giving concerts in December 2011 in Buffalo, New York; Atlantic City, New Jersey;^[153][154] and Pittsburgh, featuring tenor Christopher Dallo.^[155] As of January 2012, over 300,000 copies of Heavenly Christmas had been sold in the U.S.^[156]

Other music performances[link]

Evancho performed the American national anthem at Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games and at various events in 2009 and 2010,^[23][16] for example at the September 2009 memorial ceremony at the United Flight 93 crash site.^[20] Evancho performed the anthem at the NHL Winter Classic on January 1, 2011, at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.^[157] In January 2011, she performed at the Beverly Hills Chefs for Seals event in support of efforts to end the annual Canadian seal hunt.^[158] Evancho is the ambassador for Mission: Humane, a Humane Society of the United States program that encourages children to help protect animals.^[159] In February 2011, she performed her first full-length concert as a headliner, in Houston Texas with the Houston Chamber Choir.^[160][161] On March 12, 2011, she sang at the 2011 Festival of the Arts Boca,^[16] along with young stars of the Metropolitan Opera.^[162][163] Evancho sang at Muhammad Ali's "Celebrity Fight Night" charity event to battle Parkinson's Disease, in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 19, 2011^[164] and again on March 24, 2012.^[165][166] She also sang the introduction to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on Oprah's farewell special broadcast on May 25, 2011.^[167][168]

On June 4, 2011, Evancho performed as a guest artist at the season finale of Britain's Got Talent.^[169][26] After touring over the summer, on September 14, 2011, she returned to America's Got Talent as a guest artist, performing "Nessun dorma" during the finale of the sixth season.^[170] Evancho recorded a duet with Tony Bennett of the song "When You Wish upon a Star", which appears as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of his 2011 album Duets II;^[171] the two artists are scheduled to perform together at the Ironstone Amphitheatre in Murphys, California on August 31, 2012.^[172] She also sings "Pie Jesu" on the 2011 album Hit Man Returns: David Foster & Friends (2011).^[173] The album was recorded live in Las Vegas in October 2010, and PBS broadcast the concert, including Evancho's "Pie Jesu" and "O Mio Babbino Caro", beginning in March 2011.^[174] She has continued to tell interviewers that she would like to sing a duet with Lady Gaga.^[63][175]

Evancho sang in two David Foster & Friends concerts on October 19–20, 2011, in Tokyo, where she also appeared in several Japanese television interviews.^[176] She returned to Japan to participate in the newly reopened Bunkamura Orchard Concert Hall's program on January 11, 2012, called "Musical meets Symphony",^[177] and to give her own Dream With Me concert there with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra on January 13, 2012.^[178] While there, she sang for the Imperial family.^[138][1] On February 2, 2012, Evancho sang at the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast before President Obama and congressional and international leaders.^[179][180]

On April 30, Evancho appeared on Dancing with the Stars. She sang "Ave Maria" and "Dark Waltz"^[181] to accompany two dance teams.^[182] She performed "Angel" as a guest star on the May 14, 2012 season finale of Canada's Got Talent.^[183] On June 13, 2012, PBS has scheduled a live concert taping for a new Great Performances special called "Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies" at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. It will be directed by David Horn and conducted by Bill Ross, and features selections from Evancho's forthcoming album expected to be released in September 2012. The special is expected to be aired on PBS stations beginning in August 2012.^[184][185] On June 20, Evancho is scheduled to sing in Russia at the opening ceremonies of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The outdoor concert in Palace Square, billed as "Bouquet of Opera", will also feature Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Sumi Jo.^[186][187]

Acting and modelling[link]

Evancho had some early theatre experience performing in High School Musical with Pittsburgh Musical Theater in 2007.^[23] She also appeared briefly as an extra in the 2010 film She's Out of My League. Her first featured television appearance was in the episode "Back To Max" of the final season of the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place (2011) singing "America the Beautiful" in Tribeca Prep's "Spirit of America Play" and asking Mr. Laritate if her performance was sufficient to "work off" detention.

Evancho is set to appear in the forthcoming feature film The Company You Keep, which is billed as a political thriller and expected to be released in late 2012. She plays Isabel, the eleven-year-old daughter of a widowed Albany attorney turned fugitive, Jim Grant, played by Robert Redford, who also directs the film. Grant is a former Weather Underground militant who is pursued by the FBI, and by an ambitious journalist, when his identity is uncovered.^[188] Evancho said in 2012: "I don't think I want to act full time. I think I might like to do something with a Disney special or make a movie once in a while that would give me enough time to sing and record, but that's about it."^[128]

Evancho has announced that she will be modelling for the GUESS Kids fall 2012 clothing line.^[189]

Reception and reputation[link]

Evancho at the Grove Christmas Tree lighting, November 2011

After Evancho's performance of "Ave Maria" on America's Got Talent, judge Piers Morgan said: "I have never seen an act, on this show or the British show or any of the other talent shows in the world, with more potential than Jackie Evancho. That was perfection. Perfection!"^[190] Christopher Hahn, General Director of the Pittsburgh Opera, commented of Evancho's performance of "O mio babbino caro" on AGT, "It's very unusual for a young child to have a voice that sounded so rich and developed."^[35] "I thought she was just lovely, sweetly compelling", said Hahn.^[191] "It is quite unusual to hear a young girl with that level of warmth and roundness."^[40] Hahn particularly praised Evancho's phrasing.^[192]

Composer Tim Janis commented that Evancho "takes a classical piece and makes it friendly and accessible. ... Her voice is so pure and natural, there's no flaw in it. People say 'I can hear her potential coming,' but no, it's here, it's now."^[40][47] Critic Tim Page disagreed, writing of Evancho's AGT performance of "O mio babbino caro" that Evancho "has many years of work ahead of her before she becomes any sort of musician."^[193] A review of Evancho's 2011 concert with Pittsburgh Opera, however, noted that "what was most impressive ... was how musical she was – and it came through in her arm motions [which] disclosed her focus on phrasing and an understanding of the emotion in the ... musical numbers."^[123] The review also praised "her reverberant chest voice [and] her head voice, hitting the highest register with intonation and purity" and echoed Janis: "That she continues to be greeted with skepticism is unfair. ... It's time to accept Jackie's talent at face and ear value. ... Yes, the concert showed that Jackie is a young girl, yet one with artistry to be appreciated now without debating about what her future might hold."^[123] Nekesa Mumbi Moody, writing for Associated Press and ABC News, commented that, although "there is a youthful quality in Jackie's voice, it's hardly childlike: It's a soprano that deftly traverses the musical scales".^[15]

Antony Walker, Pittsburgh Opera's music director, said: "she has a very sincere way of singing. ... Her voice has a lovely quality to it. It's very simple singing but it comes from the heart. You rarely hear someone so young with such a beautiful voice".^[194] Claudia Benack, Assistant Professor of musical theatre at Carnegie Mellon University, said that Evancho "has an unusually adult feel for the repertoire. ... She sings to the important part of the phrase, and then backs off. That's instinctual. ... She takes breaths sometimes where an adult would not, but that's just because she's young and little".^[40] Benack noted: "She sings from the healthy part of her voice."^[40] Doctor Clark Rosen, director of the University of Pittsburgh Voice Center, agreed, commenting that Evancho's talent is made possible by how her brain coordinates her body for singing: "Very few people are gifted enough to have that naturally, or with subsequent learning, to create a voice we'd love to hear."^[40]

Evancho appeared on the National League of Junior Cotillions' list of "Ten Best-Mannered People of 2011" for "demonstrating humility and politeness as a young performer."^[195] She was honored on April 13, 2012 by the Senator John Heinz History Center at its 20th Annual History Makers Award Dinner as one of five "distinguished Pittsburghers ... recognized for their exceptional contributions to the history of Western Pennsylvania, the nation, and the world".^[196][197] Evancho, the youngest person ever to be so honored, was chosen in the category of Arts & Letters.^[197] The Kean Quest Talent Search, since 2011, has given an annual "Jackie Evancho Award" to a contestant who "exemplifies courage and motivation and pushes through to follow their dreams."^[198][199]

The Los Angeles Times commented in June 2011, reviewing Dream With Me, that "her voice has matured quite a lot over the past 10 months. The darkness sounds less forced, her low register is much stronger and the voice has a bit more heft". The paper continued, "what makes us feel like she will survive the journey from child star to adult performer is her magnificent sense of pitch, her natural ability to shape phrases and the ease with which she performs. This is what makes her a joy to listen to. Since she's still a kid, and we all have affectations when we're learning, we'll pretend we didn't notice the Brightman arms."^[200] In reviewing her 2011 Pittsburg Opera concert, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review called her voice "beautifully in tune and well supported. ... Evancho's sincerity of delivery was affecting".^[201] A reviewer from The New York Times wrote of her 2011 Avery Fisher Hall concert that, in her first half dozen numbers, she "often receded, but toward the end of the night she found purpose, delivering 'A Time for Us' with punch, and closing out ... 'Angel' with what felt like real yearning."^[202] The Wall Street Journal called Evancho's 2011 performance of the song "Angel" on the Tonight Show "moving".^[203] A San Francisco Chronicle review of Evancho's 2012 concert in San Francisco judged her singing "an impressive thing to witness, and Evancho's technical precision and enormous range only serve to make it seem less fluky. The girl can sing", but felt that "every selection sounded alike".^[135]

Discography[link]

Billboard ranked Evancho the #1 Classical Albums Artist of 2011,^[205] as Evancho released three of the top four albums on the Billboard 2011 year-end Classical Albums Chart.^[92] Billboard also ranked Evancho as the #10 Billboard 200 Artist of 2011^[206] and the #3 Internet Albums Artist.^[207] It ranked O Holy Night as the #15 best-selling album of 2011 and Dream With Me as the #45 album of 2011.^[93] O Holy Night also ranked as the #31 Canadian Album of 2011.^[208] Billboard ranked Dream With Me In Concert the #21 music video album of the year.^[209]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jackie Evancho

• Official website
• Jackie Evancho at the Internet Movie Database
• Evancho at Classical Crossover UK
• Super Humans: Wonder Girl Jackie Evancho ABC 20/20 report on Evancho, July 22, 2011
• Photos of Evancho
• October 2009 interview of Evancho with The Expressionist Magazine

Videos

• Evancho at age 7 – Phantom of the Opera
• Age 9 – National anthem at Pittsburgh Pirates home opener, April 2010
• Age 10 – Pie Jesu, September 2010
• Age 10 – "Silent Night", Christmas 2010
• April 2011 – "Angel"
• June 2011 – "Nessun Dorma"
• October 2011 in Japan with David Foster

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This article incorporates text from the Wide Screen journal site.

Matteo Garrone
Matteo Garrone in Castiglioncello on June 21, 2008
Born	(1968-10-15)October 15, 1968 Rome
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Film director
Known for	Gomorrah

Matteo Garrone is an Italian film maker.

Born in Rome, the son of a theatre critic, Nico Garrone and a photographer, in 1996 Garrone won the Sacher d'Oro, an award sponsored by Nanni Moretti, with the short film Silhouette, that became one of the three episodes that are on his first long film Terra di Mezzo in 1997. He won Best Director at the European Film Awards and at the David di Donatello Awards for "Gomorrah". His latest film Reality competed in competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival^[1][2] and won the Grand Prix.^[3]

Garrone and Italian Neorealism[link]

When Matteo Garrones' Gomorrah won the 2008 Cannes Grand Prix, shared with compatriot Paolo Sorrentino's film Il Divo, the victory of his account of the ruthless Italian criminal organization known as camorra, surprised the public and critics. Although Il Divo received critical acclaim for its blunt depiction of corruption among Italian politicians and its scandals, the cinema of Garrone attracted considerable critical consideration because of its bleak, authentic portrayal of contemporary Italian society. The American popularity of Gomorrah that followed the European acclaim, shed light on this young Italian filmmaker, winner, among other awards, of the Best Screenplay at the Chicago International Film Festival and a 2009 nominee for the Golden Globes Best Foreign Film. Garrone found fame and appreciation in and outside Italy, proving to be a fascinating new voice in Italian cinema.

Because of such unpredicted international success of Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah and Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo, some critics have seen in these films a signs of resurrection of Italian cinema. A few critics have even gone further and have implied that with these two films, a new Italian Neorealism was born. In an interview by Richard Parton that appeared in Cineaste, Garrone admits to an unconscious influence of Neorealist filmmakers such as Rossellini, but underlines that Neorealism was a product of the post-War period and, therefore, a result of unique social and economic conditions. Despite the specific historical context in which Italian Neorealism originated, it is worthwhile to think of Garrone's style as a contemporary version of that aesthetic movement.

Garrone points out that the careful attention to the real living conditions of his characters, the use of vernacular language, together with his choice of non-professional actors, are clear reminders of characteristics that contributed to the creation of Neorealistic cinema. His choice of mixing professional and non-professional actors offers an insight in his artistic intentions of provoking and shocking his audience. His popularity represents a move back to stories about real people and real situations, which is strikingly reminiscent of Italian Neorealism. There is an original component in Garrone's cinematic style and that comes from his attention to details in the depiction of Italy. While other contemporary directors like Marco Tullio Giordana, Francesco Munzi, Tonino Zangardi, Stefano Reali, Cristina Comencini and Giuseppe Tornatore too have paid attention to social and cultural tensions in contemporary Italy, Matteo Garrone stands out for his visual style. Trained as a painter, Garrone embraces cinematography with a style that reflects an emotional involvement with his art. By mirroring contemporary social and cultural instability, Garrone's filmmaking has become one of the most significant voices in today's Italian cinema because he employs a visually engaging look at social problems. As suggested by Italian film critic Goffredo Fofi in his preface to the anthology, Non Solo Gomorra. Tutto il cinema di Matteo Garrone, Garrone's filmmaking emerges from the latest and most innovative cinematic voices because of his refusal to make films simply to denounce societies and peoples. His stories are about people he has known and as a result, the tone is one of engagement, and the view is from the inside. Garrone demonstrates that an inventive filmmaking style has reached artistic maturity. His cinematic style relies on the importance of details and simple gestures, and as a result, the characters in his films are able to appropriate the mannerisms and moods of the people they embody and then display a subjective interpretation of reality. In his speech when accepting the Cannes Grand Prix, Garrone referred to Gomorrah as an example of what cinema means: an interpretation of a reality more than a projection of a situation because it was always his intention to move his viewers. He stated that to him, the most important thing is to move people.

Gomorrah reveals several moments of emotional intensity such as the shooting of two young boys, Marco and Ciro, two people who inhabit the tense, gripping community affected by camorra. This sequence stands out in the film as one of the most significant moments as it exemplifies the core of this drama: camorra touches everyone's life, like a spreading disease that infects Italian communities. Women and children too are involved in this great danger, as the shooting of the two young boys clearly emphasizes. In the end, Marco and Ciro have to pay with their own lives because they dared to defy camorra. In this sequence the camera follows Marco and Ciro as they are on the beach stalking their target. All of a sudden, this "mission" is revealed to be a trap and is ended by the killers.

While in Gamorrah, Garrone depicts his characters denouncing the corruption and uncontrollable violence that camorra produces, in the films made prior to it, he captured, the characters painful conditions without actually passing his judgment. In L'Imbalsamatore (2002) and Primo Amore (2004), the filmmaker sets up gloomy scenarios in which the viewer is asked to quietly participate and witness the range of emotions that characters are going through, surrounded by a space that not only confines them but also mirrors their despair. In his cinema, Matteo Garrone has always shown a curiosity about outcasts and the spaces and landscapes that surround them. From Terra di mezzo (1996) to Ospiti (1998) and Estate Romana (2000), his considered interest in prostitutes, immigrants, and artists living in Rome has contributed to making his cinematic world a well-crafted space in which to project the harsh reality of those who live on the outskirts of society.

Garrone's stylistic characteristic as a filmmaker lies in the investigative eye that makes him study peoples and places before shooting since he is interested in understanding how people are, how they think, where they come from, and how he might represent them effectively. His early films represent moments in the development of his artistic view. They also reflect the creative phases in which poignant depictions of social outcasts create a typology of those people who, even though rejected by society, contribute to making Italy a multifaceted country. His cinema thus offers a view of the underground world, a topic that rarely finds sympathy in the audience. Garrone's portrayals of obsessive attraction and deadly passions in L'Imbalsamatore and Primo Amore exemplify this unique visual style. Directed in 2002 and 2004 respectively, these films illustrate dangerous obsessions. A closer look at the films also suggests symbolic readings, critiques of today's Italy, a society that Garrone sees as devoured by selfishness, loneliness and despair. In this desolation, pathological feelings have replaced fulfilling loving relationships.

[edit] Love, Obsession and L'imbalsamatore

In L'imbalsamatore, Garrone reveals a profound understanding of how people struggle to relate to each other on an emotional level, but also of the thin line that separates love from obsession. The film narrates the story of Peppino Profeta (played by Ernesto Mahieux), a taxidermist, who works for the camorra and implants contraband drugs in dead bodies after he carefully prepares them for their final destination. The film opens with Peppino meeting Valerio (Valerio Foglia Manzillo), a handsome waiter who is easily persuaded to give up his job and work as his assistant. The two men develop a special bond that takes them on an unexpected journey. These mens destiny moves towards a deadly and inevitable ending given Peppinos uncontrollable obsession for Valerio, a behavior that he desperately tries to repress. When Deborah (Elisabetta Rocchetti) enters Valerios life, Peppino sees this woman as an intrusion into their relationship and thus tries to eliminate her. By luring Valerio into promiscuous sexual encounters with other women, Peppino aims at sabotaging the couples relationship, inevitably provoking an outburst of jealousy in Deborah and leading Valerio to be confused about rather than convinced about his love for her. One day, Valerio and Deborah decide to leave Peppino and move back to her native northern town in order to start a new life away from the illegal criminal organization and the dangerous influence that Peppino still has on Vittorio. In an expected twist, Peppino meets the couple at Deborahs family home and finds out that Vittorio and Deborah are expecting a baby. In a desperate attempt to convince Valerio to return to Caserta with him, Peppino threatens the woman with a gun, as he blames her for taking Valerio away from him. He dies while in the car, next to his beloved Valerio who agreed to join him only to save Deborahs life.

The relationship between Peppino and Valerio starts like a perfect friendship as they work together and relax together until the harmony of the two mens relationship is disrupted by the presence of a beautiful, sexy woman. In a powerful sequence, Deborah challenges her rival, Peppino, in an argument meant to assert that only she, a woman, can own and control Valerios life. The films conclusion also suggests a similar reading: Valerio and Deborah are meant to be together as their love is socially acceptable whereas Peppinos obsessive desire for another man needs to be destroyed because it is considered forbidden by society. As Valerio and Peppino are in the car and about to leave Deborah behind, gunshots are heard. The scene that follows shows the couple getting rid of Peppinos body, plunged in the dark waters of a river. The real cause of Peppinos death is left unclear, as if Garrone wants to give the viewer the power (and freedom) to decide whether Peppinos death was caused by Valerio or self inflicted. Despite this ambiguous conclusion, it is still possible to read in Peppinos death the ultimate sacrifice love entails when rage and infatuation prevail but most significantly when it defies its conventional norms. To reinforce this notion, one can point out that it is Deborah, a woman, who challenges Peppinos sexual confidence by mocking his sexuality. In another significant scene, Peppino, Valerio and Deborah are in a hotel room, and Deborah convinces the two men to dress up as women. Peppinos depiction here demands some critical consideration as his heavy make-up vividly makes him resemble a drag queen. The camera follows the three characters from a certain distance, gently moving around their bodies, to allow a complete look at the scene. This visually intriguing scene recalls a similar moment in Fellinis depiction of the festive atmosphere in the Carnevale (Mardi Gras) sequence of I Vitelloni (The Young and the Passionate).

In Fellini's 1953 account of five young men living in the small Adriatic town, Alberto (played by Alberto Sordi) is dressed up like a woman; at the end of the party, he sadly reflects upon a life which slowly drifts away. In that powerful image of Alberto resembling a gloomy clown, Fellini projects his benevolent view of selfish, childish men who, like Alberto, are unable to accept life's responsibilities. Garrone seems to depict a similar drama: Peppino is dressed up as a woman, wearing a costume to emphasize his inability to reveal his real self, his need to mask his real sexual identity. Selfish and afraid to fully and openly embrace his sexuality, surrounded by loneliness and misery, he fails in life, as much as in his performance of a man pretending to be a woman or as a man pretending to be someone else. Peppino is a short, out of proportion man, his physical appearance closely resembling a dwarf, a man who relies on the criminal world to be socially recognized and accepted. The mask he wears, that of the straight man who flirts with women, is also a symbol of a society that creates categories more to contain than to let people express their identity.

Primo Amore: Love for disease[link]

In Primo Amore, the film released two years after L'imbalsamatore, the filmmaker continues to explore obsessive passions and fatal attractions. As in L'imbalsamatore, the viewer is invited from the very beginning to enter the realm of passions, in this instance, between two heterosexual people, Vittorio (Vitaliano Trevisan) and Sonia (Michela Cescon). The film is based on a book-confession entitled Il cacciatore di anoressiche, in which the author, Marco Mariolini, confesses to the murder of a young woman, Monica Cal. Found guilty of the crime committed in 1998, Mariolini describes in his book published a year prior to his crime in 1997, the origins of his obsession for anorexic women. As he explains in his book, pathological behavior led him to fall in love with an anorexic woman, Monica Cal. After an initial relationship, Monica left him to escape from his cruelty, but eventually fell into his trap again and, with her death, ended Mariolinis pathological obsession.

Garrones film tells the story of Vittorio and Sonia, a goldsmith and a store assistant, and the abusive relationship they develop when they move in together. This is an obsessive and pathological relationship because it is based on Vittorios demands to that Sonia lose weight so he can fully appreciate (and love) her. Sonia at first accepts his requests as if she has to please him to be appreciated by him. She then realizes that he is depriving her of her own life and ultimately finds the strength to end this oppression. In Garrones cinematic account of Vittorios tragic obsession, the viewer is invited to enter into a forbidden space: that of a most secret desire and obsession: an uncontrollable and totalitarian love or the desire to love so deeply one owns the beloveds mind and body. In this space, as in L'imbalsamatore, viewers are once again left to wonder about the emotions evoked by Garrones images and by their own responses to a narrative that shows how controlling anothers mind and body can be mistaken as an act of love.

In an intriguing reading, Maria Vittoria and Paola Golinelli discuss Primo Amore from a psychological perspective, emphasizing the effects that Garrones film produces on the audience. Although anorexia, they claim, remains as much unknown as it is painful, the film succeeds in letting us witness the struggle and the emotional involvement of the two characters through painful images that speak of deprivation and physical as well as psychological abuse. In adapting Primo Amore from the book based on the actual story of its author, a killer, Garrone inevitably refers to several medical pathologiesanorexia, mental illnesses in order to speak metaphorically. As he explains in the last section of Non solo Gomorra, the film was meant to address the instabilities and insecurities of two people who search for a normal life together by means of what they believe is love. Vitaliano Trevisan, a renowned writer from Vicenza, plays the protagonist Vittorio. The filmmaker decided to cast Trevisan as the films protagonist mostly because of the writers introspective and somewhat mysterious personality. This element, together with the choice to shoot the film in Trevisans native town furthers the possibility of Garrone creating a character in a more realistic, authentic way. The drastic loss of weight endured by the actress Michela Cescon during the films shooting also contributes to the true-to-life portrayal of a dramatic, tragic obsession and its dangerous outcome. Most interestingly, with this film, Garrone moves from the familiar space of Rome seen in previous films to the northern province of Vicenza to show the dull, isolated landscapes that surround the characters. In this space, the filmmaker highlights the couples struggle to adapt to a normal life. Furthermore, the filmmakers curiosity about the real drama of a sick man, Mariolini and his obsessive desires for slim, even skeletal and emaciated women, gives him the opportunity of reflecting on Italy. If on the surface Italy appears a shining collection of artistic beauty and richness, of economic growth and prosperity, using a different lens, reveals a country consumed by violence, from racial intolerance to political and social divisions based on geographical borders. The horrific obsession between Vittorio and Sonia in Primo Amore suggests Italys darkest side, that characterized by violence and undisclosed corruption, unruly passions and dangerous obsessions which are responsible for spreading insecurity, instability, and loneliness. L'imbalsamatore followed a similar artistic path, as it was loosely based on a real event that occurred in Italy. In it, Garrone expressed his concerns about social issues that revolve around human interaction and values and examined the fragile boundaries between good and evil.

Garrones peculiar vision of obsessive emotions uncovers a fascination that the filmmaker has with the human body. Rather than focusing on the physical aspects that denote beautygenerally employed by male filmmakers to address femininity and sexualityin Primo Amore, Garrone privileges the sinister consequences of an obsession that derives from looking at a human body. Determined to shape Sonias body in order to make of her the perfect ideal of feminine beauty, Vittorio maintains an almost diabolic control over her body and mind. Sonia agrees to lose weight, as if this were the ultimate proof that love exists between her and Vittorio because of her sacrifice in letting him appropriate her body. Vittorios bleak, obsessive look, while staring at Sonia when he first sees her in the bar at the bus station, projects his uncontrollable desire for her body. During their first conversation, Vittorios prevailing power over her is well illustrated when he succeeds in convincing her to stay in the bar. While in the bar, despite Sonias initial uneasiness caused by Vittorios disappointment in noticing Sonias body, not as thin as he was expecting, she is nonetheless attracted to his charismatic persona. The life they start together is based on a co-dependence Vittorio depends on Sonias anorexia because only by molding her body, can he fulfill his obsessions. Sonias life depends on Vittorios desires to feel she is fully accepted, resulting in a sinister game of attraction, destruction and self-destruction. Vittorios pathological glances at her silhouette contain a wide range of emotions whenever he is confronted with the overwhelming forces that push him to take over Sonia. Close-ups of Vittorio and Sonias face are often used in scenes when the narrative demands an emotional involvement on the part of viewers.

Italian writer Italo Moscati suggests that Vittorios obsession comes from wanting to deprive Sonia of all feelings, as if she is a metaphor for today's Italian society which has become, on the surface, wealthy, gaining weight and getting comfortable with its excessive futile commodities. This fascinating reading adds to the complexity of this fatal attraction, especially since it is based on a true story. It points to another significant aspect of the film: the symbolism given the numbness and human isolation often found in the lifestyle of the northern provinces. As mentioned by Garrone in an interview, the depiction of the suburban Vicenza in Primo Amore gives him the ideal situation to depict a relationship between a man and a woman in which the geographical space becomes a metaphor for loneliness and psychological instability.

Similarly, the space embodied by the two towns chosen for L'imbalsamatore, Caserta (near Naples) and Cremona, reinforces the importance the filmmaker gives to space. In this film, the journey the three characters take in the second half of the film brings them from the southern town of Caserta to the northern province of Cremona. Like Vicenza in Primo Amore, these towns in L'imbalsamatore symbolize more than a geographical space. The cinematography employed by Garrone in depicting the different landscapes of the two towns, using sunny and well-lit scenes in the southern town and rainy and dim ones in the northern one, clearly suggests an inner division, a separation between spaces that is more than visual, symbolizing the social and cultural fracture between the industrial North and the agrarian South. Once again, Garrone decides to let the landscape, its regional variety and cultural diversity, speak by itself with long shots that offer the viewer an imagery absorbed with symbolic significance.

Desolate scenery functions as a mirror of the lonely and at times dull life that both Sonia and Vittorio experience. Since their first encounter in the bar at the bus station, the viewer realizes that women's and mens different mannerisms and roles in communicating symbolize a relationship based on a hierarchy. Vittorio is the dominant figure, demanding attention and assertive to the point that Sonia, once she becomes emotionally involved in this relationship, moves in with him. Sonia is not only submissive to his desires; her submission is the result of loneliness and a desire to be with someone. From the moment Sonia moves in with Vittorio, the couple starts playing out a masochistic and at times horrific relationship in which the man psychologically, more than physically, dominates the woman. As mentioned earlier, controlling anothers body by having her lose weight is for Vittorio the acknowledgment of the power he has over Sonia. Is this obsession a distorted, limited vision of love? Does brutality triumph? The film does not provide an answer as it leaves the viewer to interpret through the images the strange dynamics developed between the two.

Gold is at the core of this film in the characterization of Vittorio as a goldsmith, another reminder of a metaphor that functions to speak of obsessions in terms of a desire for shining, aesthetically perfect beauty more than for emotional and profound connection. Vittorios need to mold Sonias body also signifies his reaching a fulfillment, almost a spiritual enrichment that only an ideal of beauty with a body that becomes a perfect embellishment of a self can give. A body that can be shaped and adjusted according to his own desires: this is the ultimate manifestation of love that Sonias body symbolizes for Vittorio. In conclusion, Vittorio and Sonia present the different ways in which an obsession can be manifested and even mistaken for love: it can become a tool through which one possesses the other, as if by metaphorically eating the beloved, one can fulfill his/her desires to love. There is no joy or happiness in the relationship developed between Sonia and Vittorio, and death seems to be the ultimate way to consummate their mutual dependence. As for Vittorio, prevailing over Sonia is, in his pathological state, the only way he can experience what he feels love is but, at the end, Sonia finds the strength to rebel and put an end to her (and his) misery. In the end, Sonias reaction to Vittorio s dominance adds a new component to the complexity of the character: her female agency. By hitting Vittorio and making him unconscious and thus helpless, Sonia, a female body and mind controlled by male dominance, evolves from being a property, an object to mold, to an active pursuer of life. Vittorio and Sonia lose touch with the surrounding reality because they are so preoccupied with their own relationship. Primo Amore therefore succeeds in reveals the dangerous and distraught consequences of love when confronted with uncontrollable obsessions.

Filmography[link]

Director[link]

Short films[link]

• Silhouette (1996)
• Bienvenido espirito santo (1997)
• Un caso di forza maggiore (1997)
• Oreste Pipolo, fotografo di matrimoni (1998)

Feature films[link]

• Terra di mezzo (1996)
• Ospiti (1998)
• Estate romana (2000)
• L'imbalsamatore (2002)
• Primo amore (2003)
• Gomorrah (Gomorra) (2008)
• Reality (2012)

Producer[link]

• Silhouette (1996)
• Terra di mezzo (1996)
• Ospiti (1998)
• Estate romana (2000)
• Mid-August Lunch (2008)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Matteo Garrone

• IMDb: Matteo Garrone

Bibliography[link]

Luciana d'Arcangeli. "The Films of Matteo Garrone: Italian Cinema is Not Embalmed" in William Hope (ed) "Italian Film Directors in the New Millenium". Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010, pp. 175–187.

Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand in concert, O2 Arena, London 2007
Background information
Birth name	Barbara Joan Streisand
Born	(1942-04-24) April 24, 1942 (age 70) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genres	Broadway, traditional pop, adult contemporary
Occupations	singer-songwriter, actress, film producer, director
Years active	1957–present
Labels	Columbia
Website	barbrastreisand.com

Barbra Joan Streisand (/ˈstraɪsænd/; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, writer, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards,^[1] eight Grammy Awards,^[2] five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy,^[3] a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award,^[4] a Peabody Award,^[4] and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

She is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide.^[5][6] She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre.^[7] Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top-ten albums of any female recording artist – a total of 32 since 1963.^[8] Streisand has the widest span (48 years) between first and latest top-ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became one of the rare artists to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades.^[9] According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States.^[2]

Early life[link]

Barbara Joan Streisand (see name change) was born on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family, the daughter of Emanuel and Diana (née Rosen) Streisand, both of Austrian descent. She is the second of two siblings sired by Emanuel (her older brother is Sheldon), who was a respected high school teacher. Fifteen months after Streisand's birth, her father died of a cerebral hemorrhage and the family went into near-poverty.^[10] Streisand first attended the Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva of Brooklyn, giving a solo performance at the age of 7.^[11] She later attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and joined the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club.^[12][13]. Streisand recollects, "I'm so glad I came from Brooklyn--it's down to earth."^[14]

Diana Rosen Streisand remarried Louis Kind in 1949^[10] and gave Streisand a half-sister, the singer Roslyn Kind^[10][15][16] Kind is 9 years younger than Barbra.^[17]

Barbra Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She wanted to be an actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood (1959), with then-unknown Joan Rivers. (In her autobiography, Rivers wrote that she played a lesbian with a crush on Streisand's character, but this was later denied by the play's author.) Driftwood ran for only six weeks.^[18] When her boyfriend, Barry Dennen, helped her create a club act — first performed at The Lion, a popular gay nightclub in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960 — she achieved success as a singer. While singing at The Lion for several weeks, she changed her name from Barbara to Barbra.^[19][20] Afterward she appeared at other New York nightclubs, including the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel. One early appearance outside of New York City was at Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub in San Francisco.^{[citation needed]} In 1961, Streisand appeared at the Town and Country nightclub in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but her appearance was cut short; the club owner did not appreciate her singing style.^[21] Streisand appeared at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit in 1961.^[22]

Portrait photograph, 1962

Streisand's first television appearance was on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Jack Paar, in 1961, singing Harold Arlen's "A Sleepin' Bee".^[23] Orson Bean, who substituted for Paar that night, had seen the singer perform at a gay bar and booked her for the telecast. (Her older brother Sheldon paid NBC for a kinescope film so she could use it in 1961 to promote herself. Decades later the film was preserved through digitizing and is available for viewing on a website.)^[24] Later in 1961, Streisand became a semi-regular on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series. PM East was hosted by Mike Wallace and Joyce Davidson.^[25] PM West was hosted by Terrence O'Flaherty. Westinghouse Broadcasting, which aired the television show in a select few cities (Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco), wiped all the videotapes soon after broadcasting them.^[26] Audio segments from some episodes, which were saved by Streisand's fans, are part of the compilation CD Just for the Record, which went platinum in 1991. The singer said on 60 Minutes in 1991 that 30 years earlier Mike Wallace had been "mean, very mean" to her on PM East/PM West.^[27] He countered that she had been "totally self-absorbed." 60 Minutes included the audio of Streisand saying to him in 1961, "I like the fact that you are provoking. But don't provoke me."^[28]

In 1962, after several appearances on PM East/PM West, Streisand first appeared on Broadway, in the small but star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her first album, The Barbra Streisand Album, won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Following her success in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Streisand made several appearances on The Tonight Show in 1962 and 1963. Topics covered in her interviews with host Johnny Carson included the empire-waisted dresses that she bought wholesale and her "crazy" reputation at Erasmus Hall High School.^[29] As is the case with Mike Wallace, only audio survives from small portions of her telecast conversations with Carson. It was at about this time that Streisand entered into a long and successful professional relationship with Lee Solters and Sheldon Roskin as her publicists with the firm Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman).

Streisand returned to Broadway in 1964 with an acclaimed performance as entertainer Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show introduced two of her signature songs, "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade." Because of the play's overnight success, she appeared on the cover of Time. In 1966, she repeated her success with Funny Girl in London's West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre. From 1965 to 1967 she appeared in her first four solo television specials.

Career[link]

Singing[link]

Streisand has recorded 35 studio albums, almost all with Columbia Records. Her early works in the 1960s (her debut The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, The Third Album, My Name Is Barbra, etc.) are considered classic renditions of theater and cabaret standards, including her pensive version of the normally uptempo "Happy Days Are Here Again". She performed this in a duet with Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show. Garland referred to her on the air as one of the last great belters. They also sang "There's No Business Like Show Business" with Ethel Merman joining them.

Beginning with My Name Is Barbra, her early albums were often medley-filled keepsakes of her television specials. Starting in 1969, she began attempting more contemporary material, but like many talented singers of the day, she found herself out of her element with rock. Her vocal talents prevailed, and she gained newfound success with the pop and ballad-oriented Richard Perry-produced album Stoney End in 1971. The title track, written by Laura Nyro, was a major hit for Streisand.

Barbra Streisand, 1973

During the 1970s, she was also highly prominent on the pop charts, with Top 10 recordings such as "The Way We Were" (US No. 1), "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" (US No. 1), "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (1979, with Donna Summer), which as of 2010 is reportedly still the most commercially successful duet, (US No. 1), "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (with Neil Diamond) (US No. 1) and "The Main Event" (US No. 3), some of which came from soundtrack recordings of her films. As the 1970s ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer in the U.S. — only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had sold more albums.^[30] In 1980, she released her best-selling effort to date, the Barry Gibb-produced Guilty. The album contained the hits "Woman in Love" (which spent several weeks atop the pop charts in the Fall of 1980), "Guilty", and "What Kind of Fool".

After years of largely ignoring Broadway and traditional pop music in favor of more contemporary material, Streisand returned to her musical-theater roots with 1985's The Broadway Album, which was unexpectedly successful, holding the coveted No. 1 Billboard position for three straight weeks, and being certified quadruple platinum. The album featured tunes by Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Stephen Sondheim, who was persuaded to rework some of his songs especially for this recording. The Broadway Album was met with acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for album of the year and, ultimately, handed Streisand her eighth Grammy as Best Female Vocalist. After releasing the live album One Voice in 1986, Streisand was set to take another musical journey along the Great White Way in 1988. She recorded several cuts for the album under the direction of Rupert Holmes, including "On My Own" (from Les Misérables), a medley of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "Heather on the Hill" (from Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon, respectively), "All I Ask of You" (from The Phantom of the Opera), "Warm All Over" (from The Most Happy Fella) and an unusual solo version of "Make Our Garden Grow" (from Candide). Streisand was not happy with the direction of the project and it was ultimately scrapped. Only "Warm All Over" and a reworked, lite FM-friendly version of "All I Ask of You" were ever released, the latter appearing on Streisand's 1988 effort, Till I Loved You. At the beginning of the 1990s, Streisand started focusing on her film directorial efforts and became almost inactive in the recording studio. In 1991, a four-disc box set, Just for the Record, was released. A compilation spanning Streisand's entire career to date, it featured over 70 tracks of live performances, greatest hits, rarities and previously unreleased material.

The following year, Streisand's concert fundraising events helped propel former President Bill Clinton into the spotlight and into office.^[31] Streisand later introduced Clinton at his inauguration in 1993. Streisand's music career, however, was largely on hold. A 1992 appearance at an APLA benefit as well as the aforementioned inaugural performance hinted that Streisand was becoming more receptive to the idea of live performances. A tour was suggested, though Streisand would not immediately commit to it, citing her well-known stage fright as well as security concerns. During this time, Streisand finally returned to the recording studio and released Back to Broadway in June 1993. The album was not as universally lauded as its predecessor, but it did debut at No. 1 on the pop charts (a rare feat for an artist of Streisand's age, especially given that it relegated Janet Jackson's Janet to the No. 2 spot). One of the album's highlights was a medley of "I Have A Love" / "One Hand, One Heart", a duet with Johnny Mathis, who Streisand said is one of her favorite singers (this is stated in the CD's liner notes).^{[citation needed]}

In 1993, New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote that Streisand "enjoys a cultural status that only one other American entertainer, Frank Sinatra, has achieved in the last half century."^[32] In September 1993, Streisand announced her first public concert appearances in 27 years. What began as a two-night New Year's event at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas eventually led to a multi-city tour in the summer of 1994. Tickets to the tour were sold out in under one hour. Streisand also appeared on the covers of major magazines in anticipation of what Time magazine named "The Music Event of the Century." The tour was one of the biggest all-media merchandise parlays in history. Ticket prices ranged from US$50 to US$1,500 – making Streisand the highest-paid concert performer in history. Barbra Streisand: The Concert went on to be the top-grossing concert of the year and earned five Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award, while the taped broadcast on HBO is, to date, the highest-rated concert special in HBO's 30-year history. Following the tour's conclusion, Streisand once again kept a low profile musically, instead focusing her efforts on acting and directing duties as well as a burgeoning romance with actor James Brolin.

In 1997, she finally returned to the recording studio, releasing Higher Ground, a collection of songs of a loosely-inspirational nature which also featured a duet with Céline Dion. The album received generally favorable reviews and, remarkably, once again debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts. Following her marriage to Brolin in 1998, Streisand recorded an album of love songs entitled A Love Like Ours the following year. Reviews were mixed, with many critics carping about the somewhat syrupy sentiments and overly-lush arrangements; however, it did produce a modest hit for Streisand in the country-tinged "If You Ever Leave Me", a duet with Vince Gill.

On New Year's Eve 1999, Streisand returned to the concert stage, with the highest-grossing single concert in Las Vegas history to date.^{[citation needed]} At the end of the millennium, she was the number-one female singer in the U.S., with at least two No. 1 albums in each decade since she began performing. A two-disc live album of the concert entitled Timeless: Live in Concert was released in 2000. Streisand performed versions of the Timeless concert in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, in early 2000. In advance of four concerts (two each in Los Angeles and New York) in September 2000, Streisand announced she was retiring from paying public concerts. Her performance of the song "People" was broadcast on the Internet via America Online.

Streisand's most-recent albums have been Christmas Memories (2001), a somewhat somber collection of holiday songs (which felt entirely —albeit unintentionally— appropriate in the early post-9/11 days), and The Movie Album (2003), featuring famous film themes and backed by a large symphony orchestra. Guilty Pleasures (called Guilty Too in the UK), a collaboration with Barry Gibb and a sequel to their Guilty, was released worldwide in 2005.

In February 2006, Streisand recorded the song "Smile" alongside Tony Bennett at Streisand's Malibu home. The song is included on Tony Bennett's 80th birthday album, Duets. In September 2006, the pair filmed a live performance of the song for a special directed by Rob Marshall entitled Tony Bennett: An American Classic. The special aired on NBC November 21, 2006, and was released on DVD the same day. Streisand's duet with Bennett opened the special. In 2006, Streisand announced her intent to tour again, in an effort to raise money and awareness for multiple issues. After four days of rehearsal at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, the tour began on October 4 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, continued with a featured stop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (this was the concert Streisand chose to film for a TV special), and concluded at Staples Center in Los Angeles on November 20, 2006. Special guests Il Divo were interwoven throughout the show. The show was known as Streisand: The Tour.

Streisand's 20-concert tour set box-office records. At the age of 64, well past the prime of most performers, she grossed $92,457,062 and set house gross records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour. She set the third-place record for her October 9, 2006, show at Madison Square Garden, the first- and second-place records of which are held by her two shows in September 2000. She set the second-place record at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with her December 31, 1999, show being the house record and the highest-grossing concert of all time. This led many people to openly criticize Streisand for price gouging, as many tickets sold for upwards of $1,000.^{[citation needed]}

A collection of performances culled from different stops on this tour, Live in Concert 2006, debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it Streisand's 29th Top 10 album.^[33] In the summer of 2007, Streisand gave concerts for the first time in continental Europe. The first concert took place in Zürich (June 18), then Vienna (June 22), Paris (June 26), Berlin (June 30), Stockholm (July 4, canceled), Manchester (July 10) and Celbridge, near Dublin (July 14), followed by three concerts in London (July 18, 22 and 25), the only European city where Streisand had performed before 2007. Tickets for the London dates cost between £100.00 and £1,500.00 and for the Ireland date between €118 and €500. The tour included a 58-piece orchestra.

In February 2008, Forbes listed Streisand as the No. 2 earning female musician, between June 2006 and June 2007, with earnings of about $60 million.^[34] Although Streisand's range has changed with time and her voice has deepened over the years, her vocal prowess has remained remarkably secure for a singer whose career has endured for nearly half a century. Streisand is a contralto or possibly a mezzo-soprano who has a range consisting of well over two octaves from "low E to a high G and probably a bit more that [sic?] in either direction."^[35] On November 17, 2008, Streisand returned to the studio to begin recording what would be her sixty-third album^[36] and it was announced that Diana Krall was producing the album.^[37] Streisand is one of the recipients of the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors.^[38] On December 7, 2008, she visited the White House as part of the ceremonies.^[36]

On April 25, 2009, CBS aired Streisand's latest TV special, Streisand: Live in Concert, highlighting the aforementioned featured stop from her 2006 North American tour, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On September 26, 2009, Streisand performed a one-night-only show at the Village Vanguard in New York City's Greenwich Village.^[39] This performance was later released on DVD as One Night Only Barbra Streisand and Quartet at The Village Vanguard. On September 29, 2009, Streisand and Columbia Records released her newest studio album, Love is the Answer, produced by Diana Krall.^[40] On October 2, 2009, Streisand made her British television performance debut with an interview on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross to promote the album. This album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and registered her biggest weekly sales since 1997, making Streisand the only artist in history to achieve No. 1 albums in five different decades.

On February 1, 2010, Streisand joined over 80 other artists in recording a new version of the 1985 charity single "We Are the World". Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie planned to release the new version to mark the 25th anniversary of its original recording. These plans changed, however, in view of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, and on February 12, the song, now called "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", made its debut as a charity single to support relief aid for the beleaguered island nation.

In 2011, she sang with Jackie Evancho in a song called "Somewhere" on Jackie Evancho' album Dream With Me.

Streisand was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on February 11, 2011, two days prior to the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Streisand is one of many singers who use teleprompters during their live performances. Streisand has defended her choice in using teleprompters to display lyrics and, sometimes, banter.^[41]

Acting[link]

in Hello, Dolly! (1969)

Her first film was a reprise of her Broadway hit, Funny Girl (1968), an artistic and commercial success directed by Hollywood veteran William Wyler. Streisand won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, sharing it with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), the only time there has been a tie in this Oscar category. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!, directed by Gene Kelly (1969), and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli (1970), while her fourth film was based on the Broadway play The Owl and the Pussycat (1970).

During the 1970s, Streisand starred in several screwball comedies, including What's Up, Doc? (1972) and The Main Event (1979), both co-starring Ryan O'Neal, and For Pete's Sake (1974) with Michael Sarrazin. One of her most famous roles during this period was in the drama The Way We Were (1973) with Robert Redford, for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She earned her second Academy Award for Best Original Song as composer (together with lyricist Paul Williams) for the song "Evergreen", from A Star Is Born in 1976.

Along with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and later Steve McQueen, Streisand formed First Artists Production Company in 1969, so the actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves. Streisand's initial outing with First Artists was Up the Sandbox (1972).

From a period beginning in 1969 and ending in 1980, Streisand appeared in the annual motion picture exhibitors poll of Top 10 Box Office attractions a total of 10 times, often as the only woman on the list. After the commercially disappointing All Night Long in 1981, Streisand's film output decreased considerably. She has acted in only six films since.

Streisand produced a number of her own films, setting up Barwood Films in 1972. For Yentl (1983), she was producer, director, and star, an experience she repeated for The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). There was controversy when Yentl received five Academy Award nominations, but none for the major categories of Best Picture, Actress, or Director.^[42] The Prince of Tides received even more Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but the director was not nominated. Streisand also scripted Yentl, something she is not always given credit for. According to New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal in an interview (story begins at minute 16) with Allan Wolper, "the one thing that makes Barbra Streisand crazy is when nobody gives her the credit for having written Yentl."

In 2004, Streisand made a return to film acting, after an eight-year hiatus, in the comedy Meet the Fockers (a sequel to Meet the Parents), playing opposite Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro.

In 2005, Streisand's Barwood Films, Gary Smith, and Sonny Murray purchased the rights to Simon Mawer's book Mendel's Dwarf.^[43] In December 2008, she stated that she was considering directing an adaptation of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart, a project she has worked on since the mid-1990s^[44] In 2009, Andrew Lloyd Webber stated that Streisand was one of several actresses (alongside Meryl Streep and Glenn Close) who were interested in playing the role of Norma Desmond in the film adaptation of Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard.^[45]

In December 2010, Streisand appeared in Little Fockers, the third film from the Meet the Parents trilogy. She reprised the role of Roz Focker alongside Dustin Hoffman.

On January 4, 2011, the New York Post reported that Streisand was in negotiations to produce, direct, and star in a new film version of Gypsy. In an interview with the New York Post, Arthur Laurents said: "We've talked about it a lot, and she knows what she's doing. She has my approval." He said that he would not write the screenplay.^[46][47] The following day, the New York Times reported that Arthur Laurents clarified in a telephonic interview that Streisand would not direct the film "but playing Rose is enough to make her happy."^[47][48] Streisand's spokesperson confirmed that "there have been conversations".^[49] After Laurents' subsequent death there was no official word on the status of the film for months, until it was announced on March 13, 2012 that Gypsy was moving forward, with Julian Fellowes writing the screenplay for the project.

On January 28, 2011, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Paramount Pictures has given the road-trip comedy My Mother's Curse the green light to begin shooting, with Streisand and Seth Rogen playing mother and son. Anne Fletcher is slated to direct the project with a script by Dan Fogelman. Lorne Michaels and John Goldwyn will produce it with Evan Goldberg. Executive producers include Streisand, Rogen, Fogelman, and David Ellison, whose Skydance will co-finance the pic.^[50] Shooting began in spring of 2011 and wrapped in July. In August the Internet Movie Database began listing the film with the new title Guilt Trip. The film is set for a November 2012 release (originally it was slated to release in March 2012).

Personal life[link]

Marriages and family[link]

Streisand has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to whom she was married from 1963 until 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who would go on to star as her on-screen son in The Prince of Tides. Her second husband is actor James Brolin, whom she married on July 1, 1998. While they have no children together, Brolin has two children from his first marriage, including Academy Award-nominated actor Josh Brolin, and one child from his second marriage. Both of her husbands starred in the 1970s conspiracy sci-fi thriller Capricorn One.

Jon Peters' daughters, Caleigh Peters and Skye Peters are her goddaughters.^{[citation needed]}

Name[link]

Streisand changed her name from Barbara to Barbra because, she said, "I hated the name, but I refused to change it."^[51] Streisand further explained, "Well, I was 18 and I wanted to be unique, but I didn't want to change my name because that was too false. You know, people were saying you could be Joanie Sands, or something like that. [My middle name is Joan.] And I said, 'No, let's see, if I take out the 'a,' it's still 'Barbara,' but it's unique."^[52] A 1967 biography with a concert program said, "the spelling of her first name is an instance of partial rebellion: she was advised to change her last name and retaliated by dropping an “a” from the first instead."^[53]

Politics[link]

Streisand has long been an active supporter of the Democratic Party and many of their causes. Streisand said, "The Democrats have always been the party of working people and minorities. I've always identified with the minorities."^[54]

In 1971, Streisand was one of the celebrities listed on President Richard Nixon's infamous Enemies List.

Streisand is a supporter of gay rights, and in 2008 helped raise funds to defeat Proposition 8 in California.^[55]

Philanthropy[link]

Streisand has personally raised $25 million^[56] for organizations through her live performances. The Streisand Foundation,^[57] established in 1986, has contributed over $16 million through nearly 1,000 grants to "national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues^[58] and nuclear disarmament."^[59]

In 2006, Streisand donated $1 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation in support of former President Bill Clinton’s climate change initiative.^[60]

In 2008, Streisand gifted $5 million to endow the Barbra Streisand Women's Cardiovascular Research and Education Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Women's Heart Center.^[61] In September that year, Parade magazine included Streisand on their Giving Back Fund's second annual Giving Back 30 survey, "a ranking of the celebrities who have made the largest donations to charity in 2007 according to public records",^[62] as the third most generous celebrity. The Giving Back Fund claimed Streisand donated $11 million, which The Streisand Foundation distributed.

At Julien’s Auctions in October 2009, Streisand, a long-time collector of art and furniture, sold 526 items with all the proceeds going to her foundation. Items included a costume from Funny Lady and a vintage dental cabinet purchased by the performer at 18 years old. The sale’s most valuable lot was a painting by Kees van Dongen.^[63] In December 2011 she agreed to sing at a fundraising gala for Israel Defence Forces charities.^[64]

References in popular culture[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2007)

In television[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2012)

One memorable parody of Streisand's iconic status has been on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live in the recurring skit Coffee Talk where character Linda Richman, played by Mike Myers, hosts a talk show dedicated to, among other things, the adoration of Streisand. Streisand, in turn, made an unannounced guest appearance on the show, surprising Myers and guests, Madonna and Roseanne Barr. Mike Myers also appeared as the Linda Richman character on stage with Streisand at her 1994 MGM Grand concert, as well as a few of the 1994 Streisand tour shows.^[65]

Streisand is mentioned in the sitcom Will & Grace, particularly by the character Jack McFarland. Songs made famous by Streisand, such as "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from The Broadway Album are reproduced by characters in the show.

At least four episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons refer to Streisand. Outside Springfield Elementary School, announcing Lisa's jazz concert and noting tickets have been sold out, is an advertisement for a Streisand concert in the same venue for the following day, with tickets still on sale. In "Fear of Flying", after Marge undergoes therapy, she informs the therapist that whenever she hears the wind blow, she'll hear it saying "Lowenstein", Streisand's therapist character in The Prince of Tides, even though Marge's therapist is named Zweig. Another reference comes in "Sleeping with the Enemy" when Bart exclaims after seeing Lisa make a snow-angel in a cake on the kitchen table, "At least she's not singing Streisand", in reference to Nelson Muntz singing "Papa Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl earlier in the episode. In "Simple Simpson", a patriotic country singer says that Streisand is unpatriotic and could be pleased by spitting on the flag and strangling a bald eagle.

Another enduring satirical reference is in the animated series South Park, most notably in the episode "Mecha-Streisand", where Streisand is portrayed as a self-important, evil, gigantic robotic dinosaur with a terrible singing voice about to conquer the universe before being defeated by Robert Smith of The Cure. On another occasion, the Halloween episode "Spookyfish" is promoted for a week as being done in "Spooky-Vision", which involves Streisand's face seen at times during the episode in the four corners of the screen. At the end of the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, her name is used as a powerful curse word, a gag repeated in the episode "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants". The Mecha-Streisand character made a return in the Season 14 episodes "200" and "201", as one of several celebrities the show had lampooned over the years.