Recordings

Barbara Cook at the Met » Barbara Cook

Recording Details

Date: 2006-01-20
Type: Audio / Concert Cast
Language: English
Location: US / NY / New York
Lyrics: Irving Berlin (177), Dorothy Fields (88), Oscar Hammerstein II (202), Sheldon Harnick (72), Johnny Mercer (108), Stephen Sondheim (279), various (366)
Music: Harold Arlen (142), Irving Berlin (177), Jerry Bock (69), Cy Coleman (103), Richard Rodgers (332), Stephen Sondheim (279), various (366)
Conductor: Eric Stern (29)
Music Director: Eric Stern (29)
Producer: Hugh Fordin (105)
Liner Notes: Barbara Cook (73), Anthony Tommasini (2)
Performer: Barbara Cook (73), Josh Groban (4), Audra McDonald (37)
Notes: Liner Notes: Anthony Tommasini
Added by: hitormiss

Recording Releases

Format: CD
Label: DRG 91497
Released: 2006-06-06
Barcode: 021471149722
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Added by: hitormiss
Tracks:
1. If They Could See Me Now
2. It's Not Where You Start [Seesaw]
3. It Might As Well Be Spring [State Fair]
4. A Wonderful Guy [South Pacific]
5. I Had Myself A True Love [St. Louis Woman]
6. Another Hundred People [Company]
  So Many People [Saturday Night]
7. The Gentleman Is a Dope [Allegro]
8. Them There Eyes [Lady Sings the Blues]
9. Sweet Dreams
10. Errol Flynn
11. When Did I Fall In Love [Fiorello!]-- Audra McDonald
12. Blue Skies [Alexander's Ragtime Band]-- Barbara Cook & Audra McDonald
13. Last Night When We Were Young [In the Good Old Summertime]
14. In Buddy's Eyes [Follies]
15. Nashville Nightingale
16. Not While I'm Around [Sweeney Todd]-- Josh Groban
17. Move on [Sunday in the Park with George]-- Barbara Cook & Josh Groban
18. This Nearly Was Mine [South Pacific]
19. Not a Day Goes by [Merrily We Roll Along]
  Losing My Mind [Follies]
20. We'll Be Together Again

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Posted 2007-08-05 20:52:48:
Amazon.com Editoral Review: What's left for singers who already have Carnegie Hall under their belts? The Metropolitan Opera. Except it's not that easy for non-classical performers. On January 20, 2006, Barbara Cook--a Carnegie habitué, where she performed, for instance, her Sondheim tribute--became the first cabaret singer to perform at the Met as part of the house's regular season. It's a fitting choice: Cook, after all, is acknowledged as one of the very finest interpreters of the American Songbook. Backed simply by a quintet, the 78-year-old singer is at the top of her game, and even if her voice has lost its smooth luster, it's not about crystalline purity anymore, but about a woman filling every word and breath with decades of experience. She starts off with a tweaked version of Sweet Charity's "If They Could See Me Now" ("If they could see me now, that little gang of mine/Standing where Domingo sings with James Levine") then goes down an impeccable list of standards, most of which she's recorded before (but hey, it's gotta be classics at the Met). Cook is joined by two guests (Elaine Stritch was also at the show but isn't on the CD): Audra McDonald (sounding a little less smooth than usual on the solo "When Did I Fall in Love?" but recovering nicely for a duo with Cook on "Blue Skies") and Josh Groban (a lovely rendition of Sondheim's "Not While I'm Around" on his own, and another Sondheim piece, "Move On," with Cook). --Elisabeth Vincentelli

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