by William Ruhlmann
One of Barbra Streisand's more esoteric projects, Classical Barbra is an album of European art songs composed by Debussy, Handel, Schumann, and others and sung in French, German, Latin, Italian, and English. Streisand is in typically good voice, and while the album must have been a stretch for her usual audience and a surprise to the classical audience, she carries the performances off.