Barbra Streisand's professional life was changing in the year 2000. She had just married James Brolin two years before, and she was on record in several interviews saying that she didn't want to work as much.
The Timeless concert which she performed in Las Vegas on New Years Eve 1999 was a big success. Streisand then performed that show four times in Australia in March 2000; later that year Barbra announced her “final concerts” — two shows in Los Angeles, and two more in New York in September 2000. (Yes, twenty-plus years later, Streisand has been on several more concert tours. As she said in 2012, “I found from time to time I was drawn back to the concert stage because [the audience] really makes it gratifying for me. If I've learned anything it's to never say never because it ain't over till the fat lady sings, and I ain't that fat!”)
Columbia Records recorded the December 31, 1999 and January 1, 2000 shows at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas. They scheduled a double-CD of this recording to be released on September 19, 2000 — to coincide with the “final concerts.”
Streisand's go-to studio technician, David Reitzas, recorded the shows.
“For this project,” David Reitzas explained, “it started with 150 inputs from the best musicians in the world, going to 72 inputs of digital multitrack, mixed down through a 100-input analog console to 24 tracks of stems into 24bit Pro Tools. At this stage, I can then take my Pro Tools to Barbra's and make fine tuned adjustments on editing and balances.” Reitzas further elaborated to Sony Soundbyte Magazine: “It's all A+ musicians and that in itself is a thrill. It's really a matter of capturing and recreating an incredible concert. It's exciting to be able to sue the very latest and greatest technology, and have this opportunity to be on the cutting edge. It's a fantastic gig because Barbra is a very hands-on, particular artist who knows what she wants. I have to give her what she is looking for and use any technology available to do that.”
Columbia ran TV advertisements for the album, including mail ordering info, on various U.S. cable TV channels, including The Weather Channel, a few days prior to release.
