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Articulos de Prensa
Es joven, bella, canta arias... pero sorprende
con su estilo pop. El público la sigue y los intelectuales de la
música no saben en qué estilo clasificarla. Desde que incursionó
en la música clásica la ópera tomó otro color y otro sentido...
Su Voz parece susurros, hojas que rozan el suelo, sonidos
guturales... célticos. Algo ocurrió en la música clásica. Se
permitió dejar entrar nuevas corrientes, mezclar sonidos y
disfrutar como nunca del despliegue escénico de los grandes
espectáculos. Y quien lo hiso fue una mujer ecepcional. Sarah
Brightman es la protagonista de esta historia. La misma que
irrumpió con glamour de diva de ópera y destellos de artista
pop en los ratings radiales. Es cierto, aunque para algunas
mentes rigurosas del mundo de la música es para no creerlo. Pero
ella está allí, cantando fuerte, imponiendo su presencia y
estilo lírico al público. . .
Ha participado en Cats, su ex marido, el compositor Andrew Lloyd
Webber, creó para ella el personaje de Christine en El Fantasma
de la ópera, cantó con Carreras el himno de las Olimpiadas de
1992, ha estado nominada a los Grammy por Requiem, interpretada a
dúo con Plácido Domingo. Adapta su voz lírica a canciones de
corte entre pop y new age, y en el que afirma que esta vez se ha
volcado plenamente en lo que más le gusta.
Con este nuevo trabajo discográfico “La Luna” es la
tercera vez que interpretas canciones de J.M. Cano, declara, «lo
elegí porque admiro mucho a José María Cano. Lo conocí cuando
estaba componiendo su ópera y quedé con él en que si alguna
vez hacía una versión en inglés de Luna, colaboraría con él.
Las canciones que compone van muy bien con mi tesitura de voz, así
que con José María me siento muy cómoda».
Reconoce que, a pesar de su formación clásica y de haber
estudiado canto con los profesores más prestigiosos de Gran
Bretaña, los puristas de la ópera no la aceptan en sus
exclusivos círculos.
Una circunstancia que le ha ayudado a empecinarse en su tendencia
de mezclar estilos porque, «haga lo que haga», reconoce, «no
voy a conseguir que me acepten como una cantante lírica, así
que es mejor hacer lo que realmente me apetece. Yo nunca he
pretendido convertirme una estrella de la ópera, así que
tampoco me preocupa lo que piensen los más ortodoxos. Estoy
contenta con mi forma de cantar y creo que la experimentación en
la música es más importante que seguir cánones estrictos».
SILVIA GRIJALVA
MADRID
Phantom of the Opera
By FRANK RICH Jan. 27, 1988
The icily attractive Ms. Brightman
possesses a lush soprano by Broadway standards (at least
as amplified), but reveals little competence as an
actress. After months of playing "Phantom" in London,
she still simulates fear and affection alike by screwing
her face into bug-eyed, chipmunk-cheeked poses more
appropriate to the Lon Chaney film version.
Music of The Night THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
William A. Henry III THEATER February 8, 1988
A Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber Lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard
Stilgoe; Book by Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber
Even if The Phantom of the Opera were the greatest show on earth,
probably nothing in the way of actual experience could
measure up to the hoopla that preceded last week's U.S. debut of
the monster-meets-girl musical. No previous offering in
Broadway history has rivaled the $18 million advance sale for
Phantom, a commitment made by hundreds of thousands of people
to pay up to $50 a ticket, generally before having had a chance
to hear any of the songs, read any reviews or acquire the vaguest
familiarity with the imported-from- London stars.
The
narrative tension is meant to emanate mainly from the virginal
Christine, the part Lloyd Webber wrote for his wife Sarah
Brightman. Vocally she has the needed equipment: her soprano is
clear and sounds youthfully innocent along a wide range. But as
an actress she has learned almost nothing from years in the role.
Her vocabulary of gesture is limited to a flutter of hands and a
gape of astonishment, accented by huge black circles of makeup
around her eyes that cause her to resemble a raccoon.
Brightman's Maypole figure, long nose and prominent overbite do
not aid in explaining why both men adore her. But these
deficiencies might be overcome if she displayed the least hint of
star quality, or even stage presence, instead of acting like
Minnie
Mouse on Quaaludes.
spects of Sarah Brightman - The talented singer, who debuted on
Broadway in Phantom, now stars as Rose in
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love
By Sheridan Morley - Playbill; The National Theatre Magazine,
copyright 1990
"While we were married we always managed to keep our work
separate from our private lives, so there's no reason why we
shouldn't continue to manage that in divorce": thus Sarah
Brightman, now moving into the Broadway role of Rose in her
soon-to-be-ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love .
Ironically, in the six months since they announced their
separation, Sarah has been more involved with the music of Lloyd
Webber than at almost any other time in their ten-year
relationship. Only a day or two after British newspapers were
filled with photographs of Lloyd Webber and his new partner
Madeleine Gurdon, the wife for whom he had written The Phantom of
the Opera and Requiem was on the stage of the London
Palladium for the gala celebrating the 90th birthday of the Queen
Mother to sing unusually hauntingly "Music of the Night."
"When he was writing it, two or three years ago, I was still
very much involved in Phantom, and anyway both Andrew and the
director Trevor Nunn made it clear that this one was not for me,
so I wasn't even allowed to audition. But they must think I've
matured or gained more experience or something because here I am
now, back in New York rehearsing it for the first time with a
new all-American cast. Of course, it's all rather painful to be
doing it right now, but life and a carrer have to go on even if a
marriage doesn't, and so far we do seem to be managing to stay
very good friends. I'm only with Aspects for a few months in
New York, but there's talk of me going straight on to the filming
of Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford in Hollywood,
so it looks as though Andrew and I will be at least
professionally involved with each other for several years to come.
After all, we
work well togethe, and the work has always mattered a great deal
to us both--it's how we met in the first place."
Ten years ago, Sarah Brightman was 20, and already had been in
show business for seven years: she started out as one of Queen
Victoria's daughters in a none-too-successful West End musical
called I and Albert, went on to join the television dance troupe
Pan's People and the pop group Hot Gossip with who she had (before
meeting Lloyd Webber) already achieved a number hit in
the charts with "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper."
Only then did she begin to take singing lessons, joined the
London cast of Cats and there met its composer. The rest is a
kind of
instant show bussiness history: Lloyd Webber abruptly left his
first wife for her, and they married as soon as both could get
their
first divorces.
But from then on she did begin to work more closely with Lloyd
Webber, who put her into the television version of his Song &
Dance and then wrote Requiem and most notably, Phantom with her
voice in mind. Yet Ian Adam, her singing teacher over the
last decade, had never doubted that Sarah would always have made
it on her own:
"I remember from the very beginning thinking that she had
star potential.She has an absolute bell-like quality which is
very clear
and very rare. She also has a dazzling technique, a tremendous
appetite for work and a great intuition about music. I've always
wanted her to sing Sopie in Rosenkavalier, and then graduate to
Bellini and Donizetti."
All that in the cards now that Sarah has to establish a carrer on
her own again: "I knew as a child that I was going to be a
singer,
before anyone else did, except my mother who was always terribly
encouraging, though not in a Gypsy sort of way at all. I didn't
start singing lessons until after I'd been in Cats, but I had
always worked on my voice by myselfm and now it's getting bigger
all
the time. People seem to like a pure voice, rather than one that
cheats and lies or is tricky, and I'm lucky enough to have a
chest
voice for pop as well as a head for opera."
always been a show biz survivor, and she's not going to be
exactly penniless after the divorce, given that the estimates of
Lloyd
Webber's wealth are currently running in the British press at
about $500 million dollars."
By Hilary Bonner, Showbusiness Editor April 22, 1991-Copyright
Daily Mirror
Sarah Brightman will sing, for the last time, the songs of her ex-husband
Andrew Lloyd Webber on the London stage next month.
And as the haunting strains of Phantom of the Opera fill the
theatre, Sarah and Andrew will reflect on their doomed fairy-tale
marriage and the end of one of the most glamorous and
controversial partnerships in showbusiness.
Andrew, the incredibly successful composer, fell in love with
Sarah's untutored girlish singing voice.
'There was always the criticism she was only playing a certain
role because she was my wife.
'It was so hard for her being with me. She is an exceptional,
exceptional artist, but with me she became a bit of a recluse.
Few
people got to know her.
I found this difficult too. I found it hard that she could not
come out and be herself to people and that she was so often
misinterpreted. If she had been more accessible, people would
have realized what a nice girl she is. But she was afraid, always
afraid. And she is still afraid of this country.
'Sarah felt she was given a touch time in England and that it
lasted too long. She is living in Los Angeles now and it seems to
suit
her.
'She is very happy and becoming very big over there. Warner Bros
have just given her a huge recording contract.
Surely some of those feelings must linger when Andrew tells me:
'I still remember her little voice when I first heard it. It was
very
young, a baby voice, but it was a voice I had never heard before.
A new voice.
'People forget that she was not cast as a singer in Cats but as a
dancer. I first heard her sing in a children's opera called
Nightingale.
'I was amazed and just knew I wanted her to sing for me. From an
image point of view, it may have been better if that had been
all that happened.'
But then he adds: 'She is simply the best. Sarah is absolutely
fabulous.
MEMORY -Sarah Brightman relives the last dying
days of her marriage
By Hillary Bonner, Showbusiness Editor Daily Mirror, 9 May, 1991
`I wanted to start again and not live amoung memories.` she said.
`Of course, I hope to return to England one day, but America is
right for me at the moment. People don`t know or care about my
past life.`
The message from Sarah is quite clear, She is standing on her own
two feet now and Miss Sarah Brightman is a completely
different person from Mrs. Andrew Lloyd Webber.
`Mind you, I think women are different. We are more capable of
being on our own. Men always seem to need someone with
them.`
`I have been given a voice and I`m very lucky.` she says.
`I want to use it as much as possible. It`s a God-given thing and
I have a duty not to waste it or misuse it.`
`There is no doubt about that. Though I was making a living out
of dancing when Andrew and I met, I always knew that I was a
singer first.
Troupe Pan's People. At 17, she was the most junior dancer again
in the highly-rated Hot Gossip
group. At 18, she got to Number Five in the charts with I Lost My
Heart to A Starship Trooper.
She then got married to, and divorced from, a band manager called
Andrew Graham-Stewart. At
20, she landed a part in Lloyd Webber's Cats. At 24, she married
Lloyd Webber, who had also
been married before - to a Sarah ("Just coincidence,"
she laughs.) At 26, she got the part of
Christine in her husband's Phantom. "It wasn't just him
auditioning," she says. "It was also Cameron
I sang at Covent Garden last week for charity, with no
microphones. It's a big voice now. When I did
Phantom, it was a much smaller voice because I was still training
it."
"Do you think," I asked, "you were the best singer
in Britain for the part in Phantom?" "I think I was
the 'most right' person for the part. When you are performing in
front of the public, it doesn't
necessarily mean you are the best singer or the best actress for
the part. I've seen people audition
with the most incredible voice, but someone else is chosen,
someone who didn't have such a good
voice but was much more believable."
"In the beginning of my career I got very hard critics. But
I had to get experience. How would I ever
become a good singer without that?" Evil people said that
without Lloyd Webber Sarah Brightman
would not became so famous. But she has learned her lesson. She
has improve herself very
conscious. Nowadays she is famous as herself, not as the ex-wife
of ALW. "Being famous is not a
problem to me anymore. Everything is going very well. Now, when I´ll
soon be 40 years, I feel self-
assured and I dare to stand on my own feet. My voice has become
mature."
That was also the end of me being in musicals." "It
wasn´t hard to sing in the same role
night after nigt. Instead of that it was hard to create something
new to these roles. That´s way I quit
singing in musicals. The decission was not easy, but I thought
that musicals weren´t good for my
voice." Nowadays Sarah Brightman performs in her own
concerts. There she can do what she wants
and sing both opera and entertainment.
Entertainment and classical music in concert schedules
"In USA I said to orchestra that I want to sing both
entertainment and classical music in the same
concert. They were horrified. "Help!", they shouted.
But I did what I wanted, and the audience was
ecstatic. They liked my idea more than the musiccians."
To Finland Sarah Brightman came around the same time as Luciano
Pavarotti, they even stayed in
the same hotel. "I haven´t performed with Pavarotti. I
quess I´m not good enough for him." However
Domingo and Carreras liked her. In her new CD she sings with two
tenors, Bocelli and a young
tenor from America, Jose Cura.
By Matthew Surrence, Copyright 1993, Oakland Tribune March 30,
1993
Aspects of
Love."
it's her favorite of the Lloyd Webber roles she's played (including
Christine in "Phantom of the Opera"), and people who
don't like Lloyd Webber are simply jealous of his success.
Rose is "the most challenging part I've ever played in a
Lloyd Webber musical," Brightman said. "She goes
through every emotion
a person can experience--love won, love lost, losing people
through death. It's extremely draining, so much so that I can't
play
every performance for fear of straining my voice.
Brightman grew up admiring Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland and
made her professional debut at13at London's Picadilly
Theater, in a show called "I and Albert." Then she
performed in dance groups before she snagged a part in the
original cast of
"Cats," and then later, the show's composer.
My first guitar was a folk guitar that my parents bought for me
when I was eight. Then I got a Spanish guitar. The piano is the
other musical instrument I play. I started on that when my great
grandmother died and left us her piano. I started tinkling away
on it and took to it immediately. These days, if I am learning an
aria then I always play it on the piano, which I find very
helpful."
She's studying the bel canto operatic technique in Italy. And
she's agreed to a quick,
high-profile, no doubt lucrative U.S. tour heading "The
Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber."
And though she has no real operatic ambitions, she continues to
study with an Italian teacher she'd prefer not to identify.
I trained my voice in bel canto classical (style) in Italy, and
did concerts with Placido Domingo and José
Carreras. I wanted to have a fresh approach to Andrew's music."
Her favorite number is the "Pie Jesu" from "Requiem."
"I love the piece," she says. "It's religious,
spiritual, but difficult to sing. It's
a peaceful moment. I always feel grounded when I do it."
.
If Brightman appeared a bit too concerned with her
technical skills when she moved into the upper limits of her
lyrical soprano voice, she was otherwise superb. Her Italian-language
version of "Memoy" (from "Cats") almost--but
not quite--made Lloyd Webber sound like Puccini
"I was also working outside Milan with a teacher of
classical singing," she says. "I did classical concerts
in England and appeared
with Domingo in Japan. We'd do a mixture of Handel, Puccini,
Verdi, then maybe some Gershwin or Lerner and Loewe. It went
incredibly well."
As for her own future, Brightman says, "I'd like to train
two more years and then do some purely classical concerts . . . I
love
doing plays, love doing straight drama, making records.
The roles she'd like to play? "I'd like to do some Ibsen,
Chekhov, some older classical pieces and some more contemporary
work. .
. . I'm pretty much kind of a workaholic."
She studied piano and ballet, made her West End debut at 13, and
at 15 became the youngest dancer ever to get into the Top Of
The Pops dancing troupe Pan's People. Then a year later she
joined the sexy TV dance group Hot Gossip, and at 18 had her
first
chart hit singing I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper.
Sarah's life changed dramatically at the age of 20, when she
auditioned for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. At the time she was
married to and separated from another Andrew, while the composer
had been married for 12 years to another Sarah. Sarah
Brightman got the role and a couple of years later she got the
boss, too: her parents were the only witnesses at their secret
wedding.
Six years on, her marriage to Lloyd Webber, who
wrote Phantom of the Opera for her, was at an end. Since then,
the composer
has married former horsewoman Madeleine Gurdon, while Sarah has
shared her life with her good-looking German lover, Count
Frank Peterson, a hugely successful record producer at whose
Hamburg studio Time To Say Goodbye was recorded.
Unlike Andrea, who relishes the fact that his wife is nothing to
do with music, Sarah has always had partners close to her own
professional world. Her first husband, Andrew Graham-Stewart, was
the manager of a rock group. Then there was Lloyd
Webber, and now there is 32-year-old Frank Peterson who produced
her albums Surrender and Dive. She will soon have been
with him for as long as she was with Lloyd Webber.
"We have both been through divorces, so we don't put any
pressures on each other," says Sarah. She divides her time
between
Frank's Hamburg apartment and a small rented apartment just
outside Milan where her singing tutor lives and where she does a
lot
of work because, she explains, "I'm by myself there; it's
nice, a very close communtiy; I know some of the villagers there
now."
Of Frank, Sarah comments, "Like me, he works all over the
world, so we travel a lot together. We have a nice, easy
relationship
Twenty years ago, when she was 18, she sang a silly pop song
called "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper". It was
a hit, but
you can't hold that against her. She was just a young girl, a
dancer with Hot Gossip; and yes, they were a fairly ridiculous
outfit,
but they must have brought a little pleasure to the lives of some
in the Seventies. When she was 20 she landed a part in Cats.
(Nothing wrong with Cats.) Then she married the boss, Andrew
Lloyd Webber. (Well, what's so funny about that?) Then he
wrote a lead role for her in Phantom of the Opera (which must
have brought a lot of pleasure to the lives of many in the
Eighties).
Then they got divorced - hardly a laughing matter - and Andrew
gave her £6 million but she didn't spend any of it; instead she
became a pop singer again. Last year her hit single"Time to
Say Goodbye" topped the charts all over Europe and went
platinum
five times. She's still doing well, thank you very much. So, stop
laughing.
"My advice is try not to want fame. Take your time and train.
Training takes time. Some people's voices take longer to nurture
so
you must stand by the timing of your voice."
I trained as a classical dancer and we had to learn about all the
great classical composers too not as a professional musician, but
from a dance point of view. So all types of music were thrown at
me."
Originally trained as a classical ballet dancer
Soprano launching tour in Denver
By Jeff Bradley Denver Post Critic-at-Large, May 28. 1999
Apart from the Three Tenors, no one performing today has done
more to bring operatic singing to the masses than soprano Sarah
She's been called an angel, but she looked more like a queen.
English soprano Sarah Brightman, dubbed "the angel of music"
by her devoted fans, treated concertgoers to an elegant
performance Saturday night at Chateau Ste. Michelle in
Woodinville.
Her concert was the kickoff event for the winery's annual Summer
Festival on the Green series.
Much of Brightman's two-hour performance focused on music from
her current solo album, "Eden," in which songs range
from
Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" to Puccini's "Nessun
Dorma." But songs spanned the past 15 years of her career.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She will tour 34 North American cities starting Sept. 15,
including an Oct. 21 date at the bSanta Barbara Bowl.
1. What happened after you decided to become a concert artist?
Brightman: I remember saying to my mother, `I don't know if I can
keep it going. But I don't think I can go back, either.' I just
went ahead. I could have played it safe. I'm not a very
conventional person; I didn't have a conventional upbringing. I
trust my
imagination and my ideas. I'm glad I had the courage to go ahead
and do it.
11/2. What was the unconventional upbringing you mentioned?
Brightman: I'm the eldest of six. My parents were free-thinking
and wonderful. They liked us to use our imaginations. My mother
took us to dance and painting classes. Her parents were
frightened of all that. She was fascinated by it and injected
that into us.
We were given artistic freedom. We had loads of books in our
house. We were brought up in the countryside; I had a lovely
childhood.
2. Are you able to sing in the same style, whether the music is
pop, musical or classical?
Brightman: Yes. I've got to the point where my voice has become
quite even. My voice has the same breath support and makes
the same sound; it has come into one natural whole. That has
taken awhile to get to, a lot of training and experimenting. I
don't like
playing at things. I have to mean them.
3. How will you travel when you tour the United States?
Brightman: We travel on five buses. We go straight in after a
show. The bus has a kitchen, showers, books, a bedroom. I can
hang my clothes up. It's totally comfortable. You sleep on the
move. It's like being rocked around. At 7 or 8 o'clock in the
morning,
we get to the day hotel, have a big breakfast and sleep until
it's time to get ready for the next performance or sightsee. I
generally
sleep.
4. Do you enjoy touring?
Brightman: Yes, I do, because I'm doing what I like to do. I take
a band, about six members, and probably four dancers with me,
and we'll use local orchestra musicians and, this time, choirs as
well. It's lovely in every new city to get an injection of
different
people coming in.
5. Do you ever take a vacation?
Brightman: I take a holiday once a year with my boyfriend Frank
Peterson, his family and my family around Christmas. He
produces my albums. We've been working together since the
beginning of the 1990s. We worked together a year and a half or
two years before we felt it was nice to be together. So we are.
Classical singers, popular sales
A CNN WorldBeat ReportFriday, August 20, 1999 5:41:46 PM EST
CNN) -- In one week, the Billboard Top 200 contained no fewer
than three albums by Andrea
Bocelli, one by Sarah Brightman and another by Welsh wunderkind
Charlotte Church. The
London Symphony Orchestra scored hits with its soundtracks for
"Star Wars, Episode I: The
Phantom Menace" and "Titanic." And teen-age violin
virtuosos Vanessa-Mae and Hilary Hahn
are lighting up classical works.
With their sophisticated, orchestra-driven music selling as well
or better than many that of
many pop artists, they've become part of a new movement of
classical crossovers.
"'Classical crossover' is a term that's been used for a
while now," says Gilbert Hetherwick,
senior vice president of Angel Records. "The word
'crossover' is used in lots of different kinds
of music, moving from one style to another, moving from one fan
base to another."
Classical gasworks
Among classical crossovers, there's no one style of music that
dominates -- as Keith Lockhart,
conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, explains: "If you
look at the list, of whatever this week is on the Top 10, Top 20
classical
crossover chart, you'll see incredible variety of forms of
musical expression -- many of which nobody, at least in the
classical
music business, would define as being classical music."
Perhaps one of the best examples of nonconformity in classics is
Sarah Brightman, once Andrew Lloyd Webber's muse and the
darling of Broadway. "Sarah has always kind of lived in this
amazing world between pop music and theater and classical,"
says
Hetherwick. "She really sees it, I believe, as being one
sort of new form of music that can actually reach a lot of
different people
in a lot of different directions."
He also singles out the Grammy-nominated (1998, for best new
artist) operatic tenor Andrea Bocelli as a crossover success.
Classical crossover isn't a new phenomenon. But many attribute
the current boom to a renaissance in classical music in film
scores, plus a change in the way the recording industry handles
artists -- and changes in the artists, themselves.
Citing rock-violinist Vanessa-Mae, whose music videos are as pop
culture-driven as anything released by Aerosmith or Collective
Soul, Hetherwick points out that she arrives at her concerts in
the same flashy miniskirts that Britney Spears might wear. "She
acts just like a pop star."
Classical singers, popular sales
A CNN WorldBeat ReportFriday, August 20, 1999 5:41:46 PM EST
CNN) -- In one week, the Billboard Top 200 contained no fewer
than three albums by Andrea
Bocelli, one by Sarah Brightman and another by Welsh wunderkind
Charlotte Church. The
London Symphony Orchestra scored hits with its soundtracks for
"Star Wars, Episode I: The
Phantom Menace" and "Titanic." And teen-age violin
virtuosos Vanessa-Mae and Hilary Hahn
are lighting up classical works.
With their sophisticated, orchestra-driven music selling as well
or better than many that of
many pop artists, they've become part of a new movement of
classical crossovers.
"'Classical crossover' is a term that's been used for a
while now," says Gilbert Hetherwick,
senior vice president of Angel Records. "The word
'crossover' is used in lots of different kinds
of music, moving from one style to another, moving from one fan
base to another."
Classical gasworks
Among classical crossovers, there's no one style of music that
dominates -- as Keith Lockhart,
conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, explains: "If you
look at the list, of whatever this week is on the Top 10, Top 20
classical
crossover chart, you'll see incredible variety of forms of
musical expression -- many of which nobody, at least in the
classical
music business, would define as being classical music."
Perhaps one of the best examples of nonconformity in classics is
Sarah Brightman, once Andrew Lloyd Webber's muse and the
darling of Broadway. "Sarah has always kind of lived in this
amazing world between pop music and theater and classical,"
says
Hetherwick. "She really sees it, I believe, as being one
sort of new form of music that can actually reach a lot of
different people
in a lot of different directions."
He also singles out the Grammy-nominated (1998, for best new
artist) operatic tenor Andrea Bocelli as a crossover success.
Classical crossover isn't a new phenomenon. But many attribute
the current boom to a renaissance in classical music in film
scores, plus a change in the way the recording industry handles
artists -- and changes in the artists, themselves.
Citing rock-violinist Vanessa-Mae, whose music videos are as pop
culture-driven as anything released by Aerosmith or Collective
Soul, Hetherwick points out that she arrives at her concerts in
the same flashy miniskirts that Britney Spears might wear. "She
acts just like a pop star."
Brightman show was "So Many Things"
Randy Cordova, The Arizona Republic, Sep 06 1999
Sarah Brightman sang a lovely song on Monday night called So Many
Things. That phrase is also a great
way to describe her long-awaited America West Arena concert: a
big, odd whale of a show that was
enchanting one minute, vaguely silly the next.
The operatic pop singer has gained massive success by combining
the worlds of contemporary and classical
music. Her show did that as well, in a grandly theatrical way. It
occasionally misfired, but it was never
boring.
Take, for instance, the opening. The house lights dim. Forest
noises fill the arena. Then, six robed monks
parade through the audience, carrying burning incense. They walk
onstage, where red curtains part to reveal Brightman. She is
lounging on her back, a Madonna-style body microphone around her
head.
Soon, she is singing Eden, a trip-hop style number with some
classical influences. Next thing you know, the monks have taken
off
the robes, and Brightman is surrounded by a gang of shirtless
hunks who toss her around like Bette Midler in her bathhouse days.
It's pretentious and silly. It lacks any sense of irony. But it
works, a weird combination of Vegas garishness, European glitz
and
rock-concert spectacle.
Dubbed "One Night in Eden," the 100-minute show
continued that way, with Brightman moving through one dramatic
visual setting
after another. In a cover of the Bee Gees' First of May, snow
fell from the rafters of the arena, creating a serene winter
effect.
When she sang a pair of numbers from her techno-flavored Dive
album, she was suspended on wires in an undersea setting, while
she "swam" alongside one of her muscled dancers.
The most spectacular moment came during her lovely reading of My
Heart Will Go On. A hydraulic ship's bow was lowered onto
the stage before Brightman presented the Titanic tune in Italian.
The overly familiar song sounds a lot better in a foreign
language,
by the way.
Thespian Sarah Brightman to appear in Oct.
by Debra Yemenijian, The Digital Collegian, 25 August 1999
Sarah Brightman, an internationally renowned theater headliner
and recording artist, will appear at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 at The
Bryce
Jordan Center.
Brightman made her theatrical debut at age 14 in I and Albert in
London. Since then she has performed in the original cast of the
musical Cats and starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem in New
York City and London. She is renowned for her
performance as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, a role she
created.
A successful recording artist, Brightman has had several hit
albums, including The Songs That Got Away. Her forthcoming album
Surrender, The Unexpected Songs features 17 songs by Andrew Lloyd
Webber.
Until recently, Brightman has been performing
classical concerts with Placido Domingo in Japan.
Tickets for this performance go on sale at 8 a.m. Friday at the
Jordan Center, Eisenhower Auditorium, selected Uni-Mart ticket
outlets and Commonwealth Campus ticket outlets or charge by phone
at 865-5555 or (800) 863-3336. Tickets are $58, $41.25 and
$
Brightman amazes with angelic vocal skills, intimate performance
By Michael Paskevich September 07, 1999 Copyright © Las Vegas
Review-Journal
If I were announcing upcoming ticket sales for media-manipulation
master and minimal-voiced singer Madonna, or even more
bleating vocal excesses from Cher, the MGM Grand's top-notch box
office folks would be pleading for help at halting such false
rumors.
That's because they would be overwhelmed with phone calls today,
while a legitimate vocal angel such as Sarah Brightman
drew perhaps 3,200 into the cavernous arena -- wisely black-curtained
in half to evoke some sense of intimacy that could match a
stagy, sometimes faulty yet overall breath-taking performance by
the English soprano Sunday night.
True, having been married to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and making
her breakthrough as "Christine" in the Webber/Rice
"Phantom of the Opera" at Her Majesty's Theater (October
1986) has generated a "chosen one" backlash that, with
time, will fade
more rapidly than Webber's increasingly shallow contributions to
the world of theater. Remember, too, that her nonlead role in the
London debut of his screechingly horrid "Cats" in 1985
still lingers like yet another flimsy ditty from "Starlight
Express."
But, thankfully, Sarah Brightman has become her own person,
revealing an angelic soprano and a risky career decision to
blend opera, light classical and basic pop into an intriguing
fusion that, alas, warrants deeper analysis by American audiences.
Her "One Night In Eden" stop at the MGM, in support of
her "Eden" album, arrived on the heels of a her
worldwide hit duet
"Time To Say Goodbye" with Andrea Bocelli -- another
pariah to opera purists -- a work that merely sold 4 million
copies and
topped "Classical Crossover" charts around the globe
for months on end. Three recent sold-out concerts in Sun City/South
Africa
drew more than 30,000 people who apparently are able to eschew
the easy knocks that the beautiful Brightman is some kind of
fluke.
She's anything but.
Like the light at the end of a tunnel, her crystalline voice was
a beacon that hushed a reserved crowd with a bravura
performance that brought them to their feet as her second encore,
her solo version of the Bocelli collaboration, proved equal to an
understated "Don't Cry For Me Argentina."
Her first act highlighted the first three songs from "Eden"
with a full orchestra working mostly from behind scrims and
draperies that framed the striking singer who, quite frankly, is
a bit of a twirler and not shy about lavish costumes and
psychedelic
lighting effects.
Brightman can wrench emotion with a beautifully timed phrase and
nuance -- with tunes that run the gamut from her gorgeous
first-act closing "Nessum Dorma" -- a Pucinni classic
sung in Italian lest some think the Bellagio's fountain show
created the
timeless melody.
A somewhat abbreviated and only briefly inspiring opening set
seemed to lull the crowd during intermission, but as her fans
know, it's the second act that showcases the emotional depth of
her best music (she contributes lyrics) and a keen sense of loves
lost and the emotional baggage.
"Captain Nemo," just one heart-wrenching tune of a
soulmate submerged forever, was rendered with rock underpinnings
and
earthy organic tones with the orchestra showing laudable subtlety
to let her effortless vocals take flight and lent the room a
churchlike intimacy. A faulty prop failed to latch onto Brightman
for an angelic departure but it proved no loss, just as she
wisely
avoided a questionable cover of the dated Kansas song, "Dust
In The Wind."
A suspended catwalk later allowed room for her to twirl, pose in
an off-white flowing gown with heavily draped sleeves during
a perfectly controlled overview of her album "Dive"
which led later to a riveting, spectacular "First of May,"
a Gibbs Brothers song
that found her highlighted against a slow snow fall and making
the song her own with a grace and honesty absent from the
original.
A weeper, for sure, but if there were any doubts about
Brightman's vocal command, it came during an overstaged but
brilliant
revival of the overworked "Phantom." The effects --lighted
specters and candelabras -- were easily forgotten when she soared
and recaptured the melodic strength of "The Music of the
Night," overcoming somewhat maudlin orchestration.
With luck and providence, Brightman's novelty stature in America
will eventually fade as more learn of her amazing vocal
skills and break away from tired-but-true classical conventions.
Sarah Brightman
San Jose CPA, Tues. Sept. 14, 1999
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sarah Brightman is a vocal prodigy. Coming to fame early in the
1980s as the new find, and love, of theater genius Andrew Lloyd
Webber, Sarah took off on her own wings and has carved a very
popular niche for herself. Sarah can certainly sing, and sing she
does in many different styles. Her forté has been in musicals,
such as Cats and Phantom Of The Opera, but she has also covered
such rock classics as Brian May's (of Queen) "Who Wants To
Live Forever" and Kansas' "Dust In The Wind." The
song she is
most known for, "Time To Say Goodbye" has sold more
worldwide than any other song ever. Currently, Sarah has been
touring
for her One Night In Eden show which displayed her songs in very
colorful and interestingly designed theater setting.
The show opened with several characters in Celtic monk cloaks
walking out with candles burning. They parted the red velvety
curtain which showed Sarah laying on an elegant chaise lounge as
Cleopatra. During "Who Wants To Live Forever" the set
was lit
as waves of clouds floated about the stage. The orchestra went
into an instrumental before Sarah changed costumes and returned
to sing several Spanish and Italian influenced songs. One of
these was "Nella Fantasia" which was inspired by an
instrumental
soundtrack for the film, "The Mission", which Sarah had
begged the composer to allow her to put lyrics to. The final song
of the
first set was "Nessun Dorma."
After the 20 minute break, Sarah returned on a stage now lit as
an underwater ocean fantasy with the hint of dolphins swimming
in the background as she launched into her "oceanic"
set of two numbers - "La Mer" and "Dive/Captain
Nemo". During the first
number, Sarah was flown into the air as though swimming
angelically beneath the waves. Then, upon the end of the song,
the
backdrop lowered as though the oceans receded downwards and the
railing of a ship appeared as Sarah went into her rendition of
the theme to Titanic, in Italian. Sarah also performed some of
the songs for which she is best known as she sang "Phantom
Suite:
Twisted Every Way - Overture - Little Lottie" and "Wishing
You Were Somehow Here Again" from Phantom Of The Opera as
well as "Music Of The Night", before ending the second
set. An encore was, of course, expected as Sarah returned to the
stage to
perform her final and most classic number, the appropriately
titled "Time To Say Goodbye", which she sang flawlessly.
Her
accompanying musicians, which included orchestra, along with her
dancers are to be applauded for laying the musical foundation
for Sarah to work off of. After a rather loud musical
overpowering of Sarah's voice in the first number, the vocals and
music went
on to layer themselves nicely within each other.
Although, arguably, perhaps a bit self-indulgent by some
standards, Sarah Brightman is truly a work of art to be seen. Her
voice
seems to attach itself to any range as she controls it with
perfection. Her beauty is effervescent as she performs in her
young,
sprite-like demeanor. Aside from just her magical voice, Sarah
moves with the grace and agility of a fairie while maintaining
the
dignity of a princess.
At the completion of this tour, she is planning to take a
sabbatical for an extended time before beginning work on a new CD
which
will contain her own penned tunes. That will be the true definer
that will lock her into place in music history.
Music Reviews
Sep 5, 1999 - The Angelic Sarah Brightman's Ostentatious Night at
Lawlor
By Jack Neal, Nevada events
Money, lots of it, drives the sweet and talented Sarah Brightman
to please audiences by lavishing enormous amounts of resources
on her heavily produced show, "One Night in Eden." An
entertainer who wants to please and backs up those desires with
cash, is
hard to criticize, but when the money is so misspent and so
damaging to an entertainer's effectiveness as an artist, well -
that's
another matter.
Over 4000 fans of Brightman's New Age approach to semi-operatic,
pops concertizing adored the star's nearly 90 minute concert
(plus a 30-minute intermission) at Lawlor Event Center Saturday
night (9/4/99) by responding with shouts of bravo, whistles and
standing ovations that surely must have indicated to the star
that she was doing something right. That reaction, in addition to
making millions on albums, in the concert hall and as a star of
stage musicals, undoubtedly will deflect any sage advice a critic
from the provinces might offer. But nonetheless that offer is
being made.
Sound levels for the Brightman concert were inexcusably and
vulgarly loud. Miss Brightman's angelic voice became a monstrous
assault on the ears that in a more enlightened age will be viewed
as as damaging to health as smoking is today. The cavernous
surroundings of Lawlor demand some type of amplification, but the
distortion of Brightman's pure, if somewhat brittle, lyric
soprano was shocking to both sensibilities and eardrums. Almost
as damning, I'm certain it's exactly what she wanted. No sound
engineer should take the fall for Brightman's demands. I moved
from fourth row center, to the very last row of Lawlor, then to
the
outer-arena concourse with the doors closed. There, at last, a
tolerable sound level for listening.
Liza Minnelli may have been the first entertainer to so heavily
encumber herself with singing eight Broadway performances a
week in a show ("The Act") in which she sang virtually
every song, that pre-recording, then lipsyncing became a
necessity for
vocal survival (unfairly, to unsuspecting fans believing they
were hearing the real thing). Hence the advent of canned live
performances. Miss Brightman raised the fakery of lipsyncing to a
new level with Saturday's concert, when a good portion of the
program was lipsynced and not sung live at all. The Brightman
orchestra's conductor (Mathew Scrivener), whose baton technique
was the choppiest and strangest I've seen since junior high,
wasn't so much conducting as checking monitors to see when he
should signal the live on-stage musicians to cut off so as not to
destroy the illusion that all was live.
The production's use of six boy dancers was the evening's
ultimate coup de grace. Giggles greeted the bird chirping as
these six
supposedly British hunks dressed in gold lame monks' robes
entered the stage carrying some kind of ritualistic flame. That's
before
the gigglers realized this was serious business and that they
shouldn't embarrass the diva by laughing at her schoolgirl
notions of
what a real concert should be. But, what the hell! It was billed
as "One Night in Eden," so why not show a little flesh
and have
some fun? The gold lame robes were soon discarded revealing
shirtless young men with fairly good bodies in what one might
call
the Brightman show's half-monty look. One can only imagine what
Carol Burnett might do parodying such ludicrous staging. It
would be as hilarious as it was watching these six young men in
various stages of acrobatics (horrid choreography by Michael
Bergese), violin playing, hints of orgy ("Don't start
without me," Mae West used to admonish her boys) and
otherwise idolatry
posturing hovering in front of and around the star. These chaps
actually picked Brightman up and carried her about like some
stiff
Egyptian mummy; visions of Burnett creating her return to the
stage of the world's oldest ballerina.
There's more.
¿0a
¿0a The sameness of the evening's programming was astonishing.
No sense of pace, no change of pace; just lethargic music
making of lush, mushy funereal sounds set amidst a swirl of
fabric, see-through scrims, flying torsos, body motions of
flailing arms,
body hugs and upside down young men that Brightman and company
see as high art.
¿0a
Camp is not dead.
Billed as music and lyrics by Puccini (Puccini wrote music,
others wrote his librettos, i.e. lyrics, but that's a minor point
amongst so
much over-the-top camp) the exquisite "Nessan Dorma"
from Puccini's "Turandot" was given that special
Brightman treatment.
As the audience waited in hushed expectancy (one has to admire a
production that halts dead in the water waiting on changes),
Brightman's six half montie's wheeled a flight of golden stairs
to center stage (much like the old days, when air travelers used
stairs to board planes), attached yards of parachute type fabric
to the star's body and launched her heavenward, where she
dramatically turned stage front, twenty feet of parachute train
in place, to face her public. Then, set against a starry sky
sporting
an all-too-full moon, Brightman sang "Nessan Dorma"
("None shall sleep tonight"), one of the most cherished
tenor arias in the
operatic repertory, accompanied by the massive sounds of her
mostly fake orchestra (syncing to recorded symphonic sounds),
followed by a roaring ovation from fans.
¿0a
¿0a End of part one.
¿0a
¿0a Part two was more of the same. A grinding sound was heard as
a ship's deck was lowered into place so that the star could do
her sea sequence - "Dive," "La Mer," "Titanic,"
"Only an Ocean Away" - from a properly massive on-board
perspective. It was
impressive, and - worth waiting for. As were Patrick Woodroffe's
lighting designs for this sequence, which were lovely (as were
his designs all concert long). Then it was on to music from
"Phantom," "written by Andrew Lloyd Webber,"
the star told us,
"especially for me." It was that kind of modest event
with Miss Brightman giving her kind of modest performances.
¿0a
¿0a As a curtain call, "Don't Cry for me Argentina"
was one of the evening's nicer, less pretentious presentations.
Then it was
back to a rumbling, overly hyped "Time to say Good-by"
and the star was gone. "The song has ended," the old
lyric tells us, "but
the memory lingers on." Oh, how different memories will be
for those remembering Saturday's massive encounters of the Sarah
Brightman kind.¿0a
Brightman offers mix of opera, pop and tunes from the stage
by Sharon Pian Chan Seattle Times staff reporter. September 17,
1999
Sarah Brightman may not be a true opera singer, but don't let
that fool you. She still acts like a prima donna. Take last
night's
sold-out concert at the Opera House for example. When it began,
male dancers in Druidic robes parted the red-velvet curtains to
reveal Sarah reclining Cleopatra-like over red-velvet pillows on
a red-velvet-draped platform. She was wearing a tiara.
Concert review:
Sarah Brightman at the Opera House last night.
It's a shame her music barely warranted such regal treatment. In
an evening that included songs from her new album, "Eden,"
her
older albums and from her stage-musical days, Brightman dressed
her artistically insipid music with vocal flourishes, pretty
clothes,
untalented dancers and enough poses to rival RuPaul.
The audience was cheering before the show even ended. Can you
blame them? Sarah Brightman is diet opera - she's skinny and
she sings in English. Plus, you don't have to sit through two
acts of "Turandot" to get to "Nessun Dorma."
She does it for you
before intermission, atop a staircase, in an enormous white cape.
Brightman has an undeniably clear and strong voice. The problem
is her penchant for blending pop and opera. She'll start songs
with Andrew Lloyd Webber-style warblings and then suddenly switch
to a clogged aria-like chorus. It doesn't work. And the pop
songs in English are ghastly. The melodies aren't just simple,
they're moronic. The first line of "First of May" - it
snowed on stage
during this number - was "When I was small . . . and
Christmas trees were tall."
Overall, the show proved that you can take the girl out of the
musical, but you can't take the musical out of the girl. The
lavish,
theatrical costume changes, curtain arrangements and lighting
were worthy of a Victoria's Secret catalog. During "Captain
Nemo"
Brightman was lifted into the air while two topless male dancers
descended from the ceiling like "Mission: Impossible."
For her
Italian version of "My Heart Will Go On," "Il Mio
Cuore Va," a platform approximating the deck of the Titanic
descended from the
ceiling.
Throughout the show, Brightman was accompanied
by six male dancers, who were sometimes together, sometimes
actually
dancing and sometimes wearing shirts. Brightman's dance movements
mainly involved writhing her hands about snake-like.
At the end she did an elaborate medley from "The Phantom of
the Opera" and for her encore, they fired up the disco ball
for "Con
Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye)." Finally.
A diva in 'Eden'
Sarah Brightman puts Broadway, opera and pop in blender and
presses frappé
By Byron Beck, special to The Oregonian, September 17, 1999
Best known in the United States for her career-making turn on
Broadway as Christine Daae in Andrew Lloyd Webber's
"Phantom of the Opera" -- as well as a greatly
publicized run as Lloyd Webber's wife -- Sarah Brightman is more
than just a
mouthpiece for a musical mentor.
In Europe, Brightman has maintained success as a pop singer with
the release of 1993's "Dive," '97's "Timeless"
and her current
album, "Eden." Brightman also has collaborated with
such legendary singers as Jos Carreras and Andrea Bocelli. A huge
hit,
Brightman and Bocelli's duet, "Time to Say Goodbye,"
has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.
On Friday, Brightman brings her seductive blend of opera and pop
ballads to town for a 90-minute production: "One Night in
Eden." It's a longer version of the show that Oregon Public
Broadcasting aired last week during its fall pledge drive.
For those expecting a classical solo concert by a lyric soprano,
watch out: The 39-year-old Brightman will not be making her music
of the night alone. Backed by a 20-piece orchestra, stadium-style
staging and special effects, Brightman's show will also exhibit
more costume changes than a "Sonny and Cher" show and
more shirtless men than a Madonna concert.
Last week, Brightman spoke about her musical ideas and her new
show between rehearsals in (where else?) Reno, the kick-off
for the second leg of her international tour.
Q: Besides this tour, what else are you working on?
A: I'm continually working on things -- ideas, writing,
collecting songs. It may sound boring, but music is my life. It
is what I work
on. It is my passion.
Q: Do you miss Broadway and would you like to return?
A: I don't miss it at all. I always loved the challenge of the
rehearsal, the whole subtext of it all, but when it came to doing
it every
night, over and over again, I didn't find it very creative at the
end of the day. And I am a very creative person. I have loads of
ideas all the time. I just find the whole thing quite exhausting
after a while. It ends up being your life.
Q: Do you think people identify you too closely with Christine,
the character you played in "Phantom of the Opera?"
A: In some countries people don't even know me for that. They
know me for the last 10 years, which isn't involved in that area
at
all. So, no, not really. It's odd. It was a wonderful role, and I
was very young when I performed it. I learned a lot. But it is a
very
small part of my career. I played that role for only 10 months in
all."
Q: One of your teachers, Ellen Faull, lives in our area. What was
it like to unleash your voice in the Northwest?
A: It was wonderful. I used to spend long periods of time out
there with her. Ellen is an amazing
Q: With your crossover appeal, you seem to have fans all over the
world. Why do so many people identify with you?
A: I don't know. When I was young, I would sing and everyone
would go quiet. I guess it's a tone in the voice that attracts
people
to the voice. I've been told that my voice heals people from near-death
experiences, and I'm happy to help them. But it is a gift,
and it is part of something else I can't quite explain. For me it
is a life force and it gives me so much.
Q: Tell us about your album "Eden." Why did you record
both a '70s rock tune, "Dust in the Wind," and
Pavarotti's signature tune
"Nessun Dorma" for this CD?
A: I have always liked "Dust in the Wind." The lyrical
content is very poignant. Its textures and colors are very
spiritual, and it has
a Celtic feel. It's a tapestry, really. I've been wanting to do
it for a long time. As for "Nessun Dorma," that was the
producer's
idea. I wasn't very keen on it. But I had listened to two other
soprano versions of the song (which is normally sung by a tenor),
and they sounded good. Often classical pieces don't have huge
emotional appeal. But this is such a wonderful piece of music, it
gives goose bumps.
Q: What can we expect from your show "One Night in Eden?"
A: I wanted to be able to visually (present) pictures that were
in my head. With simple props and the wonder of the stage the
audience will move from one picture to the next.
Q: Where is your own "garden of Eden" on Earth?
A: My head. I'm grateful for my imagination.
Q: What do you think is your shining moment in life?
A: Probably the whole of my childhood. It was the 1960s, an
optimistic and beautiful time, and it was very simple and free in
a
way.
Q: What was the lowest moment in your life?
A: The death of my father.
Q: Besides a professional livelihood what does your voice give
you?
A: In many ways, a purpose.
Q: And finally, where would you like this musical journey to take
you?
A: I just want to be happy. I will strive as hard as I can to be
satisfied, and to at least try to do everything in my life that
has
interest, or I have a passion for.
Sarah Brightman Resurrects Her 'Phantom' Career
Ellis Nassour, 06-OCT-99, Copyright © 1996, 1997 Playbill Online.
All Rights Reserved.
Sarah Brightman.
Until three years ago, many had written the career of Sarah
Brightman off. She had been pushed into the American show
business arena by her very successful husband, caused a few
headlines and then disappeared.
However, during that cycle, Brightman also found a legion of fans
who never forgot her. And she didn't disappear but, in fact,
persisted. Now, with a handful of top-rated recordings, albums,
TV specials and an international concert tour, Brightman has
proved even her detractors wrong. Proving that success is the
best revenge, and Brightman, now 38, has made a comeback. Her
lyric soprano voice is selling everything from opera classics, to
classical crossover and pop. She's had successful overseas
specials
broadcast on PBS. Her career was revitalized with the soaring,
multi-lingual duet with rising operatic star Andrea Bocelli on
"Time
To Say Goodbye," an international chart-topper in the
classical crossover arena. Another hit duet, with Jose Carreas,
"Amigos
Para Siempre (Friends for Life)," proved equally successful.
Brightman was back in the Northeast Oct. 5 and
6 for a return engagement, and two more sold-out concerts, at
Newark's
NJPAC. The tour has been SRO in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle,
Denver and Chicago.
Brightman wasn't discovered by her famous ex, Andrew Lloyd Webber
(they divorced in 1990). She had been acting, singing and
dancing since age 13, when she was cast in the chorus of Cats on
the West End. It was there she caught the eye of Lloyd
Webber, who began crafting musical pieces for her. She created
quite a stir when cast as Christine in the West End premiere of
The Phantom of the Opera and rancorous headlines here when Lloyd
Webber cast her to repeat her role on Broadway. Actors
Equity went ballistic and Brightman became a cause celebre as the
union tried to prevent her from repeating her performance on
the grounds that she wasn't a star, but merely Mrs. Lloyd Webber.
In the end, Lloyd Webber wielded his clout and she opened the
musical in 1988 at the Majestic Theatre.
Her performance was just as "mesmerizing" here as it
was there, but Brightman was coolly received and denied a Tony
Award
nomination as Best Actress in a Musical.
Jump forward to 1991 and the waning days on Broadway of Lloyd
Webber's Aspects of Love, when it was thought that
Brightman could induce box office. She didn't and the show closed.
Brightman says that eye-opening experience on Broadway,
where only three years earlier she had received thunderous
applause and standing ovations, was a defining turning point. She
had
to emerge from the shadow of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
"Andrew's music is a part of my positive past," says
Brightman. " I don't have a problem doing it. We have
remained friends and
I've participated in tributes to him and specials celebrating his
work."
She had earlier chart successes in England with two Phantom
tunes, "Wish You Were Somehow Here Again" and "All
I Ask of
You" and her rendition of "Pie Jesu" (with Paul
Miles) from Lloyd Webber's Requiem. "Interestingly,
overseas," claims Brightman,
"audiences aren't interested in [the Lloyd Webber] part of
my life, but the English and Americans have hung on."
Brightman didn't stand still and wait for something to happen.
She decided she had to make it happen. "In the past, others
created
my work. My goal was to create it myself, from my own thoughts
and instincts. I do what I want to do and don't set rules for
myself. It's a challenge but it's exciting."
After "Goodbye," another hit from that album was her
reinterpretation of Queen's "Who Wants To Live Forever,"
which opened a
whole new crossover audience to Brightman. On record and in
concert, she is completely comfortable with a variety of music
from pop/rock and show/film tunes to quasi-classical and
classical.
"Pop's instinctive and natural to me," she notes.
"I grew up in the '60s, so I'm at home with rock. There was
such a sense of
freedom in music then, with a lot of experimenting -- mixing
classical and pop." And, lest we have forgotten, she was
lead vocalist
of the 70s pop group Hot Gossip and had hits.
"The classics came later," adds Brightman, "but
never affected my vocal phrasing. I didn't want to lose my
natural rhythm for
pop."
Her recent CD, "Eden" (EMI-Angel Records), is eclectic
"and very much my personality. I didn't say let's mix
classical with rock.
It doesn't work like that. I like all kinds of music, and I
wanted a variety."
The album, on which she out-Enyas Enya (the Irish New Age pop
phenomenon), contains her debut as a songwriter, "In
Paradisum," which she co-wrote with album producer Frank
Peterson, and "So Many Things," a Celtic standard for
which she
adapted the lyrics.
Her classical training in church choirs, London's Royal College
of Music and Julliard, plus recent vocal study in Italy, has come
in
handy as Brightman easily can sing in English, Spanish, Italian
and French. On "Eden," she slyly makes "My Heart
Will Go On,"
the theme from Titanic, her own by covering it in Italian.
Brightman's "One Night in Eden" tour continues through
Oct. 17 with stops next in Boston (Oct. 8), State College, PA (Oct.
10),
Washington (Oct. 12) and on into NC and FL, closing in Miami (Oct.
17). And how different is her live show from her recordings?
"It's a combination of the real me. I do songs I'm
associated with, but there's contemporary pop and rock elements.
I took some
risks. People have been surprised because I wanted to do
something different."
She succeeded. There is a large orchestra and chorus, but also
dancers. And, borrowing from the rock concert concept, there's a
variety of lighting and visual effects. In another department,
Brightman borrows from pop diva Diana Ross in that she changes
costumes about a dozen times. Brightman loves what she's
accomplishing and seems to have lost interest in returning to
theatre.
"Never say never," she says. "It would have to be
something really interesting and fresh. I couldn't tell you
what's happening in
theatre. I don't even buy cast albums anymore. In creating this
new niche, I feel it's an extension of my stage work."
Brightman shines bright in program full of romance
by Sarah Rodman Saturday, October 9, 1999
Sarah Brightman at the Wang Center last night and tonight.
Sarah Brightman took the concept of soaring vocals to new heights
last night.
In the first of two shows at the Wang Theatre the ethereal
British soprano literally took flight in an 80-minute performance
that
moved through pop, classical and show music, all in the key of
romance.
Although a portion of the program contained opera arias, the
petite diva's penchant for fluid dance moves and theatrical
melodrama reminded one more of Kate Bush then Kathleen Battle and
her lavish, dreamy production pieces and six hardbodied
dancers more Madonna then ``Madame Butterfly.''
Backed by a stately 20-piece orchestra, Brightman calls her show
``One Night in Eden,'' for her recent album ``Eden.'' It's easy
to
see why she thinks it paradisical.
As her dancers pulled back a lavish red curtain, Brightman was
revealed singing the title track while lying in repose on a red
velvet
chaise. They lifted her as she rose, with outstretched arms in
her ornate gold and black gown and sparkly tiara, to receive the
appropriately royal welcome from the sold-out crowd. What woman
who's ever had a princess fantasy wouldn't describe this as
eden?
It was hard to discern any specific motif other than romantic
longing in the sumptuous backing scrims that evoked moonlit
nights or
the crimson lighting that flickered over Brightman's yearning
visage as she glided about hands aflutter in glorious costumes.
Personal favorites included the regal purple hoop skirt she wore
while teasing out the mournful and creamy tones of ``Lascia Ch'Io
Pianga'' and the hysterically giant flowing sheet she donned to
stand atop a grandiose staircase and hit the stratospheric high
notes
of the first act closer ``Nessun Dorma.''
The showstopping set piece came in the form of a ship's prow on
which she sang the ``Titanic'' theme in Italian, proving that
``My
Heart Will Go On'' is irritating in any language.
But even if some of the pop tunes were hokey - including
``Captain Nemo'' in which she ``flew'' on wires behind her ocean
scrim -
and the dancers' staging occasionally came off corny the beauty
of Brightman's voice compensated.
A subtle and nuanced encore of ``Don't Cry For Me Argentina'' was
sublime. A forceful and emotive ``Music of the Night'' was
note perfect. And the crowd rose as one when she eased the night
to a close with the sincere ``Con Te Partiro.''
CONCERT REVIEW - Sarah Brightman, One Night in Eden
By Seth Bisen-Hersh, Staff Writer-http://www-tech.mit.edu,
October 13, 1999.
There are many different kinds of concerts: classical, broadway,
pop. Put them all together, add choreography, spectacular
lighting, and colorful costumes and you get Sarah Brightman’s
One Night in Eden. Best known for being the original Christine
DaaÉ in The Phantom of the Opera and also for being the former
Mrs. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ms. Brightman created an
eclectic evening of many different styles.
I’m just going to say it: Sarah Brightman is amazing. Any
words I could come up to describe her soaring soprano would be an
understatement. I believe I speak for the entire audience when I
say that if she had simply worn one dress and just stood there
singing to us the entire night, we would have still been swept
away. However, Brightman decided to treat the audience to special
lights, sets, costumes and even choreography. Also, she perfored
songs from a myriad of genres segueing from classical right into
pop music and vice versa. And she handled every song beautifully.
First of all, the show opened with, unsurprisingly, a grand
entrance for Brightman. Her six male dancers came out and danced
around, leaving the center open, and voila, the curtain opened
and there she was in a dazzling gown while stretched out on a bed.
It was from there that she sang her first classical piece of the
evening. The rest of the first act consisted of mostly classical
songs
with a few pop songs thrown in. She sang a smashing rendition of
“Who wants to Live Forever?” as the lights flickered
all around
her. Other effects included her ascending a large staircase with
a very long dress, turning around and singing as fans blew her
hair
back. Every single effect was breathtaking, which is really quite
amazing considering that this was a concert, not a show.
The highlight of Act One was Brightman’s rendition of Lloyd
Webber’s “Pie Jesu.” It was actually quite a
relief to hear a song I
knew. Everything she had sung up to that point was simply lovely,
but I was very glad to hear her sing something I knew from her
repertoire. Although she performed the song alone, without a
little boy and a huge chorus, it was still amazing. Brightman is
very
well trained. When she sings, she knows exactly where to put the
sound so that it travels flawlessly from her mouth to our ears.
The sound was so immensely focused that it resonated throughout
the vast Wang Theatre especially the higher she went. For her
Act One finale, she sang her highest note of the evening which
sent the audience immediately into a giant ovation as the curtain
closed.
Act Two of Brightman’s performance was much more
contemporary. There were still many splendid effects, though. The
best
effect of the evening was when she sang “Captain Nemo”
and simulated being underwater. This was accomplished by having
her
half-floating, half-flying up above the stage behind a blue,
rippling scrim.
I would have to say that the low point of the evening was her
rendition of “The Heart Will Go On” in Italian. Not
that she wasn’t
great, but I really do think I’m sick of that song although
it being in Italian was a nice change. In any case, the low point
was soon
followed by the major high points of the evening. They began with
a medley of Brightman’s songs from The Phantom of the
Opera. Brightman started with a few of her recitatives and then
sang a powerful rendition of “Wishing You Were Somehow Here
Again.” It was just amazing. There is just no other word for
it.
Brightman’s finale for the evening was the renowned love
song Lloyd Webber had written for her, “The Music of the
Night.” Her
version was thrilling. Before she hit any of the high notes,
Brightman would start on the note an octave lower for an instant
and
then seamlessly connect the higher note. The two encores were the
final high points of the evening. The songs just got better and
better. She did Evita’s “Don’t Cry For Me,
Argentina” and then the title song from her new CD, “It’s
Time to Say Goodbye.”
After all three of these songs, she received a massive standing
ovation from the virtually sold-out Wang Theatre.
Sarah Brightman is amazing. If you ever get the chance to see her
in anything, be it a show or concert or whatever, go to it. She
is
beyond a doubt one of the best sopranos who ever lived. Her style
and love of many musical styles adds to her appeal and
charming personality. Her beauty and beautiful singing voice will
enrapture you. You, too, will get to join her on her journey to
Eden.
Sarah Brightman- the Queen of Opera
© 1999, Crew Chill Production.
The Queen of Opera
That's what people say about her. And believe it or not, it's
almost true as well. Ms.
Brightman is a very talented and very well trained classical
singer. She actually did spend a
few years in college to make her almost perfect voice to be even
better. I wasnt aware of
her until I've seen her CD advertisement for "Eden".
Recalling a few years back however,
I've listened to her in her ocean-themed "Dive" album.
I'm particularly fond of her "Captain
Nemo", "Once in a Lifetime" and "La Mer".
It's unfortunate that some of her CD's are
produced mainly in Europe, and import CDs are incredibly
expensive in USA.
If you ever saw "Phantom of the Opera" or "Cats"
performance, you should have
recognized that Ms. Brightman had a significant role in the play.
She was playing
"Christine" character in "Phantom of the Opera".
Her work is not only in the serious opera,
as she also performed for intergalactic-bugs shoot-em-up "Starship
Trooper" movie theme
song with "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Troopers".
She is fluent in singing in several languages, I noticed,
including Spanish, Latin and Italian. I
love particularly "Alleluja", "Amigos Para Siempre"
(Barcelona Olympic theme song), and
"No Llores por Mi Argentina" ("Dont Cry for Me
Argentina"). Her soothing and vibrant
voice really live up these songs.
I'm most impressed with her because of her productivity. She has
more solo albums than
any other artists of her age I've encountered. She has produced
some of the most beautiful
songs with her husband (now ex-husband) Andrew Lloyd Weber. She
sings a little bit
different from country to country, for example Japanese release
of "Eden" got 1 extra track
(of total 17 tracks), while European version got only 15 tracks (maybe
she hates the continent she was born? j/k)
She's not bad at all when she was trying to go for pseudo-classical
music, which is mixture between classical and pop music.
Despite some people's objection to this move, she did very well
as reflected in her "Fly" and "Dive" albums.
I particularly love the
"You Take My Breath Away" arrangement, which sounds
ethnically very rich.
One bright night with sizzling soprano
Lucinda Jordaan, l © copyright Independent Newspapers 1999.
SARAH BRIGHTMAN'S career has been one long song and dance of
success.Better known for her marriage to celebrated
British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber in the late 1980s,the sultry
soprano gained international acclaim for her performance of a
variety of his works, most notably in musical theater productions.
Yet you won't find "the angel of music" at any
performance of Kat and the Kings. "I don't go and watch
musicals, I don't like them
very much, actually, says, downplaying her involvement in the
genre that made her a household name the world over.
Originally trained as a classical ballet dancer, Brightman made
her stage debut at 13 with I and Albert at the London Piccadilly
Theater and had her first real taste of the success with the
risque British dance group Hot Gossip, who made it big in 1978
with
the hit I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper.The group's success
prompted her, only 18 at the time, to actively pursue a musical
career. After various stage successes,she met Lloyd Webber when
auditioning for Cats and the rest is musical showbiz history or
gossip, depending on your source.
"In my own country people tend to have preconceived ideas
about me.Because I've been successful and talking to journalists
for
so many years, people tend to take you from how they remember you
and, of course, I was very young, a different person with a
different persona, but that carries through, as you know you
never get rid of the past."
She describes herself now as being "pretty humble".
"I think I'm quite a grounded person, although I'm also very
emotional but I
think that comes from being creative as well. I'm grateful for
what I have in my voice and my drive I never think I'm very
important. I hate it when people are negative about me because
what I do isn't negative and I'm not a negative person. I'm
honest
about what I do. My CDs and performances mean something to me and
I really like and believe in them," she says passionately.
Although the split from Webber was amicable "I had dinner
with him and his wife just last night, actually" Brightman
moved to
Germany in 1992 for a fresh start with current beau, composer and
producer Count Frank Peterson. "Artists themselves don't
inspire me," she says bluntly. "In the music
world,producers and composers play an important part in creating
music. They have a
sixth sense or a third eye. It's almost a spiritual thing, a real
gift." A talent she's pretty keen to explore herself: "I
have a real need
to do this, to compose myself and I also want to produce other
artists."
Since going solo she's been involved in numerous performance and
recording collaborations with various artists,producing singular
hits with the likes of Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo,Tom Jones
and Andrea Bocelli, in formats ranging from pop, techno, opera
and classical.
Her range of musical taste becomes more apparent when she links
modern classical composers such as Stravinsky,Tchaikovsky
and Ravel with contemporary groups such as Massive Attack and the
Cocteau Twins as major inspirations.
"I hate categorising music," she says. "There is a
lot of trash around but some of it is fun trash and good in its
trashy way."
With a musical library of 6 000 or so album CDs, what doesn't she
like?"I don't particularly like jazz. Although I say that
because
I'm pretty ignorant about it and and I'm sure if someone were to
introduce it to me in a good way"
Brightman will open her five-continent world tour, One Night in
Eden,with South Africans being the first to witness her
performing
new material off her third and latest release, Eden.The tour
opened at the Sun City Superbowl on Sunday, with a performance at
the Bellville Velodrome tonight.
