I created this page after her concert in Bucharest, part of Harem tour. This concert was fascinating. Since 80's I never made a such a passion for a siger. But she is great.
 

	Sarah Brightman
	Harem Desert Fantasy
	Edition : DVD

Theater star Sarah Brightman turns up the heat in this sexy, baroque DVD counterpart to her 2003 world music CD, Harem. Brightman's artistic purpose on that album--marrying the rhythms of the Middle East to her otherwordly pop sound (as opposed to her boomy, operatic sound)--aren't lost here, but don't expect to catch a glimpse of such exciting studio collaborators as violin star Nigel Kennedy amidst countless shots of the diva in various states of undress. The lavish visual production sets several songs in exotic recreations of fabled harems, where lust is tempered by decorum but sex is clearly on the menu. For a change, Brightman's ethereal version of "Stranger in Paradise" (from Kismet) is shot against a starkly beautiful, mountainous backdrop, and "What You Never Know," a song about the passage of time, includes touching images of children and old people. --Tom Keogh 

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Harem - Sarah Brightman
Edition CD
If one's notion of "world music" promises a touch of the exotic and indigenous, often overlooked is the fact that the influence of western pop music has seeped into every corner of the globe, creating a hybrid that's often more than merely the sum of its influences. Theater vet Brightman steps into that pan-cultural hall of mirrors here, wedding her fascination with the music and rhythms of the "forbidden places" (the title's Arabic meaning) of the Middle East to her own oft ethereal vocal charms and rock-solid sense of drama. And if the diva's equally sound crossover sensibilities (and that of longtime producer Frank Peterson) sometimes mire it in familiar world-beat pastiche, Brightman's charmed muse manages some transcendent moments nonetheless. Her musical borrowings (Borodin for the title track; Puccini's *Madame Butterfly* for "It's a Beautiful Day") are as compelling as her choice of collaborators: classical violin star Nigel Kennedy and Iraqi vocalist Kadim Al Sahir add compelling touches to the weary timeliness of "The War is Over." The musical influences range from Europe across the Mediterranean and as far East as the Indian roots of "Bollywood" composer A.R. Rahman's "The Journey Home" and Brightman's own "You Take My Breath Away" to evocative recastings of the emblematic standards "Stranger in Paradise" and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," while ex-Killing Joke keyboardist Jaz Coleman provides the savory East-meets-West orchestrations that ensure Brightman's star turns the seamless foundations they deserve. --Jerry McCulley 
The list includes:

1) Harem
2) Beautiful
3) Mysterious Days
4) Anytime, Anywhere
5) It's A Beautiful Day
6) Free
7) The War Is Over
8) What You Never Know
9) Stranger In Paradise
10) Nessun Dorma (live)
11) What A Wonderful World
12) The Journey Home
13) Time To Say Goodbye
 

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	Classics
	Sarah Brightman
	Edition : CD

Have some friends who still haven't discovered what the Sarah Brightman fuss is all about? You'll find the perfect introduction to make converts of them all in Classics, so they'll have no more excuses to remain clueless. Sporting a Botticelli-inspired image of the platinum-selling soprano on the cover, Classics is a classy anthology including highlights from three of Brightman's chart-topping releases along with seven new tracks. Songs personally selected by the diva as her favorite classical interpretations are culled from her previous blockbusters: Time To Say Goodbye, Eden, and La Luna. And whether you're a fan already in the fold or one in the making, the new material here shows the diva at the top of her form, in new renderings of "O Mio Babbino Caro" and "Nessun Dorma" (accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic)--fascinating displays of the operatic confidence she's developed over her career. Other new offerings include a touching version of Schubert's "Ave Maria,' "Winter Light," a fresh take on her signature song "Pie Jesu" (from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem). "Alhambra" and "Dans La Nuit"--a real treat, bathing the listener in Brightman's silky, sensuous vocalism--add two original titles to her famous adaptations of classical melodies to new lyrics (using Chopin's haunting E major Etude in the latter case). All told, a lovely affirmation of the directions Brightman has boldly taken in her career to date. -Sarah Chin 

 
 

	La Luna
	Sarah Brightman
	Audio CD

 

Amazon.com    Superstar crossover vocalist Sarah Brightman greets the new millennium with an even surer, bolder sense of her unique musical niche than that evident from 1999's Eden. Like Eden, La Luna is a concept album only in a vaguely free-associative sense. The selection of material here touches on images of the moon that reinforce its ambiguity as a force known to draw together "the lunatic, the lover, and the poet" (Brightman's photo shoots for the album do seem to suggest a sort of Titania-like figure out of a New Age Midsummer Night's Dream). And it's a stylistic as well as thematic voyage, coursing from such contemporary sounds as synth pop (on "This Love") through vintage jazz standards (Billie Holiday's atmospheric and haunting "Gloomy Sunday") to high opera for the title track (a version of the sublime "Song of the Moon" from Dvorák's fairy-tale opera Rusalka), and drawing elsewhere on the gorgeously sinuous melodies of Bach, Handel, and Rachmaninov--one song, "Figlio Perduto," even adapts the slow movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Throughout, producer Frank Peterson swathes Brightman's shiny small voice in luxuriant fabrics of sound. Detractors will lament the resulting sameness of tone--no matter what the style involved--but Brightman's focus on spinning an ethereal spell never gets eclipsed. This domestic release includes three tracks not available on the import version and has a special treat hidden in the final track as a bonus. --Thomas May 

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	Encore
	Sarah Brightman
	Audio CD

Amazon.com     In a career that's veered from '70s pop chanteuse to Broadway star and neo-operatic diva, Sarah Brightman has brought a critics-be-damned sense of dramatic scale to nearly every project she's tackled. As the title suggests, the tracks here are largely culled from her Songs That Got Away and Surrender song anthologies, although they do include four previously unreleased outtakes from those collections. Her 1998 recording of the title song from ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind succeeds by emphasizing its melodic grace with a deft, airy touch, while the remainder rescue worthy songs from obscure or failed musicals. From Lerner and Lane's 1959 Carmelina comes the lovely "One More Walk Around the Garden." Stephen Sondheim's youthful 1954 debut, Saturday Night, yields a sprightly take on "What More Do I Need," while an operatic reading of "In the Mandarin's Orchid Garden," from the Gershwins' unproduced 1929 East Is West, is also included. If the selection leans a little too heavily on the Lloyd Webber connection elsewhere (including Italian versions of "Guardami (With One Look)" from Sunset Boulevard and "Piano (Memory)" from Cats delivered in her patently restraint-free soprano), they're only reminders that shrewdness has hardly been the least of Brightman's talents. --Jerry McCulley 
On this CD: 

1. Whistle Down The Wind, musical play Whistle Down the Wind
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sarah Brightman 

2. Rex, musical play Away from You
Composed by Richard Rodgers
with Sarah Brightman 
Conducted by Harry Rabinowitz 

3. Sunset Boulevard, musical Guardami (With One Look) (Italian Version)
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Sarah Brightman 

4. Phantom of the Opera, musical Think of me
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Sarah Brightman 
Conducted by Michael Reed 

5. Carmelina, musical One more walk around the garden
Composed by Burton Lane
with Sarah Brightman 

6. Sunset Boulevard, musical Surrender
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Sarah Brightman 

7. The Crooked Mile, musical play If I ever fall in love again
Composed by Peter Greenwell
with Sarah Brightman 
Conducted by Harry Rabinowitz 

8. By Jeeves, musical play Half a moment
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Sarah Brightman 
Conducted by Michael Reed 

9. Cats, musical Piano (Memory - Italian Version)
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Sarah Brightman 

10. Saturday Night, musical play What more do I need
Composed by Stephen Sondheim
with Sarah Brightman 

11. Aspects of Love, musical There is more to love
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Sarah Brightman 

12. Song and Dance, musical The last man in my life
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Sarah Brightman 

13. East Is West, musical play [unfinished] In the Mandarin's Orchid Garden
Composed by George Gershwin
with Sarah Brightman 

14. Song and Dance, musical Nothing Like You've Ever Known
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
with Sarah Brightman 

15. La Rondine (The Swallow), opera Chi il bel sogno di doretta
Composed by Giacomo Puccini
with Sarah Brightman 
Conducted by Harry Rabinowitz