Sarah Brightman in town on June 23

The press release dubs her the Pre-eminent Queen of the Classical Crossover World but I like to think of her as the Queen, plain, simple and to this day, uncontested, of classical crossover music. Every classical artist who is now enjoying success as a pop star owes a lot to Sarah Brightman. The list of names includes really big ones like Andrea Bocceli, Josh Groban, Vanessa Mae, Maksim, etc., but it was Sarah who first wondered why her angelic voice should be stuck in one particular mode when the music of the whole world is there for her to sing. So she did something about it and became the inspiration for many of the leading music artists of our time.

Filipinos will find out what makes Brightman special when she brings her Harem 2004 World Tour to Manila on Wednesday, June 23 at the covered court of ULTRA in Pasig. I assure you that this will be a spectacle in every sense of the word as she is bringing over her own stage and equipment. Brightman is well-known for her sense of the dramatic and is a perfectionist who does not cut corners. So I am very sure that every aspect of her show will meet her very high standards. Expect to hear the songs from her latest album Harem plus her fans’ big favorites from her earlier releases, Dust in the Wind, Il Mio Cuore Va, which is really My Heart Will Go On from Titanic, in Italian, A Whiter Shade of Pale, Scarborough Fair, Nessun Dorma and others.

While waiting for that big day, you might find out more about Sarah’s music by checking out her albums. Harem is a good and I must say truly interesting choice. This time around, she takes strange and mysterious Middle East and brings it together with her classical roots and pop music arrangements to create the album. Think of Scherazade’s 1001 tales with Arabian Nights and Mysterious Days, mixed with Puccini It’s a Beautiful Day and India’s Bollywood The Journey Home with the Russian Borodin’s Harem and Stranger in Paradise and pop with What a Wonderful World and Free. A most special cut is The War is Over, which features violinist Nigel Kennedy with Iraqi singing star Kadim Al Sahir.

Like her albums La Luna and Eden, Harem is another big-budgeted production. It is a heady hybrid that frames her ethereal vocals to perfection. I admit that I like listening to Sarah best when she sings with the simplest of accompaniment. Remember Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem? But you really have to give her great credit for her ideas and the amazing results. The other cuts in the album are What You Never Know, Misere Mei, Beautiful, Until the End of Time and Gueri De Toi.

Sarah started out as a ballet dancer but it was as a singer with the one-hit wonder group Hot Gossip that she got her first success. They recorded the big seller I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper. Despite this though, she nixed pursuing a career as a pop singer and she decided to go into classical singing and to try her luck in musicals. She was in the cast of Cats when she met the legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. This guy wrote not only Cats, but also Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Sunset Boulevard, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and many others. They later got married and Sarah became the inspiration for the character of Christine in Phantom of the Opera. She played opposite Michael Crawford in the original West End production and later also in the Broadway version of famous musical.

Brightman and Webber have since divorced but her most memorable recordings remain those of his compositions like the songs from Phantom, All I Ask of You with Cliff Richard, Phantom of the Opera with Steve Harley and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. She also did Time to Say Goodbye which introduced Bocceli to the world and Amigos Para Siempre, the theme for the Olympics with Jose Carreras.

The Harem tour is presented by Rado of Switzerland and Montre. Concert tickets priced at P10,000; P5000; P2500 and P900 are available at Ticketworld outlets. The first 1000 buyers of gallery seat tickets will get a special discount.