Spectacular Sarah

a"Deep desires, sleep untold, whispers that echo the desert of my souls, I hold your Eastern promise close to my heart, welcoming you to my harem," sang Sarah Brightman during the opening act of her visually stimulating concert in Hong Kong last month. She kicked off her concert series in North America in January and is now on the Asian leg of her Harem World Tour, which takes her to Manila on June 23 for one night only.  The talented singer with one of the most heavenly voices around has sold over 150 million albums worldwide.  Sarah is recognized as one of the few singers who have succeeded on Broadway and the West End. She is also an artist who can beautifully sing operatic and classics as well as pop.

The set of her Harem concert was stunning.  A huge cloth curtain covered the main stage while a long "catwalk" allowed her to walk to the audience and showcase her elaborate costumes created by Joy Andrews and Elie Saab (the designer who created Halle Berry’s gown when she won an Academy award). The mood of the concert changed constantly with different images projected on a concave screen behind Sarah. Lights played an important role in setting the mood, making the show seem more like a theatrical event than a concert.

Sarah wanted a "Middle Eastern percussive feel" in her concert. She had listened to Indian, Turkish and Middle Eastern music to come up with her latest album, Harem. The concert proved that she has succeeded in getting this "feel." She used two bands (both visible to the audience only during the second act) – her usual band and her Harem Orchestra. Cymbals, drums and gongs were very prominent in some songs that were made to sound more Middle Eastern. Her version of Stranger in Paradise from the musical Kismet and her remake of Dust in the Wind by Kansas had a more modern beat, with the latter song echoing similar drumbeats from Ravel’s Bolero. Her first act also featured Nella Fantasia, a song created from Ennio Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe (lifted from the soundtrack of The Mission) and Giacomo Puccini’s ubiquitous but still adored Nessun Dorma from the third act of the opera Turandot, two songs which, by themselves alone, made watching the show worth it.  Sarah can sustain the highest notes with such perfection.  Her controlled reverberation and wide voice range allow her to tackle any song of almost any genre.

Sarah seems to have no fear of heights as she was repeatedly hoisted in the air on a column, pulled up in a swing, and had two "flying" sequences. The second part of the show was definitely better.  Sarah sang It’s a Beautiful Day, inspired by Puccini’s Un Bel Di Vedremo from Madame Butterfly; her composition The War is over Now where she plays the piano herself; the rose petal-showered production of What a Wonderful World; Time to Say Goodbye (which she recorded with Andrea Bocelli); and her exquisite rendition of A Whiter Shade of Pale. She also performed Arabian Nights with Shweta Shetty, who also had recorded the song in the album Harem with Sarah. The visuals and the play of lights during the second act had the audience applauding like mad. The crowd went wild when Sarah relived her days as Christine in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, which he wrote while married to her (he also wrote Aspects of Love and Requiem during this period). Sarah of course premiered both Phantom and Requiem from which she recorded the hauntingly beautiful Pie Jesu.

Of course, there were encores but it took time before Sarah came out on stage as she had changed her costume after each encore!  The last encore had the crowd really going wild; they gave her a standing ovation before she left the stage, which had to be dismantled for her show in China two days later.  The Manila concert will be on June 23 at the ULTRA (though it normally seats 18,000, its seating has been reduced to 6,000 only because of the size of the stage) at 8 p.m.

The show will be presented by Globe Platinum Privilege Club, Montre watch shop, and Rado watches of Switzerland.  Tickets at P10,000, P5,000, P2,500 and P900 (plus a three percent service charge on cash purchases and four percent on card) are available at Ticketworld (tel. no. 891-9999 or log on to www.ticketworld.com.ph) in National Bookstore outlets and at the CCP Box Office or Marketing Department (tel. nos. 832-3704 or 832-1125 local 1409). 

For more Sarah Brightman, check out www.timeline.com.ph (Montre events).