Sarah Brightman is the real deal. With thirty million albums sold, she is the best-selling soprano in the world. She was also the muse for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera” and created the iconic role of Christine Daaé. Sarah has performed at the Beijing Olympics to over five billion viewers. She is also a Grammy-nominated artist and the only artist to have topped the Billboard dance and classical music charts at the same time.
Those are just some of the stats in an incredible career, but for fans, Sarah Brightman is more than all that. With an incredible three-octave range, Sarah is beloved for a voice that is both angelic and earthy. She is also a woman that has remained at the top of her game as a recording artist for three decades, time and time again breaking new records and reinventing herself.
Sarah will bring her “A Christmas Symphony” tour to stages across America this year. It is based on her first globally live-streamed concert which she recorded at the Christ Church Spitalfields in London in 2020.
“I’m quite traditional when it comes to Christmas,” Sarah shared. “It’s a very personal thing for me, with Christmas time for me and my family.”
It was important for Sarah to create a program that could be enjoyed by people of all faiths and backgrounds. “Choosing the repertoire, it was quite fun ticking all the boxes in that it gave me more room to do all sorts of things. It wouldn’t be just Christmas carols – I mixed it up. I have some Christmas pieces in there which had sort of religious overtones to them that we you know… but I also have songs which are more seasonal, that talk about, you know, it being in the wintertime. Loss of love, gain of love, all of those things. Also, I have some beautiful orchestral pieces. I’ve got wonderful choir pieces. I also got a little progressive rock which touches on Christmas in there.” Sarah will also perform some of her own popular hits. She calls it “a complete mixture of things.”
For those unable to see Sarah’s tour live, her original live stream will be broadcast on PBS. (Check your local listings). Of that event, she says, “It was a bit scary. Because you’re in a different situation to what I’ve been in before, but I got lots of rehearsal. You know, I have a nice roomy apartment size for people to rehearse with… And I had room to walk around and really get the feeling of when you’re on stage. I could do that with the piano here and everything. And so really just doing it felt very natural, really, because we all had time to do lots of preparation.”
The quarantine provided a usual amount of downtime for the soprano. “I remember at the beginning of it, I’m thinking, ‘Okay, I need to be useful to myself and useful to others. So, what can I do for my mother, who lives in the south of England, and my brother who are vulnerable?’ So, I thought, ‘Great, I’ll be allowed to go down to them help with medical supplies, food, all of those things, and actually keep their spirits up by just kind of being near’. And then in a week, I went into a bubble with my singing coach here in England. And I was able to do a complete refresh of my vocals. So [that] really kept me going.”
She compares a good vocal coach to a chiropractor getting things back in alignment. “They’ll say it’s just small adjustments, but they do need a professional hand to do them. So that’s why as singers, I suppose we just spend our life going to both coaches… and also working on your body with your yoga or your Pilates in order to keep all your core strengths.” She also mentions using the time to look at new types of repertoire.
From beginning her career in the dance trope ‘Hot Gossip,’ to her Broadway career, and later launch as a solo artist, choosing the right repertoire has been important to Sarah’s career. “You have to be very sort of direct with yourself to say, is this just for my own enjoyment? Or is this something that I should be doing? Because, you know, voices are made to do particular things.” Timing is also an important part of the process and Sarah says, “At the end of the day, I find its down to what my voice is suited to.
Over the summer of 2020, Sarah released an album for French audiences entitled simply “France.” Thankfully things were temporarily opened and she was able to visit and release the album properly. “It was a wonderful success.” But her favorite part was doing the Christmas show, “I was desperate to just keep the spirits up because we got locked down just before Christmas here.” She describes it as “a joyous occasion” and the response, overwhelming. “That’s why I wanted to do a Christmas show in the United States, the end of this year.”
Sarah is famous for putting on spectacular shows that are a feast for the eyes, but for her each element is carefully planned to tell a story. “It’s about helping the song and the character. And all of those things help them create the atmosphere and the texture for people to watch… there’s no point in putting something there unless there’s a good reason for it being there, because otherwise you confuse an audience… So, I’m not really one for gimmicks on stage.” For this Christmas tour she hopes the choices “suggests feelings of joy, or peace, or suggest spirituality, all of those things.”
As she prepares for a tour, Sarah employs checklists to keep her organized. “They change every day – I’m always scribbling things out… there are so many things to do before a tour.” She admits to still being surprised at the sheer amount of preparation needed for a tour but this is important to her. “The best thing is to be in absolute preparation before you go on. I hate that thing of ‘it will be alright on the night’. And that often happens in concerts and things, people think well, ‘I can sing it and all will be fine,’ but actually there’s a lot more to it.”
Sarah also enjoys costume changes in her shows and excitedly shares, “All the fashion that’s come out for Christmas this year is gorgeous… there’s everything you want for [a] Christmas show lots of sequins and glitter, and feathers. And it’s absolutely beautiful. So, I’ve had good fun choosing that.”
Coming to New York is always a special experience for Sarah, “I have an apartment in New York. So, it’s a very familiar city… it’s kind of the other side of London for me as well, I feel very easy in both.” When she is in the city, Sarah enjoys going to the Metropolitan Opera and ballet. “Just to go there, I get very, very excited.” It’s also the simple moments like walking around New York in a city that is “always forever changing… It is gorgeous.”
As for new music Sarah teases. “There’s always a new [idea] its which one? We can’t get there at the moment… there will be lots of new things to come. I promise.”
Sarah will bring “A Christmas Symphony” to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on November 27th. The following evening, she will perform in Staten Island at the St. George Theatre. She will then return to Atlantic City’s Ocean Casino Resort on December 4th. Her full tour schedule is available on her official website: www.sarahbrightman.com/tours you can also find the exclusive “A Christmas Symphony” holiday collection items at https://store.sarahbrightman.com
Join us on Sunday, November 14th at 11 AM EST – 4 PM GMT for the full conversation with Sarah on our videocast series “Connections”: www.youtube.com/classicalcrossovermagazine
This interview is presented with thanks to April Thibeault of AMT Public Relations and Lindsay Simon of The Oriel, Co.
