Sarah Brightman: La Luna
I have heard about Sarah Brightman maybe more than five years ago, but just now I finally listened to her and I’ve fallen in love with her singing. Truly one of the best sopranos in the world, maybe even the world’s best, though some fans of Celine Dion and others will argue.
For the manga lovers who have read “Dragon Voice”, surely they will know (or not) that Sarah Brightman is the model for Amami Sara - Amami Rin’s mother with the legendary voice. Some concepts of Sarah Brightman’s concerts and wardrobe designs have also been passed on to the ‘Sara/Seiren’ character in the manga, especially some from this La Luna concert. Now it feels a little fulfilling to be able to see and listen to Sarah Brightman and imagine how Amami Sara might have sounded like.
How did I manage to find my new interest in Sarah Brightman? Again, Pandora (sheesh I am starting to sound like a Pandora marketing person). While listening to the New Age station which I made from Enya as the base artist, several times it pointed me to Sarah’s songs and I found them nice and enjoyful. Thus begans my Wikipedia research about her career and list of her albums and concert tour DVDs.
As of now I have three of her albums in my possession:
- Classics: Best of Sarah Brightman (2006)
- Harem (2003)
- The Very Best of Sarah Brightman: 1990-2000 (2001)
The Classics and The Very Best ones are the really good ones, must listen. Now I am looking for her legendary “Eden” album, but since it was out in 1998 it might be a little hard to find now. I am also looking for her concert DVDs, “One Night In Eden” (1999) and “Harem World Tour: Live In Las Vegas” (2004). Might try looking around in local stores once more, yesterday when I went there I arrived without knowing any of her concert DVD titles. I found this La Luna by accident, on the for sale rack, so I got this superb, beautifully amazing DVD for S$10 only (can you believe that), which should have actually cost more for the quality. So I was very lucky to get this DVD, which has been said to be her best concert DVD around in terms of voice and graphical clarity (while in term of overall concert performance Eden is still said to be the best).
For those of you who didn’t know her already, maybe you should go to Youtube and look for her duet with Andrea Bocelli titled “Time To Say Goodbye” (here it is). It’s a very famous song that should help you recognize who she is. As for other songs to listen to, I really cannot suggest as I like almost all of her songs, from the classical ones such as Pie Jesu and Hijo De La Luna (*) to the more pop ones like Who Wants To Live Forever, A Whiter Shade Of Pale (*) and Only An Ocean Away (which sounds awfully similar to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On). As an added bonus, while I’m on Youtube anyway, here’s her There For Me (*) duet with… see for yourself. You can find a lot more of her videos on Youtube, try to look for more on your own 
Items with * are taken from her La Luna concert, so now you know how good my concert DVD is.
Enjoy her songs, as they may be the best to be found in your lifetime.
If you have never listened to Sarah Brightman, then you have never truly listened to good music.
