Sarah Brightman said she'd return and now she's back. Taiwan's favorite pop diva was kept away last year during the height of the SARS scare, but is now in town to promote her latest album, Harem. The classical crossover queen will hold court tonight and tomorrow night at the National Linko Gymnasium in Taipei County.
"I think Taiwan is the place that first started to appreciate my work. I'm very, very happy to finally bring my show Harem here," she said at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Of course, no one thought for a moment that she wouldn't return. Given that Brightman's records have gone platinum 10 times over in Taiwan -- more than any other country on the planet -- she wasn't going to stay away for long. Her Web site also lists her 1998 "Taiwan Grammy" for most records sold as one of her proudest achievements in a storybook career.
Brightman started off as a dancer, landing a spot with Pan's People, the resident dance troupe of the BBC's hit parade Top of the Pops. She was 16 and her new job kept her out of school, but she never looked back. Soon she'd dance into another troupe, Hot Gossip, which appeared weekly on Thames Television's Kenny Everett Show. The group quickly became popular for the sex appeal of its risque routines and gained both a devoted fan base and the ire of morality watch groups.
For Brightman, who thought her real talent was her voice, Hot Gossip was a stepping stone. She'd been recording demo tracks in her spare time and one of these caught the attention of Hansa Ariola, a producer responsible for disco queens like Donna Summer. The song was I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper and Brightman had the perfect voice for the part. It helped that she looked good in Mylar, too. The song was released in 1978 and sold half a million copies, reaching No. 6 on the British Hit Parade. At 18, Brightman was a pop star.
As pop stars sometimes do, she married the manager of a rock band, Andrew Graham Stewart, the first of two Andrews she'd wed. She'd meet the next one a short time later during an audition for a quirky new musical called Cats.
Two lines into her audition, Brightman was interrupted and told she was to meet in person with the show's producer, Andrew Lloyd Webber. She got a part -- a small one at least -- and later got the producer. She and Lloyd Webber would marry in 1983 and the event would become tabloid fodder throughout the UK.
Everyone knows what happened from there. The world's most successful musical theater impresario had his muse and the muse had roles written for her and her name spelled with big letters on theater marquises. The only surprise came when the world learned that the pop diva could sing an E
natural above high C, and sing it well.
Accompanied by a precocious choir boy, Brightman belted out Pie Jesu from Lloyd Webber's Requiem, won the hearts of opera fans and likely created a few converts to Christianity. The single sold 25,000 copies the day it was released and her performance on PBS and the BBC eclipsed that of fellow singer Placido Domingo. The next year, she would earn her first Grammy nomination for "best new classical artist."
Lloyd Webber wanted to write something that could showcase his wife's uncannily broad vocal range and did so with the role of Christine in Phantom of the Opera. The show had as much marketing muscle as musical genius and had spawned three hit singles before it even opened on the West End.
Brightman prepared to reprise her role on Broadway but was stopped short by the American Actor's Equity union, which disallowed anyone who wasn't an American to tread the boards of US theaters.
Lloyd Webber was incensed by the fact that the woman for whom he had written the role was being kept from performing it and threatened to pull the entire production from Broadway. A deal was struck by which Brightman could play the part if Lloyd Webber agreed to cast an American in his next West End production.
Phantom's success was also Brightman's success and she would go on to be one of the world's most sought-after recording artists. Her success came at the expense of her marriage to Lloyd Webber, however, and they divorced in 1990.
Her career since has seen her star grow brighter through releases such as Dive (1993), Timeless (1997), Eden (1998) and La Luna (2000), each of which covered material ranging from operatic classics to pop tunes.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KHAM
What can audiences to this weekend's shows expect? With 80 tonnes of props and scenery being set up in Linko, the show will look much like a musical theater production and almost certainly have the energy of one.
"I fly around as an encore at the end of the show and twirl around a bit. It doesn't make me sick but I do have a beer after the show to calm down."
She said she wouldn't be staying up for the England game against Portugal as, "I don't really follow sport but I do know entertainment, but not that side of it ... though I do know who David Beckham is."
Brightman's first single in 1978 capitalized on the pre-occupation with outer space that was a result of the frenzy produced by Star Wars. The song incorporates plenty space effects; beeps, bleeps, buzzes and radio chatter. Additional references are made to Darth Vader, Flash Gordon and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Sarah sings the song to "Captain Strange," the lucky gent whom has won her heart, and describes a scene where spacesuits end up "lying on the control room floor" and the ship veers off course. Sarah was contractually obliged to give billing to the popular dance group Hot Gossip, of which she was a member, though they had little to do with the song. Her next single, too, would capitalize on the space craze; Love in a UFO, by Sarah Brightman and the Aliens. The B-side, Illusions of Love, was notable for being the first song Brightman composed and produced herself.
Brightman's musical career peaked with the production of Phantom of the Opera. She'd already had a minor role in Cats in 1981, married the man that wrote the show, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and starred opposite Placido Domingo in Requiem, singing the classical-crossover hit Pie Jesu. Requiem earned Brightman a Grammy nomination for "best new classical artist" of 1986. The show had the distinction of entering the British musical charts at No. 1. Lloyd Webber wrote Phantom in part to showcase his wife's vocal range in the role of Christine, but when it traveled to Broadway, Brightman was initially denied her role due to union regulations. A deal was struck and Brightman went on to conquer another continent.
This 1993 album is a milestone in Brightman's career, marking her departure from a hugely successful time spent in musical theater and her long-time collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is also a return to her pop roots and the first album she produced with Frank Peterson, the German producer with whom she continues to collaborate.
Here is where Brightman's star would shine brightest. The single Time to Say Goodbye sold 3 million copies worldwide in 1997 and stayed in the Billboard charts for 35 weeks. The album sold more copies in Taiwan than any other country in the world, reaching platinum status 10 times over. She earned a Golden Melody Award the next year for most records sold in Taiwan. The album was released in the US with the same title as its hit single.
Brightman would cement her position as the world's most popular opera diva with this 2001 release, which pulls together her favorite songs from previous albums Eden and La Luna. She also re-recorded the hugely popular Pie Jesu as well as Nessun Dorma and O Mio Babbino Caro. Despite all the Latin, it's been widely regarded as her best album to date.
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