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Sarah Brightman Photos More from Sarah Brightman
Time to Say Goodbye | 
Diva: The Singles Collection | 
Eden | |
Diva: The Video Collection | 
Harem | 
La Luna (Live in Concert) |
Amazon.com:
Superstar crossover vocalist Sarah Brightman greets the new millennium with an even surer, bolder sense of her unique musical niche than that evident from 1999's Eden. Like Eden, La Luna is a concept album only in a vaguely free-associative sense. The selection of material here touches on images of the moon that reinforce its ambiguity as a force known to draw together "the lunatic, the lover, and the poet" (Brightman's photo shoots for the album do seem to suggest a sort of Titania-like figure out of a New Age Midsummer Night's Dream). And it's a stylistic as well as thematic voyage, coursing from such contemporary sounds as synth pop (on "This Love") through vintage jazz standards (Billie Holiday's atmospheric and haunting "Gloomy Sunday") to high opera for the title track (a version of the sublime "Song of the Moon" from Dvorák's fairy-tale opera Rusalka), and drawing elsewhere on the gorgeously sinuous melodies of Bach, Handel, and Rachmaninov--one song, "Figlio Perduto," even adapts the slow movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Throughout, producer Frank Peterson swathes Brightman's shiny small voice in luxuriant fabrics of sound. Detractors will lament the resulting sameness of tone--no matter what the style involved--but Brightman's focus on spinning an ethereal spell never gets eclipsed. This domestic release includes three tracks not available on the import version and has a special treat hidden in the final track as a bonus. --Thomas May | | | | |
Average Rating : 
Rating :  - Ethereal Goddess Returns
Angel of music Sarah Brightman emerges as an ethereal goddess of the moon in this album. A misty collage of images and sounds that associate with the moon, the album is has no fixed genre but lets listeners paint a picture in their minds.
A journey from classical to contemporary music, Brightman succeeds in creating a mystical and frosty atmosphere- sound that wraps around the room like silk shawl.
The album cover design is almost as important as the music itself. Brightman- considerably lighter (in weight) than when we last saw her- is portrayed floating in the sky, eyes closed.
One of the best tracks is Scarborough Fair which is a lovely tune in itself. Brightman's slight, quivering voice goes well with the atmosphere of faded memories. La Califfa is an Ennio Morricone arrangement for Brightman from the famous film Cinema Paradiso. Although Brightman sings songs that were already sung by many other people, her unique colour is deeply seeped into each piece. Producer Frank Peterson has also done a magnificent job of weaving in Brightman's thin silk thread voice into a tapestry of luxuriant sounds.
It cannot be said that Brightman sang particularly well, sometimes her thin voice can be rather annoying, and from beginning to end, the album is monotone in character, but the beautiful melodies compensate. I would expect that people would either love the album or hate it, depending on whether or not they like Brightman's voice. The Korean license includes the Bee Gee's First of May which isn't available in the U.S. version. Three and half stars out of five.
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