Classic vocals

Female soprano Sarah Brightman is credited as the founder of a musical movement that embraces classical music with pop and rock tones, writes Geeta Nihalani.

Sarah Brightman is perhaps the epitome of the multi-tasking female singer who seems so in vogue today. She burst onto the musical scene singing Amigos Para Siempre with tenor Jose Carreras. The song went on to become the theme of the Barcelona Summer Olympics in 1992.

Brightman is primarily known as the highest selling female soprano of all time. However, unusual for a musician, she is also known for the pop/rock tones she adds to her classical and contemporary albums.

Meeting Andrew Lloyd Webber

Yet, what will surprise most of her fans is how she stumbled upon her wildly-successful career. In 1981, at the age of 21, Brightman tried out for the now famous musical Cats. Scarcely two lines into her song, Sarah was asked to stop; she was told that she had earned a personal meeting with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The meeting was the beginning of a successful musical collaboration. On a more personal level, it culminated in their marriage in 1984.

Brightman went on to star in Lloyd-Webber's Song and Dance, and Requiem, a piece that was written specifically for her. But perhaps, most famously she was the first actress to play Christine Daaé, the main character in The Phantom of the Opera.

While she toured the world and Broadway, performing in many of Lloyd-Webber's plays, it wasn't until her divorce from the producer, Brightman decided to cross over from acting to become a musician.

Perhaps the most poignant declaration of independence came in the form of her album from this period, an eclectic but personal collection of folk-rock songs that she hand-picked. It was a departure from musical theatre and indeed, a departure from Lloyd-Webber himself. More tellingly, the album bore a most prescient title: As I Came of Age.

The 'classical-crossover' genre

Brightman went on to dominate the classical music scene. In fact, record executives have claimed that she singlehandedly launched the 'classical-crossover' genre, a category she dismisses as "horrible" yet one that she admits is necessary for those who seek to fit her into some sort of genre.

Her most recent album released in early 2008, Symphony, is Brightman's first studio album in five years. It showcased her vocal skills in Spanish, Italian, French and even German. The album, which reached the top of the US Billboard Classical charts, and — unheard of for an opera singer — 13th in the Billboard Top 200 last year has consolidated Brightman's position as a force to reckon with.

Last year, Brightman began touring with the release of Symphony: Live in Vienna, inspired largely from her Symphony album — an odd commercial pursuit given that the record of the event was only made available to fans following a donation to the United States' Public Broadcasting Service.

Brightman has built on her success, one which began with being a bit-actress in Cats and touched new heights with her role as the protagonist in Phantom of the Opera. The play is still staged in various cities around the world and was even made into a movie in 2004.

Yet perhaps nothing prepared Brightman for the heights she has reached today as a literal tour de force in classical music. Her talent was even acknowledged at the Beijing Olympics last year, where she sang You and Me in both English and Chinese.

The actress-cum-singer has launched a musical movement which is likely to spawn a legion of imitators in the near future. And for the fortunate few among you who might be visiting the Far East in the next few weeks, bear in mind that she is currently touring Asia with performances scheduled in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

— The writer is a freelancer based in Dubai.