By Jim Morrison
Sarah Brightman’s journey through dance, Broadway, international stardom and selling tens of millions of records began with singing at three with her family in England. So, her winter symphony Christmas tours take her back to that time decades ago.
“Christmas has always held a special place in my heart. Since I was a child, I remember my mother singing and teaching us carols from the very first day of December,” she said in response to emailed questions. “Our family would often go around the village carol singing. Those moments brought us so much joy and togetherness.”
COVID, it turns out, gave her the chance to revisit those days, and started her run of annual winter shows.
“I’ve always wanted to perform a Christmas concert, especially after recording a Christmas album, but my touring schedule never allowed the opportunity,” she said. “When COVID hit, I wanted to stay creative and help lift people’s spirits, so we organized a livestream concert from London, with proceeds going to charity. The response was incredible, and it inspired me to make the Christmas concert an annual tradition — one that continues to bring joy to fans and bring everyone together each year.”
Brightman brings that tradition to CNU’s Ferguson Center for the Arts on December 2 for “A Winter Symphony” with a choir and an orchestra.
Brightman may now be one of the world’s best-known classical sopranos, but she began down a different path. Her mother enrolled her eldest child in ballet classes at an early age. “I was naturally incredibly gifted. I could play the piano, I had a voice, I knew how to move,” Brightman told one interviewer. “I had all the right things, so there was no question, really, about what I was going to do.”
By 12, she’d made her debut on the London stage and by 17, she’d joined the dance troupe, Hot Gossip, before appearing on “Top of the Pops” and releasing some disco singles. They fizzled and she turned to the theater, winning an audition for “Cats.”
Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote “Cats,” but didn’t connect with her then, read a rave review about her later appearance in another play. He went and was enchanted by her performance. They soon married. He wrote the role of the female protagonist in his adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera” for her.
“The time we were together was amazing, creatively, for both people,” she says. “I obviously inspired him to work with a voice he hadn’t worked with before, which gave him the idea to do Phantom, and for me, I had the opportunity to use my operatic training.”
They divorced after six years but remained friends. “The Phantom of the Opera” became Broadway’s longest-running show. Her cast recording of the show, released in 1987, sold 40 million copies.
Brightman crossed over from classical to pop starting in the 1990s. She has covered jazz, pop, opera — you name it. She is the only performer who’s topped the Billboard classical and dance charts simultaneously. “I don’t think in terms of genres,” she said. “I just love music.”
And now Christmas is a part of that musical diversity.
“I think that music is a very important part of Christmas. It’s been an experience picking the repertoire for it,” she told an interviewer. “I really wanted to find songs that gave people a feeling of tranquility that were spiritual. Yet, at the same time, I wanted to find pieces which would create a lot of Christmas fun because there’s a lot of joy in Christmas as well. I also sing some hits of mine.”
Are there songs she feels she must do? “It’s really important to me that my Christmas concert includes a diverse range of music so there’s something for everyone to enjoy,” she said in an email. “I love blending traditional and modern pieces — it keeps the concert both meaningful and fresh. Two of my favorites are ‘Silent Night,’ a beautifully classic and timeless carol, and ‘Arrival,’ a more modern, uplifting piece originally written by ABBA. Together, they create a lovely balance of tradition and energy.”