Record Review - 1 October 07 2000

The moon. Nothing is as evocative of romance and of alienation. Nothing is at once so barren, yet so vivid. Sarah Brightman's new album, La Luna, manages to capture not only the enigma that is the moon but its elusive beauty as well. This she achieves not by tethering her lyrics to the theme, but with the use of voice and orchestration.
Brightman, after all, has the kind of voice that defies description and categorization. Fragile and tender one moment; robust, sultry and operatic the next. She glides seamlessly between classical adaptations, '60s anthems and contemporary pop tracks in English, Italian, Spanish, French, even Russian. In the hands of conventional artists, Handel's "Solo Con Te" could never co-exist on the same album with the trip-hoppy "This Love," much less be adjacent to it. At times, the transition between Brightman's pop and opera voices is even made within a single song, like on Dvorak's "La Luna."
The album opens with "La Luna," a quintessential Frank Peterson production; gauzy and moody, laced with ambient sounds and voice samples. This sets the tone for the infectious "Winter in July," the strongest track on the album if not for its preachy lyrics. Haunting background vocals on "This Love" and Beethoven's "Figlio Perduto" impart an unease, leaving them lingering in the listener's head long after the songs are over.
"Scarborough Fair," however, falls short of expectations, mainly because it adds nothing to the Simon and Garfunkel version. On the other hand, Brightman's undertaking of "Gloomy Sunday" is far bolder. Her silky voice stands in stark contrast to Billie Holiday's smoky rendition but is chilling in its own right. Indeed, La Luna's material showcases Brightman's uncanny ability to sing anything under the moon, even if it doesn't always show off her multi-octave range.
While La Luna is not a wall-to-wall soundscape like its predecessor Eden, it is nevertheless just as immersing. Indeed, arrangements that at first seem barren on tracks like "He Doesn't See Me" are lush upon a closer listen — masterfully contributing to the ethereal mood of the album. Frank Peterson deserves much credit for infusing contemporary appeal into material that's often classical.
Brightman has had an illustrious past, first as a diva of musical theater in the '80s (her ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" is most notable), then as a pop/rock singer in the '90s, and now as a leading classical crossover artist. In La Luna, fans and newcomers indeed get a luminous album from a celestial voice.
Sarah Brightman plays the Atlanta Civic Center, Fri., Oct. 6.