Classic(al) or Dud: Sarah Brightman

I was surprised that there are no threads about Sarah Brightman here - Wiki says "Brightman has received over 180 Gold and Platinum sales awards in over 40 different countries around the world including United States, Australia, Japan, UK, China, Mexico, Canada and Germany!" - so I may as well start one.

My wife just saw a performance this past weekend. I didn't go since it was a very expensive ticket and it was in a casino so I played some poker instead (I won about half the price of her ticket) but the ticket meant for a free copy of her latest release Dreamchaser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz2WfDxaLdI

Since it had a free CD I listened. I also, being the diligent husband, picked up 1998's Eden (it was only $4) and the wife picked up Symphony, her 2008 release that I actually quite like as it hits the same sensors that grandiose symphonic gothic-tinged metal bands like Nightwish hit for me. She even sings with Andrea Bocelli AND Paul Stanley from Kiss (not at the same time) and covers Dead Can Dance AND Faith Hill (not at the same time).

Her neo-classical bonafides are established but you knwo what really turned the wife onto her? No, not her late '70s disco-novelty hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wwilCs4Jqg

No, not her Phantom Of The Opera period either, where as part of the Original London Cast she helped sell a gazillion copies of the soundtrack. But it was a movie! Yeah, the schlocky, modern-day Rocky Horror, rock opera silliness that was Repo! I cannot suggest this movie enough as it goes seven degrees of everyone by featuring Paul Sorvino, Paris Hilton and Nivek Ogre from Skinny Puppy and a whole lot of blood and guts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzgpU25C6fg

And reading her Wiki page I see that in 2012 she's going to dfucking outer space!

Anyway, I wonder what classical music fans think of her in particular. I think she's got an amazing voice (but I'm a metal guy who thinks the same of Rob Halford, another failed opera singer!) and I appreciate her willingness to go all over the map and am jealous of her going off the planet. I couldn't give a shit about her Andrew Lloyd Weber years but they do seem to have made her career.

Sarah Brightman is a joke stuffed with money

she's absolutely not an opera or classical singer. that Starship Trooper song will always be great though.

^^^

Intrigued by Repo! too.

djp can correct me on this but my hunch is that if you need a microphone you're not an opera singer

that's broadly true, yeah; the thing that's unbelievable is how ridiculously LOUD opera singers are

Ha, I forgot that I've seen Repo. That was some garbage.

Amusing garbage or boring garbage, though?

I thought it was amusing garbage. Garbage is relative though.

I didnt think the film worked, the dialogue singing just sounded too awkward too often. The visuals sometimes looked impressive but often looked cheap and they really overreached themselves in many parts. There are some catchy musical bits but not enough.

But I still really admire how different and ambitious it was even if I dont think it worked. I'd rather watch eccentric, ambitious failures than the same old competent but samey stuff that mostly fills the cinema.

I was first introduced to how Brightman is regarded in the singing community when I was taking a music appreciation class. I knew she was big shit on Broadway, etc., but when the topic of her came up, all the choral/vocal student simultaneously erupted in laughter and/or groans. Since then, DJP has explained a lot of the basis for these opinions in previous ilm threads.

she's absolutely not an opera or classical singer. that Starship Trooper song will always be great though.

crut otm

hi, me to thread, I wrote a big long thing about sarah brightman a few months ago

there are a couple of things you should probably know first off:

1) it's hard to really understate what a... tabloid presence Brightman was when she was first starting her career. (I've already gotten quite enough hate mail for this so please don't add to the pile, which is a pile.) and then once she finished her improbable theater career came an improbable music career (it took like three tries to get off the ground!) which really is one of those producer/artist synergy deals. as sexist as this probably sounds, you can't discuss sarah brightman's career without discussing frank peterson as a producer. which, extrapolated: you can't discuss her career without discussing enigma (sort of), you can't discuss her career without discussing how classical crossover basically barely existed as a genre beforehand.

2) my stance on classical purists is roughly equal to my stance on rockists.

3) if you are starting with any album _Eden_ is as OK a place as any but (and I am biased here) I would start with _Fly._ actually at some point I really should assemble a playlist or something for this, though the time for that may have passed

Repo really didn't do much for me but I'm probably not predisposed towards liking things like it in the first place.

DJP has explained a lot of the basis for these opinions in previous ilm threads.

Link?

haha yeah I was gonna say, did I write something specific or is this a distillation of previous unrelated vocal rants applied to Sarah Brightman in retrospect?

the main objections people have (keep in mind when I am writing these out it is not to agree or disagree, merely to explain that they are things that are out there):

- a lot of technique things; the thing I remember hearing most is how she "scoops" up to notes, rather than hitting them dead on; or has a breathy tone (although in some cases this is on purpose, especially on her pop tracks)

- use of reverb/processing on record. this is more contentious, but it's pretty obvious that it's there. (the problem with this is that it collides straight into the AUTOTUNE IS ALWAYS BAD AUTHENTICITY IS GOOD REAL ARTISTS NEVER USE PROCESSING train, as you can imagine, and most people have basically no idea what processing even does.)

- lip-synching in concert. this is the one I get the most hate mail about even though there is a documented instance of brightman's producer actually admitting to it, and it's obvious if you listen to live recordings. (a lot of this is standard procedure for, say, TV appearances; or, for instance, in Phantom a good chunk of the show is pre-recorded because of, depending on who you ask, making blocking and special effects easier or keeping someone who is not necessarily a trained soprano from singing a high E every night.)

xp I have no idea what the thread topic was, but it derailed on to Brightman and you had some choice words. Had no luck searching for it, though. Perhaps it was a dream.

lol was it this: Will He Stay??? Will He Stay? An American Idol 9 Thread

Sarah Brightman is a joke stuffed with money

― You are kind, I am jerkface (DJP), Wednesday, 25 September 2013 17:25 (Yesterday) Permalink

I love this line.

I had no idea who Sarah Brightman was before seeing this thread and I still don't, but the name "Dreamchaser" tells me all I need to know.

wasn't she Andrew Lloyd Webber's wife at one point?

Yes she was, which led to many of the much more uncharitable dismissals of her as alluded to in my post from way back when (which, upon rereading, it looks like I'm cosigning, which I absolutely didn't intend to; my issue with her is in her interpretations, not her love life)

Ha! Before revisiting that Idol thread, I'd completely forgotten that Ellen DeGeneres was a judge on the show for a year.

the starting point I usually use (well, outside weird non-studio album stuff, which doesn't completely count)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzCfTmsVBrM

Sarah Brundleman fly