Brightman Is Well Accessorized but Musically a Bit Underattired

Sarah Brightman has worked hard to establish a career separate from her association with Andrew Lloyd Webber (to whom she was married from 1984 to 1990). And her appearance at the Universal Amphitheatre on Sunday was, at times, the work of an artist beginning to discover a sense of self and personal creative vision.

Why only at times? Because, as with Lloyd Webber’s musicals, it was the program’s dramatic visual settings that dominated. At one point there was a spectacular impression of an underwater scene, in which Brightman and two dancers floated aquatically above the stage. At another, she suddenly appeared at the top of a staircase wearing a gown trailing down the steps and across the front of the stage. And the show itself--supporting her atmospheric new album, “Eden”--opened with a parade of shrouded, candle-bearing, monk-like figures moving through the auditorium to the stage.

As it turned out, it was just as well that the production was so visually impressive. Brightman is a well-trained soprano with an impressive range, but her interpretations were generally delivered at a flat-line level of intensity, only rarely rising and falling to capture the varying messages of the songs. When they did so, it was usually because of the impact of the settings rather than the subtlety of her musical renderings.

Ironically, Brightman was at her best in the few Lloyd Webber numbers she performed--”Music of the Night” and “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” among them, sung with passion and understanding. Still, as with the Lloyd Webber musicals, it was the production rather than the music that remained in one’s mind after the performance. As one of the enthusiastic audience members said as he was leaving, “You know, it was really very Cher, wasn’t it?”