Sarah Brightman is often trumpeted as “the world’s best-selling soprano.” But it’s another marketing laurel that really captures her essence: She’s the only artist to top the Billboard classical and dance charts at the same time.
England’s ultimate crossover singer, Brightman, 65, scored her first U.K. hit in 1978 with the disco bon-bon “I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper.” She finally found mass fame on this side of the pond in 1988, playing the ingénue Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera, the smash Broadway musical created by her then-husband, Andrew Lloyd Webber.
She and Webber divorced in 1990, but they’ve remained friendly. In 2024, she returned to musical theater in Webber’s version of the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard.
I spoke to Brightman by phone from the Nashville stop of her Christmas tour, which arrives in Dallas on Dec. 21. Our conversation has been edited for clarity.
When did you first fall in love with music?
I was born in 1960, and once the Beatles had come in, there was an open door to music, so I had extremely eclectic tastes. I went through the whole prog rock thing. I loved Bowie, then I went to Stevie Wonder. But all along, I was studying to be a ballerina, so I was listening to Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky.
Is there a record you adore that might surprise people?
When I was old enough to have a little bit of pocket money, the first album I bought was Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Brain Salad Surgery.
And now on tour you’re singing Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas” along with holiday tunes by Linda Ronstadt and Vince Gill.
Absolutely. Everything’s in there. Contemporary pieces from the ’70s up to now. Party pieces. Beautiful classical pieces, Christmas classics like “Silent Night.” We have a big orchestra and choir. It's very glittery and mystical-looking and I wear some beautiful things you would only see at Christmas-time.
You recently starred as the delusional Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard in Australia and Asia. How’d you put your own stamp on the role?
I looked at it very much from a psychological view, and we’ve never looked at it that way. She's not this hard, old, spoiled actress. She's actually an incredibly vulnerable person, and you really feel sorry for her. It was a wonderful journey for me, the acting and singing. I stopped taking on musical roles a long time ago, but [Webber] told me, “Look, don’t worry, you’ll find it familiar because a lot of those songs were written for your voice.”
You seem to have handled fame reasonably well. Any advice for aspiring chart-topping singers?
Personally, I’ve had my ups and downs. But I’ve come through pretty sane, and that’s probably because I always [focus] on the mental health side. I was very lucky. I had a wonderful mother who helped me along the way, and I've created a very secure environment around me. When you're talented, and you work in the arts, you can really go too far on the work side. I’ve learned to say, “Actually no, I'm gonna turn that down.” And I think that’s a very, very important [skill] to have.
DETAILS
7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21, at Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St., Dallas. $88.40 and up. Attpac.org
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