Sarah: "Hello China, I'm Sarah Brightman. I'm really very happy to be here at last."

Hardcore fans of Sarah Brightman enjoyed an extravaganza concert showcasing the very best of the pop diva at the Capital Gymnasium. Multi-genre songs were presented at the concert including the classic numbers The Phantom of the Opera, Time to Say Goodbye and Harem from her latest album of the same name.

Brightman's new collection is a perfect blend of musical elements from India and the Middle East. But it is just too early to predict the style of her next album, as the versatile artist constantly reinvents herself and her musical styles.

"I don't think I will necessarily calculate an area that I'm going to use traditional musicianship from. It just happens very naturally. The reason I started working on the Middle East and Indian musicianship within the last album was because I found in the last three albums I've been influenced very naturally and organically. I suddenly thought I've been done a lot of them. But it's about being influenced by the culture so I don't know what's going happen when I got to know this area better, whether I will be influenced anyway by this."

Brightman has been looking forward to her China tour and has postponed her European tour for a later date.

"This is the first time I really feel to come to China. I'm really looking forward to it. After this concert I will definitely go to the Great Wall. And I'm going to look around Tian'anmen Square. All the things I read about and heard so much about I'm going to try after my concert. "

Brightman began singing musical comedy at the age of 14 and earned her fame by performing in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats and La Luna as well as her from her melancholy recordings.

The first leg of Brightman's Asia tour started in Hong Kong and will be followed by more solo concerts in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

(CRIENGLISH.com May 31, 2004)