Sarah Brightman brought the spectacle and then brought the goods during her two-hour performance at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday night.
The spectacle came in the form of jaw-dropping imagery and lighting, most of which was in line with a space theme (Brightman, who is training to go to the International Space Station, is an avid space enthusiast). Throughout the course of her 20-song set, the soprano was dwarfed by spectacular images of the solar system, Mars and shuttle launches, all the while being bathed in a multitude of bright-coloured lights. Brightman herself was often perched upon an elevated platform and cloaked in increasingly ostentatious dresses, some of which even lit up so as to help her not get lost amidst her background.
Oh, and there was a bit of singing, too.
Brightman set a formidable challenge for herself to stand out against her own attention-grabbing staging. During act one, it didn’t seem as though the 53-year-old was up to the challenge. Sure, she was on note, but there was a lack of distinction among her 10 non-descript tracks, which seemed to blend into one unmemorable blob of pleasant-but-forgettable music (save for an impressive high note to close out the act one finale, “Nessun Dorma”).
During act two, though, Brightman really ramped things up. Taking a poppy tone with act’s opening song, “Closer,” she was joined by a cadre of capable dancers to suggest that things would be taking a turn for the more up-tempo.
Although Brightman was unable to sustain a consistent energy after the intermission, she certainly did pack in plenty of highlights. The airy quality of her classically-trained voice stood out during the British ballad “Scarborough Fair,” and she showcased her seemingly endless range on “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Time to Say Goodbye.”
Although tracks off her recently released Dreamchaser (yes, another space reference) didn’t yield much of a response from the sparse crowd of 5,000 fans, she did lean liberally on her latest album (eight songs in all).
All in all, Brightman made terrific use of her high-end stage show, all the while serving up a vocal performance that was just good enough so as not to get completely overshadowed.