Title : La Luna
Author : Brightman, Sarah
Release Date : 20000829
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $17.98
Amazon.com Price : $8.39
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Editorial Reviews : Superstar crossover vocalist Sarah Brightman greets the new millennium with an even surer, bolder sense of her unique musical niche than that evident from 1999's Eden. Like Eden, La Luna is a concept album only in a vaguely free-associative sense. The selection of material here touches on images of the moon that reinforce its ambiguity as a force known to draw together 'the lunatic, the lover, and the poet' (Brightman's photo shoots for the album do seem to suggest a sort of Titania-like figure out of a New Age Midsummer Night's Dream). And it's a stylistic as well as thematic voyage, coursing from such contemporary sounds as synth pop (on 'This Love') through vintage jazz standards (Billie Holiday's atmospheric and haunting 'Gloomy Sunday') to high opera for the title track (a version of the sublime 'Song of the Moon' from Dvorák's fairy-tale opera Rusalka), and drawing elsewhere on the gorgeously sinuous melodies of Bach, Handel, and Rachmaninov--one song, 'Figlio Perduto,' even adapts the slow movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Throughout, producer Frank Peterson swathes Brightman's shiny small voice in luxuriant fabrics of sound. Detractors will lament the resulting sameness of tone--no matter what the style involved--but Brightman's focus on spinning an ethereal spell never gets eclipsed. This domestic release includes three tracks not available on the import version and has a special treat hidden in the final track as a bonus.
Buyer Reviews : I had never heard of Sarah Brightman before. I bought the CD purely by looking at it's cover. I've always loved anything to do with the Moon and am drawn to any 'new-age' type music, so I thought, 'Why not give it a try?' Well, was I surprised! The pictures inside showed an extremely lovely, dainty little thing - someone after my own heart! And then listening to the music - what a voice! It's amazing such power could come out of a little slip of a thing like her! My favorite track is definitely the last one - La Luna. Even though I can't speak any other languages, the words of this song are forever engraved in my mind. The other songs are so-so to good which is why I have rated this CD a '3'. I had a hard time listening to some of the songs as they seemed to go on too long. However, I have taped her La Luna concert and am now buying all her other CDs. Her voice is a power-house, lodged in a little beautiful woman. She is definitely a musical treasure for our day and age! I am very glad I have found her.
