Brightman Focuses on Theatrical Detail

There was a moment in Sarah Brightman’s show at the Arrowhead Pond on Tuesday that instantly characterized who she is as a performer. In a flash of spectacular lighting, she suddenly appeared on a high riser over her orchestra, wearing an enormous gown reaching down to the floor and a sparkling tiara with a halo of lights.

Dramatic, to say the least. But that was true of her entire performance, which was planned, packaged, polished and presented with meticulous care for every theatrical detail.

There were passages in which she and two male dancers were suspended above the stage on wires; there was a dramatic rendering of “Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera”; there were more intimate segments--including one in which she sat quietly atop a moon-like globe at the stage edge to sing “Moon River”; and a climactic finale in which cannons shot confetti over the crowd.

Brightman’s voice has essentially two personas: an airy, almost girlish soprano she employed for pop-oriented material such as “Scarborough Fair” and “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” and a more open-throated, operatic soprano she unleashed with pieces such as “Nessun Dorma” and “Time to Say Goodbye.” As in her previous appearances, she needed all the stagecraft around her to compensate for the relatively bland quality of most of her interpretations.

Still, in that context she was enormously effective in a concert that did precisely what it intended to do. Comparable to an ancient Greek display of sight and sound intended to affirm the powers of Athena, the program--like the cover image on her new album, “La Luna”--presented Brightman as a focal point of admiration and wonder for her ever enthusiastic fans.