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To hear acclaimed British vocalist Sarah Brightman tell it, her seasonally themed concerts are as much a gift for her as her fans.
“I find it a very fulfilling concept to do,” Brightman said from a recent Florida tour stop. “My family would say, ‘Oh, it’s such a shame you’re not at home doing all the preparations that we normally do.’ And I’d say, ‘Yeah, but I’m communing with my audience family, and they really enjoy themselves.’ I enjoy myself as well, because it’s beautiful — sort of my own way of preparing for Christmas, and it’s part of me. It’s what I do, entertaining people.”
The world’s best-selling “classical crossover” soprano — to date, global sales of more than 25 million albums and counting — and an artist best known for two enormously important pieces of pop culture (originating the role of Christine Daae in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbuster musical The Phantom of the Opera; duetting with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli in 1996 on the single “Time to Say Goodbye”), Brightman released her first, and thus far only, Christmas-tinged project, A Winter Symphony, in 2008.
That collection, encompassing a surprising array of material (songwriters ranging from Vince Gill and Neil Diamond to ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson), serves as the foundation for her tour of the same name, which will conclude its current North American run on Dec. 21 at the Winspear Opera House.
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The nearly two decades that have elapsed since the initial release of A Winter Symphony underscore not only the timeless nature of its songs but also the durability and relatability of the holiday season, something the 65-year-old Brightman has, understandably, given a fair bit of thought.
“Christmas is just a very special time for me and my family,” Brightman said. “It’s an excuse for families to come together and … it’s a wonderful way to close the year. I find it quite a sort of reflective time as well. … I think it’s very important for humans to have these holidays.”
Born During the Pandemic
The current iteration of her “Winter Symphony” tour, which enlists a full orchestra, a choir and “special guests,” took shape in the back half of 2021, as the world was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I found that people really, really loved it,” Brightman said. “I just thought this is the time, actually, where I’d like to do a live Christmas show and tour it. … I took a lot of trouble really choosing the type of songs all the audiences would enjoy, and [I have] beautiful excuses to have a wonderful choir, a wonderful orchestra, create very emotional lighting for people, and wear beautiful, Christmassy, glittery, ethereal gowns.”
All the flash and finery aside, the primary attraction, of course, is the opportunity to hear a vocalist of Brightman’s caliber — her three-octave soprano wrapping itself around seasonal fare such as “In the Bleak Midwinter” or “Silent Night” — put her own unique stamp on deeply familiar material. (And yes, in case you’re wondering, Brightman said she’s woven a few of her own hits “done in a slightly different way” into the set lists.)
“You have to be very careful when you’re choosing [songs],” Brightman said. “I went through so much material; it has to be very real to you. You have to know it’s the right sort of song for me to be singing vocally, spiritually, all of those kinds of things, because audiences really pick up on that. So, I took a lot of care with that. But also, what was fun was to actually bring in my own [arrangements] — because I have a very ‘Sarah’ sound — and changing arrangements slightly.”
Brightman’s 2025 touring will conclude with the Dallas date, and she’ll be bound for home not long after taking her final bows inside the Winspear. Once back in England, Brightman’s own Yuletide celebrations with her loved ones will commence, turning her from headliner into spectator.
“I’m getting back on the 23rd, and we’re all going out as a family to see a wonderful orchestra in the south of England, a very top orchestra and choir there,” Brightman said. “They do their own Christmas concert with a lot of songs that I’m singing [on tour]. I will sit there and think, ‘Oh, thank goodness somebody else is doing the work now,’ and I can sit and enjoy it.”
Sarah Brightman performs at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21, at the Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St. Tickets start at $63.
