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. --Thomas May

Sarah Brightman Photos

More from Sarah Brightman

Time to Say Goodbye	Diva: The Singles Collection	Eden
Diva: The Video Collection	Harem	La Luna (Live in Concert)

Japanese reissue version of Sara Brightman's 2000 release, La Luna. This version comes with one bonus track. 16 tracks total. EMI. 2008.

I've never been paying attention to her, but after I borrowed her La Luna CD from public library, and listened to one of her songs from this album This Love becomes one of my greatest songs all times. Now, surely I like her, and I cannot wait for her Christmas album. Her Scarborough Fair..........is so wonderful.

i bought many of her CDs. this one a pure enjoyment. what can you ask for more in this world? i enjoy playing this album at night because it has the power to bring me to another world where my heart can find a moment peace. LOVE SARAH!!!!

What pulls this up to 3 stars is Brightman's voice; what pull it down to 3 stars is the extreme way-over-the-top production. I had to make sure it wasn't produced by Phil Specter. Well it was actually Frank Peterson who manages to throw everything at us, including an echo chamber, reverb, distortion, lush strings, drums, a choir - I think I even heard a bagpipe in one cut. This is what they did with Paris Hilton to hide the fact she can't sing. Well, Sarah can sing but you really have to work to hear it. She got some bad advice on this one. Hope she can find a producer who can highlight her marvelous voice and not cover it with all that extraneous noise.

Just as wonderful on the album as it was live. She really knows how to make her audience want MORE!

The La Luna Soundtrack CD is a very nice production for Sarah Brightman. The CD is a concert soundtrack comprised of a variety of songs that were collected for a television concert in the year 2000. La Luna is most enjoyable to listen to because Sarah's vocals are absolutely beautiful, capturing, and amazing. If you never heard Sarah's angelic soprano/alto voice you are in for a treat. The actual concert DVD video, from which this soundtrack is taken from, is available through Amazon.com.