For a former stage actress who likes to get gussied up like Tinkerbell, engage in faux synchronized swimming routines, and pretend bicycle-ride through sinister forests straight out of Tolkien, you would think Sarah Brightman would have more of a sense of humor. Or sparkling charisma. Or at least some sort of discernible personality.
But Monday night at the TD Banknorth Garden, the petite British diva was all business, focused on only two things: singing and costume changes. The former was incredibly impressive, as Brightman hit glorious highs, belted out robust lows, and mixed up a variety of styles from light opera to pop over the course of the two act, hour-and-45-minute performance. It was all super-serious, full of portentous - and loud - synthesizers providing orchestral flourishes. But there was little variance in mood. A gauzy read of Kansas's '70s hit "Dust in the Wind" received the same furrowed-brow treatment as the churning "Phantom of the Opera" and the soaring "Ave Maria," an achingly beautiful duet with brawny-voiced tenor Fernando Lima from Brightman's recent album, "A Winter Symphony." It was all perfectly pleasant yet strangely polite, like the PBS pledge-drive entertainment it will surely become.
