And then, he hears it – the sound of a high, clear voice raised in an eerie, haunting melody that raises the hair on the back of his neck and goosebumps on his arms. The janitor hesitates. Should he check where the voice is coming from? Just to make sure that it was made by an actual, living human throat instead of.... instead of...
Without realizing it, he finds himself in front of the very classroom where the singing is coming from. Looking in from the window, it seems that no one is there. With visions of the ghostly figures of long dead nuns and students in his mind, he peeks inside...
... And finds us trying our best to mimic Sarah Brightman’s spine-chilling vocalization from The Phantom of the Opera.
Heh. So maybe none of us was a future superstar soprano, a brief stint in the High School Glee Club notwithstanding, but we certainly had a lot of fun trying and dreaming. What can I say? I was 15 and hopelessly in love with Phantom of the Opera. I had read the original book by Gaston Leroux and the masterful retelling by Susan Kay. I had seen the TV miniseries and the Ken Follet version at the CCP. And then, I had finally caught on to the fact that Andrew Lloyd Webber had done yet another Phantom musical that was the hit of West End and Broadway.
Alas, I have never seen the musical on Broadway. But I remember when I finally got the soundtrack of the Webber Phantom featuring the original London cast. I had no idea who Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman were. But the minute I heard them both sing, I had no doubt that I was hearing the Phantom and his beloved Christine.
I remember that afternoon I spent in front of the stereo so vividly, me sitting cross-legged on the bed, my two precious Phantom novels beside me. I was completely caught up in the music, my mind supplying the images for my own personal Broadway musical. Michael Crawford was absolutely magnificent as the Phantom.
But Sarah Brightman as Christine? She was pure magic!
The very first time I heard her sing in that high, crystal-clear soprano, I understood, without even knowing what she looked like at that point, exactly why Erik, the Phantom, fell in love with her. Why he became so obsessed, so enraptured by her that he was absolutely willing to kill to keep her by his side forever. And why he, in the end, regained his conscience and humanity, to love her enough and set her free.
That Phantom phase lasted all throughout high school. We traded roles – sometimes singing as Erik or Christine or her best friend Meg (oddly enough, few of us were interested in Christine’s love interest, Raoul). And of course, we tried to master that haunting bit of vocalization that Sarah does at the end of the musical’s title song.
I was definitely under Sarah Brightman’s spell and enjoying every minute of it. And of course, one of my dreams was to see her perform live onstage.
It’s been several years now since I was that giddy, 15-year-old teenager who completely wore out her Phantom soundtrack cassettes and who tried to sing to Sarah’s songs.
Sarah’s still casting her spell on me. The music playing on my Discman right now is her glorious It’s a Beautiful Day, which I love because it’s a funky, wild mix between techno and that classic aria from Madame Butterfly. And later, I’ll probably be listening again to her rendition of Queen’s Who Wants To Live Forever?
And as for seeing her perform live onstage? That’s definitely still one of my dreams and one that is coming true this year. Sarah Brightman is coming to Manila on June 23. The date is marked in red ink on my calendar. On that night, I will be that giddy 15-year-old again when she performs at the ULTRA, spellbound by her and her music once more.
And I’m asked what is it like to be a Sarah Brightman fan? It’s a kind of magic.
Tickets are priced at P10,000, P5,000, P2,500 and P900 (plus three percent service charge on cash purchases and four percent on credit card). Limited tickets with reserved seating as well as gallery tickets are now available. Call Ticketworld at 891-9999 in National Bookstore outlets or log on to www.ticketworld.com.ph and at the CCP Box Office or marketing department (832-3794, 832-1125 local 1409). Log on to www.timeline.com.ph for more Sarah Brightman.