Sarah Brightman...i DID NOT like Emmy at all. her voice was just too "foggy," if you know what i mean. but i dont like Brightman's or Emmy's acting.
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky. With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high! Blood-red were the spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat, when they shot him down on the highway, down like a dog on the highway, and he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat...
(The Highwayman. Sung by: Loreena McKennitt)
I've noticed that a lot of musical theatre fans have an intense dislike for Sarah Brightman, and I just kind of wondered why... I know a few of my friends had been swayed by like voice teachers and I just wondered why so many other people dislike her so strongly? I was brought up on her albums so I guess I am also biased but I love her.
I don't particularly like either of them. Sarah Brightman's voice doesn't appeal to me, especially when she gets very nasal on hard Es. However, she hits every single note, which I can't say for Emmy Rossum. It's beyond me how she's been with the Metropolitan Opera for most of her life and can't quite hit the high note at the end of "Think Of Me." I have no vocal training, and I can sing about as well as her on some parts. My favorite Christine is the one on the Mexican cast recording (can't remember her name offhand). She's amazing.
I don't understand this ..... "Sarah's voice is too strong" ..... It just doesn't make any sense for the actress playing Christine, not to have a strong voice. If all the audience is able to hear is an "Emmy Rossum Version" of Think of Me, what would compel any member of an audience to applaud, it was juvenile! I don't think that just because the character of Christine is a teenager she has to sound like one. The whole point of the character making it onstage in Carlotta's place was the fact that she was a special, rare, girl with an immense talent that nobody was familiar with until the Hannibal rehearsal. If Christine has a weak voice, what sets her apart from any 8 year old who can screamout "Don't Rain On My Parade" in a school talent show?
.....I definitely agree that Sarah Brightman wasn't a great actress, but come on she at least made Andrew Lloyd Webber's score come alive with the vocal quality it deserves. With Emmy Rossum, I was sitting in my seat terrified of what I was going to have to hear next.
P.S. Lisa Vroman was the most amazing actress portraying the role of Christine that I have had the pleasure of seeing and hearing onstage!
See Ya!
Phantom05
------- "We Drink Your Blood And Then We Eat Your Soul, Nothings Gonna Stop Us Let The Bad Times Roll"
-------"Past The Point Of No Return, No Backward Glances, Abandon Thought And Let The Dream Begin"
Sarah by far. I am a moderate fan of hers, and I think Emmy was too weak.
IMO, there is no such thing as a voice that is too strong- the stronger the better!
I also don't get all of you giving Emmy "props" for being 17 and singing the role. I literally know dozens of girls younger than her that can outsing her, and hit high F's and G's (the note at the end of POTO is an E).
That's absolutely correct. Those managers are risking the reputation of the Paris Opera when they put Christine on stage. If she sang like that, they would never have put her on in place of CARLOTTA, who as over the top as she is, is much more capable of singing well.
I have to put in my two cents and say that I prefer Emmy Rossum over Sarah Brightman. Emmy is easy on the ears, unlike Sarah whom I always thought sounded like Minnie Mouse. (Actually, I think all female opera singers do!)
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
You know, while I don't like Emmy, I really don't get how people can rag on her for her acting and then go and praise Sarah's. If anyone is mistress of the "one facial expression for two and a half hours" technique, it's her.
Hey guys! Can you please consider the target audience of the movie? If Cristine showed up on the big screen belting out the full-fledged whiplash opera vibrato, the only people who would like it is the operatic community. Most high schooler girls I know, (the actual target audience) would walk away saying, "I hated it, it sounded like opera, I can't stand opera," beacuse of thier preference from exposure to pop music. I understand a strong vibrato is a product of much practice and is an aquired techique. . . but you must admit most average Americans would not enjoy an operatic performance out of the movie Christine. I choose Emmy because her "Pont of no Return" is awsome; that I haven't really been exposed to that much opera, so I don't enjoy it; and (no offence-- alot of people LOVE Sara, but) Sara's vibato really does rattle my brain. SIDENOTE: Emmy has not been at the Metropoliton Opera(*sp?) since she was 7. She stopped goiong at age 12.
Wow, this is so old. What's the point of bumping this?
Anyway, I don't know if I already replied, but Emmy all the way. But I've always hated Sarah Brightman.
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
My absolute choice would be Dale Kristien, who played the role of Christine on Broadway after Sarah left, then for three years in Los Angeles.
The role of Christine was considered so vocally demanding that it was typically sung six times a week by the lead and twice a week by the understudy. The ONLY Christine who has ever been able to sing the role all eight performances a week is Dale, and she did so without ever missing a performance for over three years. Her voice has more range and clarity than any of the other Christines, and she can hold her high C long after the rest are winded.
It is not coincidental that Michael Crawford chose Dale to accompany him on his concert tour and that Dale still performs with Michael to this day when he performs his "Phantom" medley in concert.
Dale Kristien is the Christine without peer. Sarah and Emily are both also-rans.
Sarah is a better singer, no question, but when I listen to the OLC recording I cringe at her lack of passion or acting in general. I love Emmy's PONR for the feeling she puts into it.
I was always told and always assumed she was 17. She was in the book. And in other movie versions she is 17 or around that age. Didn't I see the dvd extra stuff where the director said they were fortunate to get 'younger' actors as to portray the actors in the right age?
If Schumacher claimed that Christine was 17/18 in the original novel (which I think he actually did in some interviews), then he's completely wrong. In the original novel Christine had attended a conservatoire, meaning she would have had to have been at least 20 by the time the events of the story took place. Personally, I just think Schumacher seems to have had some extremely bizarre obsession for a (too) young cast...that's all he ever talked about, his sub-talented cast being "young and sexy"...