Re: who is Sarah Brightman

[WATSON2@AppleLink.Apple.com (Allen Watson III)]

In article <26kn4o$439@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, gene@shallot.ots.utexas.edu
wrote:
> 
> A friend of mine just handed me a CD of Sara Brightman and said listen  
> to it now! I stopped what I was working on and poped it into my CD  
> player on my NeXT, hit start (I have the headphones on). Now I'm  
> listening to a Kate Bush sound-a-like. My friend smiles at my reaction.
> 
> Who is this person?

Sarah Brightman is a singer who was (--is still?) married to Andrew Lloyd
Webber, composer of "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera."  I first heard
Sarah's singing on Webber's "Requiem" with Placido Domingo (gasp!), where I
thought she did a creditable job, considering that she doesn't have an
operatic voice.  

As for sounding like KaTe, I'm tired of hearing people say that X sounds
like Kate, where X = any pop singer who has a high voice and sings
somewhere near the pitch.  IMO [no H here, %-) ], Kate's voice, like her
music, is -sui generis-.  As for that popular refrain, "You like KaTe, so
you gotta like X," well, I think Sportin' Life got it right: "It ain't
necessarily so."  My favorite female pop singers include KaTe, Guesch
Patti, Ana Torroja (of Mecano), and Cyndi Lauper.  Because I like them,
does that mean they sound alike to me? --no way! 

In short, if you had said, "I just heard Sarah Brightman and I really enjoy
her singing," I'd say "I'm happy for you; you have good taste."  But when
you call Sarah Brightman "a Kate Bush sound-a-like," I have to think either

  (a) this is your little joke, or
  (b) you haven't really heard KaTe's singing. 

- Allen

+-----------------------------+     "Queremos genios en vida..."
| Allen Watson III            |                        - Mecano     
| WATSON2@AppleLink.Apple.com |     "Get the bow going,
| Apple Computer, Inc.        |      Let it scream to me!"
| Cupertino, California       |                     - KaTe Bush
+-----------------------------+