Sarah Brightman

Eden

End Oct. 1998 Sarah's CD Eden was released. On this CD she is accompanied by The English National Orchestra, conducted by Paul Bateman (as with the concert in Edinburgh I attended), The New College Oxford Choir and some other musicians and singers.

Here follows the track list of the European version of the CD. See below the list for info on other versions and further down for the single Eden. In between these there are personal comments on the CD.

IN PARADISUM (3:12)
Brightman / Peterson
EDEN (4:00)
Callier / Callier
SO MANY THINGS (2:57)
Trad. adapted by Peterson
lyrics: Brightman
ANYTIME, ANYWHERE (3:19)
Albinio, adapted by Peterson / Soltau
lyrics: Ferraù / Brightman
BAÏLÈRO (3:13)
Trad. adapted by Peterson
DUST IN THE WIND (3:41)
Kerry Livgren
IL MIO CUORE VA (4:28)
music: J. Horner
lyrics: W. Jennings
Italian lyrics: Michelangelo & Carmelo LaBionda
DELIVER ME (3:59)
J. & H. Marsh
UN JOUR IL VIENDRA (3:39)
music: Gabriel Yared
lyrics: Michael Jonasz
NELLA FANTASIA (3:38)
Ennio Morricone
Italian lyrics: Ferraù
TU (4:09)
José Maria Cano
LASCIA CH'IO PIANGA (3:30)
G.F. Händel, adapted by Peterson
ONLY AN OCEAN AWAY (4:54)
music: Per Andréason
lyrics: Per Andréason / Don Black
SCèNE D'AMOUR (3:18)
Francis Lai
NESSUN DORMA (3:06)
Puccini, adapted by Peterson

(Total playing time: 55:21)

Note: song 14 does not have words.

This CD was released by Eastwest Records GmbH (A Warner Music Group Company) (no. 3984-25492-2) early November 1998 in Europe; it was due to be released in elsewhere in February 1999 but that seems to have been a bit later.

USA/Canadian and Japanese version of Eden

The CD Eden released in the USA and in Canada has an extra song, track 16, which is entitled "The Last Words You Said", which I thanks to Sassy Molassee and Becky Wilson I have been able to hear too.

And the Japanese version has a 17th track: Sarah's solo version of "Time To Say Goodbye", the song she sings as a duet with Andrea Bocelli on the CD Timeless / Time To Say Goodbye.

Special release from Singapore of Eden

There is a special version of Eden released first in Singapore. Colin M. informed me that contains the above listed 15 songs and "The Last Words You Said" as song 16, plus 3 MTV videos and an interview:

Eden
Deliver
Who Wants To Live Forever
Rarities Sarah Brightman

Angie Ng Ah Sock from Singapore emailed me, however, that she found out that the CD has only two, not three, MTV videos: "Eden" and "Who Wants To Live Forever".

Special release from Germany

In 2000 there was a special release in Germany of the a 2-CD box with as disc 1 the album Eden as listed above and on disc 2 the Time to say goodbye -- single plus the 'bonus track' Desert Rose.

I wish they would not release all sorts of different version: that makes it all rather confusing and it is not fair to other fans !!!

Sarah performs many songs from this album at the concerts of her 1999 World Tour One night in Eden

Fortunately, the lyrics of the songs are printed in the CD booklet and given, albeit in a compact form: the stanza-devision in the lyrics on the separate pages is from me.
The lyrics of the 16th song on the non-European version were sent to me.
===> All lyrics on a single page (16.7 kb)
Unfortunately there are no translations in English of the non-English lyrics. With the help of others on the Web, I now have all the translations too! Some of these translations may need some improvements, though.
===> All lyrics and translations on a single page (26.4 kb)

JPEG version of cover (19.3 kb) GIF version of cover (139.2 kb)

Comments

This CD has a nice variety of different kinds of songs, but they are not too different: the songs fit together, I think, making it quite a good CD. Some songs a little pop-like, mainly the songs in English. Other songs are more opera-like, as the songs on Timeless / Time to say goodbye. But on the whole the CD is neither too pop-like not too opera-like for me, with some very nice songs -- I really like Dust in the wind and So many things, but also the title song, Il mio cuore va and Tu sound really great.
After hearing the CD several times I have to say that the non-English songs are better than the English songs; the latter are a bit too flat and popular to really last.

All in all I think this is certainly a good CD and Sarah's voice sounds once again wonderful! But "Eden" has for me not the strength of Sarah's earlier CDs The song that got away and Surrender, The unexpected songs -- the musical style of these CDs is more to my liking (and that is not just because those CDs where the first of Sarah I had: it has to do with the style of music and singing). Though I have to admit: the more often I hear Eden, the more I like it, especially after a One night in Eden concert as part of Sarah's 1999 World Tour, and the video of the concert.

In a letter from the Sarah Brightman Fan Club it says:

October saw the completion of Sarah's new album called "EDEN". Of the two dozen tracks recorded, fifteen have been selected to appear on the final cut.

Makes you wonder which other songs were recorded and why those were not selected. There could have been more songs on the CD: there was room for another 17 minutes or so of beautiful music and singing ....
Irritatingly enough the non-European versions of Eden have extra songs; why are these not on the European version ???

Eden -- the single

Colin M. sent me a picture of the cover of "a new Eden Single" (from 1998):
: JPEG (14 kb) / GIF (29 kb)

Track list (with links to lyrics):: 1. EDEN (4:00); 2. HE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR (2:17); 3. FIRST OF MAY (2:53)