Sarah Brightman -- Concert in The Hague
22 May 1999

       ===> the programme of the concert in The Hague

 
Although the seat I had was not so good, I enjoyed the concert very much !!

The 1997 concert, also available on video, was very opera-like, with Sarah just standing and singing in front of the orchestra, and Sarah had short breaks between the songs she sang to catch her breath.
During the One night in Eden concert Sarah does not do this, but still she manages to sing all songs with a magnificent and clear voice.

I will not "spill the beans" about the concert and the show, because there are still people who will see the concert themselves and they should go to the concert with an open mind.
Yet there are a few things I cannot resist saying about the concert (see the programme of the concert for details / links below lead to pages with the lyrics).

 
The show opens with an impressive version of In Paradisum, followed by a number of other songs from Eden and these sounded great! I enjoyed hearing them now more than on the CD, perhaps because of the show around the songs. It was clear, by the way, that Sarah was singing the songs life, and sometimes even better/clearer than on Eden.

Halfway the first part Sarah sang an impressive version of one of my favourites: Who wants to live forever, with a beautiful background fitting with the song.

Part Two of the concert started with three songs from Dive, with a nice water-like show (the songs from that CD are not my favourites).

Then followed two Eden-songs. The first of these was the magnificent Italian version of the famous Titanic-song: Il mio cuore va -- which (I am told) Sarah sings much, much better than Celine Dion sings the original.

Sarah also sang the song First of May, which was written by the Bee Gees and which Sarah sang too at the concert "A Gala Christmas in Vienna". Sarah, standing amidst falling 'snow', sang this song very beautifully!!

Then came some of my very favourite songs: a few songs from Phantom of the Opera, preceded by a good piece of show to bring us in the mood -- which worked very well. (The Phantom-theme remains a great piece of music.) A magnificent Music of the night was the last song of the programme. I saw and heard it before at the concert in Edinburgh and again I was overwhelmed!!

As Encore Sarah sang -- after we clapped our hands untill they ached -- two songs, including a solo version of the famous song Time to say goodbye. I think, to be honest, that Sarah's solo version is better than the duet with Andrea Bocelli: Sarah's voice is warmer, is more powerful than Andrea (Andrea's fans probably do not agree with this ...).

And that was, sadly, the end of a great concert: good music, good singing and a nice show to watch. It is a pity that the seat I had was not so good: I missed the details of the show, because I sat too far away from the stage. But despite that it was truly a wonderful experience, and I can heartily recommend the concert to those that have not seen it yet.
And let us hope that the concert will be released on video soon.

       ===> About the video of the concert

Part One was quite short, actually: 35-40 minutes, followed by a break of 20-25 minutes. Then came Part Two, which was (including the two encores) only some 45-50 minutes. So all in all the concert was very short.

Originally her concert was planned for 19 April in the Circustheater in Scheveningen (at the beach of The Hague). At the last moment the concert was shifted to 22 May and to the Netherlands Congress Centre (in Dutch: "Congresgebouw" or "Nederlands congres centrum") -- NCC for short.

 
<=== The World Tour One night in Eden page
===> The concert in Rotterdam in 2000

 
<=== The Sarah Brightman main page  /  concerts page  /  CD index  /  lyrics index

<=== The main music and lyrics page

 
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created: 9 January 1999
last modified: 11 January 2020