My little obsession...

So, only my nearest and dearest (and now the entire blogging world) knows my obsession with Sarah Brightman. You may know her as Andrew Lloyd Webber's ex-wife and the original Christine in the Phantom of the Opera. She also sang at the opening ceremonies of both the 1992 Barcelona and 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and has sung at some other major events as well.

She is beautiful (oh, SO BEAUTIFUL! Only gets better with age), she is talented (her lower register has become so much deeper the older she has gotten) and just an all around fantastic person and performer. Last night, my wonderful hubby took me to see her in concert at the Verizon Center where our basketball and hockey teams play (also nicely located two blocks from my office!). He went into the concert with the "grin and bear it" attitude, and came out a fan.

The show was SO TOTALLY AWESOME! Maybe her best yet (this was my fourth time seeing her, after all). May we all be blessed with those pipes and that body when we're 49 years old! The highlight was when she sang my most favorite song of hers "First of May," which I've never seen her perform in concert before. Yes, tears were shed :)

Before the concert, we went to Jaleo for tapas and sangria for dinner, which was also great and a wonderful treat out. Thank you so much Brad, for taking me to the concert and thank you SO MUCH SARAH for putting on such a fantastic show!

**Additional Note!!!*** I have found this fantastic website which features a bunch of (way better) pictures from last night's show! Not that anyone cares :) http://www.contactmusic.com/pictures/sarah_brightman/1-1

Section 201, Seats 15 and 16, ready for action!

giddy with excitement!
There she is! There she is!

cool trick with mirrors that made the dancers look like they were synchronized swimming

sparkly thigh high boots!

beautiful black gown!

absolutely AMAZING duet of "Canto della terra" with Mario Frangoulis. He had an absolutely amazing voice!

rose petals raining down

stage set up at intermission... the panels are big mirrors. The stage was pretty fantastic
beginning of second act

beginning of her performing "Phantom of the Opera," which was different than it was at all her other shows and the best version I've seen yet!

singing Phantom with Alessandro Safina (who as also amazing)

singing "First of May" - just before the tears began!! ;)

"Time to Say Goodbye" - her last song :(

encore #1 - "Deliver Me" in a stunning black dress with feather wings :)

encore #2 - "Running"