As a performer, Sarah Brightman has never sought the comfort of the pigeonhole. In a career now well into its third decade, she's danced with Hot Gossip, been a teenage pop star, developed into a seasoned West End and Broadway musical star, and extended the range of her pure, classically trained soprano voice for the opera stage and concert platform. British critics, unable to pin down an obvious but diverse talent tend to dismiss her as the flaky ex-wife of Andrew Lloyd Webber and leave it at that. But as this 1999 South African concert shows, she's a megastar beyond her own homeland.

Brightman is a guileless artist with eclectic tastes, from Queen to Puccini and Morricone. She remains loyal to her former husband's work and is at her best in the numbers from Phantom of the Opera. In other hands some stuff could be overripe: an Italian version of "My Heart Will Go On", and the ubiquitous "Nessun Dorma", for example. But her sincerity and soaring voice carry it all off. And Brightman proves herself a thoroughbred live singer, knocking today's manufactured pop babes into a cocked hat. The programme also includes an interview with the singer. --Piers Ford