She went to an audition for London's premier staging of CATS. She got the part. And its originator. She married Andrew Lloyd Webber and embarked on a classical career under his direction, sang with Placido Domingo in Webber's REQUIEM and became the much-celebrated star in the Webber musical PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Envious people, critics and the media distrusted her success. After all, she was Andrew Lloyd Webber's wife. That makes it pretty easy to claim that she was merely a mirror-image of his fame. "I had a hard time in this marriage; no matter how well I performed, they never judged me by my achievement".

When the marriage split up, it was time to start a new life. She turned her back on her birthplace and moved to the United States with the clear aim of making and producing her own records. Here she met Frank Peterson, an ingenious producer and highly creative partner, with whom she has been working ever since. The co-operation resulted in the release of her first solo album, DIVE, followed by TIMELESS in 1997, a worldwide success with over 2.5 million copies sold. She continued working on her classical career and was soon moving in both worlds.

Sarah Brightman interprets big opera arias on her album with just as much grace and self-confidence as she does in timeless pop hymns. Magnificent live performances accompany her on her distinctive way. She sang FRIENDS FOR LIFE with Jose Carreras, the theme song at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, she thrilled German TV audiences with her hits for the boxer Henry Maske, QUESTION OF HONOR and especially the duet with Andrea Bocelli TIME TO SAY GOODBYE, both of which have become worldwide hits and milestones in the history of music. The single TIME TO SAY GOODBYE sold more than 10 million copies worldwide (a massive 2.75 million in Germany alone) and made Sarah Brightman's work and creative personality famous around the world.

EDEN is her story. "I've gone back to my roots which are probably of Celtic origin, branching out to England, France, Spain and so many different places. The album is very mystical and spiritual, that was the underlying feeling right from the start. I want it to take people on a trip to another world."

EDEN is an universe of sound, typical of Sarah Brightman. A story full of pictures and emotions interlaced with passion and musical highlights, such as her interpretation of Puccini's hit "Nessum Dorma", the Kansas classic "Dust In The Wind" or her vocal version of an instrumental from the soundtrack of "The English Patient". A musical journey into different countries and languages, because she wants her versions of famous and yet to be discovered melodies to always retain the original character of the piece. Nothing is as important for Sarah Brightman as the truth of art.

And certainly not herself. "My voice is a gift for which I am very thankful. But I'm just an ordinary human being, I have both feet firmly on the ground. I have certain talents and it's my duty to make the best of them. That's all. When I go on stage I always feel really small. I hate this fuss about stardom."

When she wants to get away she visits her family in Spain. Her mother moved there to escape from the cold English weather and this is where Sarah Brightman finds some peace of mind in between constant travelling. Here she can caress her nephews and nieces and enjoy family life without even a trace of melancholy.

Q When we first played EDEN- a lot of people didn't know that it was you. Was that the intention?

SB: No, not at all. If you're talking about EDEN the single, it's quite a minimalistic piece and to suddenly sing it "full-on" isn't really the intention. It was recorded pretty fast and that was how it came out.

Q: You sing a lot but you don't write a lot, do you?

SB: I will be writing a lot, I love writing, I have a lot of music in my head at the moment. I think the next album of this type I will probably write all of it. Pm desperate to do it, it's just finding the time to do it. I think after my tour this year I'll hopefully have some time to do it.

Q: When you very first started, before the Starship Trooper fell in love with you, you were dancing, weren't you, not necessarily singing. Did you always know that you end up on stage?

SB: I think so. I was singing at three, I knew I had a voice at a very early age, it seemed a natural thing for me to do. I didn't have a vision or anything like that, I knew it was just meant to be, when I went on stage or into a recording studio I felt like I was there where I should be.

Q: I suppose your first big hit really was "Pie Jesu" in the classical genre.

Q How do you choose the tracks for each album?

SB: For this particular one I started with a blank canvas so I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. I wanted something that was quite peaceful, something that was spiritual, something that people could relax to and I started really from that. One of the beginning pieces called IN PARADISUM sort of started everything off. My grandmother had died about a year and a half before and five days after she died I went to her house and my mum was there, and she said "Why don't you go upstairs and there should be some jewellery which you might want or not want. I'm sure she would like you to have something. I went upstairs and found her passport, and I looked into her passport and it said her date of birth and that she was born in Bombay, and I knew that she had spent a lot of time in India and that my great-grandmother was born there, too. It suddenly gave me the thought of the kind of culture that she had been brought up in and then came to England, and even though she was English it was a completely different culture that she had to deal with. To bring together musically things like sitars and choirboy voices and orchestra, mixing the two cultures together was really how it all started.