Sarah Brightman's speaking voice is every bit as lovely as the one she uses to thrill audiences on stages throughout the world.

		Sarah Brightman Where: Mellon Arena. When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $36.75-$183.75; 412-323-1919

She's on the phone from a hotel room in New York, charming her interviewer with the British accent and lyrical flow of her voice -- almost the point where it matters less what she says than how she says it.

Brightman is a good year and a half into her "Harem" tour and a good 15 into a solo career that commenced shortly after her breakthrough roles in "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera," musicals written by her former husband, Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Brightman's career was diverse from the beginning. She debuted in the London theater at the age of 10, and then performed in her teens with the pop group Hot Gossip, scoring a U.K. hit with the oddly titled "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper."

In 1981, she soared in the role of Jemima in "Cats," and Webber married her three years later. She originated the role of Christine in "Phantom" in London in 1986 and on Broadway in 1988.

All the while, she says, she was never all that enamored with musical theater.

"It's not that I'm not a fan," she says. "I don't go to see them for my own entertainment."

The same year as the Broadway "Phantom," the soprano made her solo debut with a collection of folk songs called "The Trees They Grow So High." The transition from theater into a career as a recording artist, she says, wasn't as difficult as one might think.

"It was just a question," she says, "of one day saying, 'OK, I'm not going to do that anymore, and I'm just going to take the risk, take the chance and go to what I'd like to do at this moment.' I think if what you're doing is good and people are enjoying it, it goes to the charts and so forth, then it's not difficult. I certainly think if people were enjoying my work in musical theater, which was a good time for me, though very short, that's absolutely fine. It's part of your life, part of your career, part of your work as an artist, so it's not a case of running or trying to get away from something. It's just a case of moving into the next place."

Around the same time, "Phantom" co-star Michael Crawford moved from the stage to solo work, and there was a budding movement toward classical crossover. Still, Brightman says there weren't many models for what she was doing.

"I never really followed anybody. I don't do that. I think there's a reason for what I do. I have a particular style. I think it comes from years of working with music and having enveloped many styles through my career. And I suppose at a certain point, they kind of fuse together during recordings that you make and you then have your special, particular style. I've never gone over to do classical crossover or never intended to do anything of that kind. Everything that I've done has been very natural and organic."

She started to break through in the States with "Dive," drawing comparisons to a lighter version of Kate Bush's ethereal art rock, and sealed the deal with 1997's "Time to Say Goodbye," which topped the Billboard Classical Charts for 35 weeks. Subsequent releases "Eden" and "La Luna" both went on reach a broader pop audience.

Last year, Brightman, long a fan of "Arabian Nights," introduced the myth and music of the Middle East into her record, "Harem."

"It's an album I've been thinking about it for so many years now. I found through the last album that I was eager to introduce more and more ethnic instruments, writing for sitar, and I thought now I want to go all the way. So, I went to the Middle East and Asia and North Africa and some parts of the Mediterranean and worked with musicians in these areas. It was a very interesting time, an interesting journey. I learned a lot, having not known so much before I went. And then I started to use it with what I understand to be European production and our own way of doing things, and 'Harem' came to be. I think it's a project I could have worked on for many years, but obviously there came a point where I had to stop and go out to promote it, tour from it. That's really how it happened."

She's been heartened by the record's success throughout the world, particularly in parts of the Middle East.

"[It] actually is very satisfying for me, because I am indulging in music from their area and if it's successful in that area, it means you've done something right. New markets have opened up, which is wonderful."

The tour, recently captured on the CD/DVD release "Live From Las Vegas," is another lavish spectacle with stunning costumes, high-wire tricks and pyrotechnics -- much of it fashioned by Brightman herself.

"I enjoy being very hands-on with what I do, because at the end of the day, for it to seem really real, the ideas have to come from the artist. Otherwise, it just kind of intrudes on the audiences. I'm involved right from the beginning. I sit at a table with people I've been working with for years and I bring in my ideas, photographs, sometimes just pieces of material, or color, and they take it from there. They manage to put all of that together, physically, so that we can put it on the stage."

Brightman's music gets little radio airplay, but has captured a following on PBS, where pop and classical often meet. Although she's classically trained, it doesn't necessarily appeal to the average symphony-goer.

"It depends on what type of classical fan you are. You do get purists, which probably are not fans of my music. I don't think they've got anything against me, but it's probably not their cup of tea, if you like. Then, you've got generally people who enjoy some classical music and just love Eastern tunes and they are fans and they do enjoy what I do. It just depends on different people's tastes."